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SIERRA CLUB RAW
Uncooked Truth, Beyond Belief
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Issue #139, November 17, 2005
Cheney of Fools
Eric Antebi, RAW Contributor

Last week the U.S. Senate tried to show common
cause with the American people by dragging oil
executives up to Capitol Hill and grilling them
about record profits and possible price gouging.
In the case of Joe Pickup versus Big Oil, the
Senators wanted to position themselves on the
side of ol' Joe, hoping, of course, that no one
would notice the billions of dollars in tax
breaks and subsidies they gave to oil companies
only a few months ago.

In his column last week about how the Senate
"rolled out the red carpet" for the Oil execs,
Washington Post writer Dana Milbank wrote "The
executives were even less forthcoming when
questions turned hostile. Sen. Frank Lautenberg
asked whether any of the companies had
participated in Vice President Cheney's energy
task force, and all five answered in the
negative. Fortunately, they were not under oath."

Oh how right he was. A week later, Milbank
himself obtained a White House document
confirming the companies met with the Task Force.
Milbank and co-writer Justin Blum pointed out in
the article that Commerce Committee Chairman Ted
Stevens (R-AK) refused to make the oil magnets
testify under oath, a decision that was strongly
protested at the time by Senate Democrats.

Now you may be wondering, "What's the big deal?
Shouldn't oil companies have some input in our
energy policy?" Yes, they should. Now, so
should everyone else. But the real questions
that all Americans should be asking is this:
Given that no one is shocked that oil companies
would meet with Cheney's Task Force, why would
Cheney go all the way to the Supreme Court to
prevent the public from learning about it? Why
did the oil executives look into the cameras and
lie about their participation in the Task Force?
What exactly are these people trying to hide?

If the Senate had any guts, it would put Vice
President Cheney and the Oil Executives on the
stand and under oath. Justice Scalia could do
the honors.

Dana Milbank, "Oil and Grilling Don't Mix,"
Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2005. http://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,gkhj,o7l,cwbz,6rb0,c7it,3ojx

Dana Milbank and Justin Blum, "Document Says Oil
Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force," Washington Post,
Nov. 16, 2005. http://info.sierraclub.org/ct.html?rtr=on&s=arz,gkhj,o7l,43d4,k906,c7it,3ojx

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