Cheney / Bush: Compassionate Giveaway to Big Oil

Another sterling example of the Bush regime's compassionate conservatism: a $7 billion giveaway to their their friends in the energy industry.

U.S. Has Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies
By Edmund L. Andrews, NY TIMES
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

Based on the administration figures, the government will give up more than $7 billion in payments between now and 2011. The companies are expected to get the largess, known as royalty relief, even though the administration assumes that oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel throughout that period.
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Yet another confirmation of Carol Brightman's observation of the takeover of the government in TOTAL INSECURITY: THE MYTH OF AMERICAN OMNIPOTENCE (Verso, May, 2004): "Now that both the defense and energy industries, having thrown off nearly all vestiges of regulation, regard the US government as their best customer, they have implanted themselves at the helm of the ship of state."

Further, she notes: "There is no longer much government left to defend the interests of lesser institutions, including other businesses, or the welfare of mere citizens, or the actual security of the nation."

This administration, this kleptocracy, this gang of thieves will not be diverted from plundering the American taxpayer. It's the Enron "deregulation" strategy all over again in a slightly different guise (as per this 2001 NY Times article just before the roof fell in on the crooks).