Progress Report: The Great Energy Divide

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Center for American Progress - Progress Report

 

by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and

Jonathan Baskin

 

 

 

July 30, 2004

ENERGYThe Great Energy DivideTERRORISMOn-Time

DeliveryIRAQThe New Al Qaeda Battleground

UNDER THE RADAR

 

ENERGY

The Great Energy Divide

 

In his speech to the Democratic National Convention

last night, Sen. John Kerry drew many distinctions

between himself and President George W. Bush. One of

the most striking policy divides was on the issue of

energy. In a week that saw oil prices once again reach

record highs, Kerry made sharp references to the Bush

administration's shady practice of developing an

energy plan behind closed doors with oil/energy

executives. He also questioned whether President Bush

and Vice President Cheney's dependence on the Saudi

royal family has compromised America's energy

security. As Ohio focus groups showed last night,

Kerry's line, " I want an America that relies on its

ingenuity and innovation, not the Saudi royal family "

was one of the best received of the night.

Unfortunately, Bush and Cheney, both former oilmen,

have offered no serious solutions. By cutting funding

for alternative energy development, while pressing for

more tax breaks and for more drilling, the White House

appears more interested in fueling oil industry

profits than creating affordable, sustainable sources

of energy for the future.

 

OIL PRICES HIT HIGH; BUSH DOES NOTHING: Reuters

reports oil prices hit a record high on Friday, with

" U.S. light crude hit $43.15 a barrel, the highest

level in its 21-year history of trade on the New York

exchange. " The White House has so far refused to

follow through on President Bush's campaign promise to

" jawbone " OPEC to increase oil supplies or make

serious investments in alternative energies.

 

BUSH CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS' PROFITS SURGE: The record

energy prices #8211; and the White House's refusal to

do anything to curb them #8211; has meant a huge

increase in profits for large oil companies, many of

which are big Bush campaign donors. Earlier this week,

" ConocoPhillips said second-quarter profits surged

nearly 75%, to $2.1 billion. " ConocoPhillips's CEO is

Archie Dunham, a Bush Pioneer (aka. someone who has

raised the Bush-Cheney campaign more than $100,000).

Since 2000, Conoco executives have given the

Bush-Cheney campaign more than $200,000, and the

company has given the RNC more than $350,000 in soft

money. AP reports, " Shell saw its earnings rise 54%,

thanks to higher prices for oil and natural gas. " The

company pocketed an additional $3.7 billion in

profits. Shell's CEO is Jack Little, another Bush

Pioneer and the company's executives have given the

Bush-Cheney campaign more than $22,000. British

Petroleum posted record-setting second quarter profits

of $3.9 billion #8211; a 23 percent jump from just one

year ago. Since 2000, BP's executives have given the

Bush-Cheney campaign more than $24,000 and the RNC

more than $800,000 in soft money. And ExxonMobil

" posted its highest quarterly profit ever yesterday as

the company continues to benefit from the long run-up

in energy prices. " The company posted second-quarter

profit growth of 39 percent to $5.79 billion. Since

2000, ExxonMobil executives have given the Bush-Cheney

campaign more than $75,000 and the RNC more than

$700,000 in soft money.

 

KERRY PUSHES NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT BUSH IS CUTTING:

Kerry said he would seriously increase funding for

alternative energy research. This is a stark contrast

to the current administration. In his very first

presidential budget, Bush proposed cutting $277

million out of renewable energy research, while

spending an additional $2 billion on coal-related

programs. His FY2004 budget tried to " slash funding

for numerous clean energy and energy efficiency

programs, including funding for bioenergy, wind and

geothermal electricity sources. " Those cuts " were

announced less than a week after the president

announced his goal of energy independence in the State

of the Union address. " While the president has

announced efforts to fund a hydrogen car, he took the

money to pay for the program out of efforts to develop

more fuel efficient vehicles in the short-term. Even

the Bush tax cuts included provisions that make the

energy situation worse. His latest tax bill included a

provision creating a $100,000 tax writeoff for large

SUVs like the Hummer (which gets just 10 miles to the

gallon). Meanwhile, similar tax benefits for hybrids

remain paltry.

