big oil

The oil industry vows to fight President Obama’s budget proposal unveiled yesterday that would raise $32 billion by taxing oil companies that failed to pay royalties on Gulf of Mexico oil leases issued between 1996 and 2000. Whether they can succeed is another question.
The American Petroleum Institute is objecting, and the major oil companies potentially on [...]

The League of Conservation Voters today released its 2008 National Environmental Scorecard, which rates members of Congress on energy and environmental issues.
Overall, says the group’s president Gene Karpinski in a press release, “in 2008, Congress went in the wrong direction” — that is, away from reducing our country’s dependence on oil.

Chevron is the latest oil company to try to prove it’s environmentally aware by supporting energy conservation. But this could be a tough sell.

The Alliance for Climate Protection, the environmental advocacy organization founded by Al Gore, says that ABC refused to run its TV spot promoting alternative energy.
ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover told the Guardian that the ad was too “controversial” to run during network-sponsored programs.

My friend Kriston Capps tips me to an interesting look by The Associated Press at whether Nigeria’s violence-plagued oil sector foreshadows oil development in Iraq. Since I don’t want to run afoul of The AP’s infamous anti-blogger guidelines, I’m going to have to ask you to follow the link and trust my paraphrasing.
This is the [...]

No shocker here.
President George W. Bush announced today that he will release oil from the country’s emergency reserves in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. The reason? Because an oil company asked, of course.