Koch brother bought Republicans looking to keep US addicted to oil

[NJMaverick]

Conservatives Power Big Oil, Stall Cleaner Natural Gas Vehicles

Quote:“For American’s energy independence, establishing a viable second transportation fuel is a game changer,” said Rep. Brady. He added that “targeting business fleets and cargo trucks that offer the greatest promise, this bill creates a strong five-year window to build, buy and refuel natural gas vehicles here at home.”

This bill would provide significant benefits if the vehicles use cleanly produced natural gas. A Center for American Progress analysis determined that a transition to natural gas trucks and buses could reduce oil use by at least 1.2 million barrels per day by 2035 or sooner if the NAT GAS Act were adopted and implemented. The Senate Democratic Policy Committee notes that “the natural gas industry ... estimated that this program will create more than 100,000 direct manufacturing and labor jobs and more than 450,000 indirect jobs.”

Quote:Chief among those who are pushing conservatives in Congress to drop their support for the NAT GAS Act are—not surprisingly—the Koch brothers. Charles Koch has been loudly vocalizing his opposition to the “misguided suggestion that the natural-gas industry should receive enormous new subsidies.” Pickens’ spokesman Jay Rosser noted that the Kochs “have to bet against the plan. They import and refine $2 billion of OPEC oil every year” at Koch Industries' refinery in Corpus Christi, TX.

Quote:Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), a freshman in Congress who was the top recipient of Koch-related money in the 2010 elections, has been leading the conservative attacks against the NAT GAS Act. Rep. Pompeo maintains that he is opposed to “using taxpayer dollars to support targeted interests within the energy sector” despite his vote to protect billions in federal subsidies for Big Oil. The connection between the $79,500 in campaign funds he collected from the Kochs in the last election cycle and his outspoken opposition to natural gas vehicles seems like more than just a coincidence.

The new efforts of right-wing organizations to oppose the NAT GAS Act are paying off, convincing co-sponsors to take the unusual step of publicly withdrawing their support for a bill that they previously cosponsored. Reps. Tim Griffin (R-AR) and Glenn Thompson (R-PA) withdrew their names as sponsors on May 26, joining Reps. Todd Akin (R-MO) and Steve Pearce (R-NM), who dropped their backing earlier in the month. Rep. Thompson had also been a co-sponsor of the 2009 version of the bill.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2...ments.html

[Ikonoklast]

The fight is always Big Oil against the resty of the country.

If we do not move away from oil, we will fail as an economy, and a country, within the next fifty years.

We send $1.5 Billion dollars a day, A DAY, overseas to people that hate us, just for oil.

[RoyGBiv]

(06-07-2011 11:30 AM)Ikonoklast Wrote:  The fight is always Big Oil against the resty of the country.

If we do not move away from oil, we will fail as an economy, and a country, within the next fifty years.

We send $1.5 Billion dollars a day, A DAY, overseas to people that hate us, just for oil.

There should be some way to manufacture a talking point about this.

The electorate is generally fired up against whatever they perceive as foreign aid. Could not a message be constructed that this is a type of foreign aid that helps our enemies?

I think it could, but then that would require a sizable portion of our Democratic representatives in government to unplug the oil money IV they've benefited from as well.