 

INSTEAD OF REAL FIX, BUSH PUSHES OIL INDUSTRY GIFTS:

The White House and its Capitol Hill allies have

countered criticism by claiming their

corporate-crafted energy bill would fix the problem.

The bill provides millions in energy industry tax

breaks and would permit drilling in the arctic. But

according to the National Geological Survey, it would

take 10 years for any oil from the ANWR to reach the

market. And even when production would peak a quarter

century from now, it would still account for just 2

percent of U.S. demand. In fact, the Bush

administration's own analysis confirms energy prices

would not be lower if its energy bill was law.

 

DESPITE CONSOLIDATION, BUSH PUSHES OIL INDUSTRY

APPOINTEE: Despite mass consolidation in the energy

industry causing a huge spike in energy prices,

President Bush is attempting to appoint a

ChevronTexaco representative to run the Federal Trade

Commission #8211; the regulatory body that oversees

mergers. Since 2000, ChevronTexaco executives have

given the Bush-Cheney campaign more than $23,000, and

the RNC more than $1.2 million in soft money. Since he

took office, Bush has " allowed an increase in oil

refinery mergers to go unchecked " and rampant

consolidation " may have contributed to the highest

gasoline prices in 20 years. " The Bush administration

has approved 33 oil refinery takeovers worth $19.5

billion and hasn't tried to block any. The Boston

Globe reports, " the result is big players control far

greater market share. " Last year, the five biggest US

oil companies controlled 63.4 percent of the country's

retail gasoline market, up from 46.2 percent in 1997,

according to an industry trade publication, National

Petroleum News.

 

TERRORISM

On-Time Delivery

 

According to an article in The New Republic three

weeks ago, a White House aide told a Pakistani

official last spring that " it would be best if the

arrest or killing of [any] HVT (High Value Targets)

were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or

twenty-eight July, " or the first three days of the

Democratic National Convention in Boston. Well, they

were one day late, but the Bush administration will

probably take it: Yesterday, July 29, " just hours

before US presidential candidate John Kerry delivered

his acceptance speech at the Democratic National

Convention in Boston, " Pakistani officials announced

they had captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, one of the

United States' 21 most-wanted terrorists. The arrest

is good news, but the timing of the announcement is

raising questions, especially considering " Pakistani

officials say Mr. Ghailani was captured last Sunday. "

 

IRAQ

The New Al Qaeda Battleground

 

A devastating new report published in England

yesterday by the foreign affairs committee of the

House of Commons has added to a growing chorus of

voices (including UN Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi) who insist

the Iraq War, undertaken supposedly as part of the

fight against global terrorism, has in fact provided a

new home base for al Qaeda and swelled the ranks of

America's enemies. #160; " Iraq has become a 'battle

ground' for al Qaeda, with appalling consequences for

the Iraqi people, " reads one of the report's

conclusions. " The Coalition's failure to bring law and

order to parts of Iraq created a vacuum into which

criminal elements and militias have stepped. " The

report was released the same day Iraqi officials were

forced to postpone " a major national conference billed

as one of its first steps toward democracy and

national reconciliation, " following a grisly spate of

kidnappings and car bombings in recent days. The

postponement of the conference and the content of the

report both underscore the deterioration of security

since the June handover of power.

 

VIOLENCE FRAYING COALITION: The national conference,

" aimed at selecting a 100-seat interim council that

will serve as one branch of new interim Iraqi

government, " was just the latest victim of an

escalated Iraqi insurgency that " is testing the

resolve of a U.S.-led military coalition that already

is fraying at the seams. " Knight-Ridder reports,

" Coalition members such as Norway, the Philippines,

New Zealand and Thailand have decided to withdraw

hundreds of troops amid a wave of bombings,

kidnappings and beheadings of foreign workers by

radical Muslim groups#8230;Ukraine also reportedly is

negotiating to withdraw its 1,650 troops. " With

American troops already stretched thin, the US is

supporting a Saudi " proposal to dispatch Arab or

Muslim troops to Iraq, " #8211; an idea suggested by

American Progress.

