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  • Big Oil plays jobs card as it fights offshore-drilling moratorium

    First we saw interview after interview with out-of-work fishermen and shrimpers.  Now we’re hearing from oil-rig workers.  Jobs are the trump card of political debate in America these days and, not surprisingly, that card is now being deftly played by critics of the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. […]

  • Big Oil Shakes Down US Taxpayers

    Last week, oil company executives testified to Congress about energy policy in the wake of BP’s ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. A casual observer may have thought we were transported to an alternate universe. At one session, Representative Joe Barton of Texas apologized to BP for what he called a White House “shakedown” […]

  • Obama and Senate finally dive in on climate and energy bill

    Tick … tick … tick … The Senate now has about 30 working days before its August recess to decide how serious to get about dealing with greenhouse-gas emissions.  By the end of this week, particularly after a confab Wednesday between President Barack Obama and top senators [Editor’s note: This meeting was indefinitely delayed], we […]

  • You should totally apologize to BP

    There have been a lot of apologies flying around this week. BP CEO Tony Hayward to the U.S. people. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) to Hayward and BP. Now it’s Twitter’s (and your) turn to tell BP just how totally sorry it is for everything. It’s been a rough week. DrogoBoffin via Twitter@DrogoBoffin: #Imsorrybp That Kanye […]

  • On Capitol Hill, a week of sorry spectacles

    Was it me, or did it seem like everyone in Washington this week was wearing a name tag that said, “Hi, I’m Sorry.” For all the hours of congressional testimony, all the badgering questions and evasive answers, the gestalt of the nation’s capital could be summed up in two words: “My bad.” The four top […]

  • CNN Poll: 82% of Americans Approve of the Idea of a BP Escrow Fund

    CNN released new polling Thursday with fascinating data on how Americans feel about the response to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Using the poll’s toplines (PDF), I’ve created a series of charts which present the data in a far more useful format. First and foremost, it looks Rep. Joe Barton (R-Big […]

  • The Climate Post: Nothing shaking on Barton’s ‘shakedown’ street

    First things first: Congressional investigators have released material documenting troubles at the Deepwater Horizon site before it failed–and a culture of cost-cutting at BP that elevated catastrophic risk. Five days before the April 20 explosion, a BP engineer called it a “nightmare well which [sic] has everyone all over the place.” A detailed letter to […]

  • Republican infighting overshadows the Tony Hayward show

    CSPANBP America CEO Tony McGaffeypants Hayward made his first appearance before Congress today, facing questions from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. What did it accomplish? What new information did it unearth? Ha, ha. Maybe you haven’t seen a Congressional hearing before. Hayward had little to say beyond a chorus of “I don’t know”s in […]

  • Kick ass or buy gas?

    The Pentagon — BP’s best friend?Photo courtesy of Wikipedia commons This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are livid with BP in the wake of the massive, never-ending oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — and Barack Obama says they […]