 

REPORT CONDEMNS ADMINISTRATION TACTICS: Government

officials and foreign policy experts quoted in the

British report condemn Bush administration tactics

widely understood to have guaranteed failure in Iraq.

They say: " We would of course have liked other nations

to share the burden by contributing forces. " They

claim " the number of troops in Iraq has been

inadequate to stabilize the country. " They blame Paul

Bremer's dissolution of the army for fueling

resentment and motivating the insurgency. And they

criticize the " heavy handed " tactics employed by the

US military, " especially in Fallujah. Perhaps most

alarmingly, the report belies Bush administration

claims by concluding the situation is getting worse:

" The security situation has deteriorated further in

the six months since our last Report, with an alarming

increase in the number of attacks in the approach to

the handover of sovereignty. Although the handover was

brought forward in an effort to forestall the threat

of terrorist violence, no immediate cessation is

expected. "

 

OSAMA'S RED RIDER GUN: In an interview with the

American Conservative, the anonymous CIA author of

" Imperial Hubris " offered this helpful analogy to

explain the folly of American action in Iraq: " Have

you seen the movie 'Christmas Story,' where the boy

wants a Red Rider air gun and his mom says no? Then at

the end of Christmas day, when he has opened all his

presents, he gets the gun and he thinks, 'My God, I

really got it. I never thought I'd get it.' Iraq was

Osama's Red Rider BB gun. It was something he always

wanted, but something he never expected. "

 

CPA CAN'T ACCOUNT FOR FUNDS: Meanwhile, the LA Times

reports a " comprehensive examination " of the Coalition

Provisional Authority (CPA) has " triggered at least 27

criminal investigations and produced evidence of

millions of dollars' worth of fraud, waste and abuse. "

The investigation, which was hindered by sloppy

recordkeeping, " found problems in the CPA's financial

management, procurement practices and operational

controls. " In one case, the report cited poor controls

over an oil pipeline repair contract which resulted in

" more than $3 million in overcharges#8230;Another

investigation found the assistant to the U.S. military

coach for an Iraqi sports team gambled away part of

the $40,000 " the CPA allocated for team travel.

Altogether, the report represents " the most sweeping

indication yet that some U.S. officials and private

contractors repeatedly violated the law in the

free-wheeling atmosphere that pervaded the

multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild the war-torn

country. "

 

SUMMER IN THE CITY: The coalition's failures " continue

to haunt " the country today, as Iraqis struggle to

endure widespread shortages of water and electricity.

The Washington Post reports there are massive power

outages in Baghdad this week, " with temperatures

reaching 117 degrees and expected to climb. " Contrary

to President Bush's recent statement that electricity

in Iraq is " now more widely available than before the

war, " The New Standard reports, " Iraqi officials say

the power supply in their country has not yet been

repaired to pre-war levels. "

 

 

 

 

 

RIGHT-WING #8211; YOU MUST SWEAR ALLEGIANCE TO

BUSH-CHENEY: The Albuquerque Journal reports that New

Mexico locals hoping to attend a rally for Vice

President Dick Cheney in Rio Rancho were " asked to

sign an endorsement form if they couldn't be verified

as Bush-Cheney supporters. " The requirement to pledge

allegiance to the Bush-Cheney ticket in order to

attend the event was confirmed by a spokesman for the

Republican National Committee. The endorsement read:

" " I, (full name) ... do herby (sic) endorse George W.

Bush for reelection of the United States. " It later

adds that, " In signing the above endorsement you are

consenting to use and release of your name by

Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush. "

 

9/11 COMMISSION #8211; BERGER CLEARED: The WSJ reports

" Officials looking into the removal of classified

documents from the National Archives by former Clinton

National Security Adviser Samuel Berger say no

original materials are missing and nothing Mr. Berger

reviewed was withheld from the commission

investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. "

That determination should " lay to rest the issue of

whether any information was permanently destroyed or

withheld from the commission. " The 9/11 commission

General Counsel, Daniel Marcus, added that the panel

" had been assured twice by the Justice Department that

no originals were missing and that all of the material

Mr. Berger had access to had been turned over to the

commission. "

 

SUDAN #8211; BUSH ADMINISTRATION DROPS THREAT OF

SANCTIONS: Bowing to the same international body it

disparaged when preparing for war in Iraq, " the United

States dropped the word 'sanctions' from a draft

resolution on Sudan on Thursday " to satisfy

#160;objections from other Security Council members,

weakening the language to imply an " interruption " of

economic, communications or diplomatic activities if

Khartoum fails to disarm rampaging Arab militias. Last

week, Congress passed a resolution declaring that

genocide was taking place in the Sudan, " where at

least 30,000 people have been killed and more than 1

million displaced " by the government-sponsored

militias in the western region of Darfur. The draft

resolution expected to be adopted by the UN today

offers few specific penalties for noncompliance.

Princeton Lyman, head of the African program at the

Council on Foreign Relations, " said that dropping the

word 'sanctions' would greatly weaken the impact of

the resolution and signal to Sudan that it could evade

sanctions through partial compliance. "

 

PENTAGON #8211; ROCHE OPPOSES REVIEW: The Washington

Post reports, new documents show Air Force Secretary

James G. Roche formally opposed " reviewing

alternatives to a lucrative contract for the

production of new military refueling planes by Boeing

Co. despite Pentagon regulations requiring such a

review. " The Air Force had refused to conduct a review

for three years, even after two Defense Department

studies " faulted the Air Force for failing to follow

contracting regulations, " and " the top Air Force

official who negotiated the deal was indicted on

charges of violating conflict-of-interest rules. "

 

ENVIRO #8211; PESTICIDES WITHOUT SUPERVISION: Under

new rules issued by the Bush administration " the

Environmental Protection Agency will be free to

approve pesticides without consulting wildlife

agencies to determine if the chemical might harm

plants and animals " currently protected by the

Endangered Species Act. " The new rule benefits the

pesticide industry at the expense of endangered

species, " said Aaron Colangelo, a lawyer for the

Natural Resources Defense Council. The EPA claimed the

old tests were complicated; instead, it's easier to

just get rid of them. Easier, maybe, but not better

for the environment. The old law, for example, was

" successfully used by environmental groups in a recent

lawsuit seeking to mitigate the effects of pesticides

on salmon in the Pacific Northwest. A federal judge

found that the EPA had failed to abide by a

requirement that it consult with federal wildlife

agencies over the potential harm from pesticides. "

Now, however, the EPA instead " will conduct its own

scientific evaluation. "

 

RIGHT-WING - COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE QUOTE OF THE

DAY: " Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy

#8212; or go on Prozac? " Bush campaign worker Susan

Sheybani's musings on employee options in the weak

U.S. job market.

 

#160;Don't Miss

DAILY TALKING POINTS:

Al Qaeda Working Freely in Post-War Iraq

 

CONVENTION: Anna Deavere Smith plays #8220;Show and

Tell#8221; with the Democratic National Convention in

today's NYT.

 

9/11: Washington Post's David Ignatius has a rave

review for the 9/11 Commission Report.

 

ECONOMY: Des Moines Register editorial looks at the

Bush legacy of irresponsibility and the national debt

 

SUDAN: New York Review of Books examines the disaster

in Darfur

 

Contact The Progress Report.

 

 

 

 

#160;Daily Grill

 

A White House aide told a Pakistani official last

spring that " it would be best if the arrest or killing

of [any] HVT (High Value Targets) were announced on

twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July "

 

- The New Republic, 7/8/04

 

VERSUS

 

" Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is among the 22 people on

the F.B.I.'s most-wanted-terrorist list, was arrested

Sunday, Pakistani officials said Thursday night [July

28]. "

 

- New York Times, 7/30/04

 

#160;Daily Outrage

The Coalition Provisional Authority #8211; the entity

that, until very recently, was in charge of U.S.

civilian operations in Iraq #8211; lost $1 billion in

taxpayer money.

 

#160;Archives

Progress Report

 

#160;Opportunity

The Center for American Progress is now accepting

intern applications for the fall semester.