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NO ACCOUNTABILITY: Above,
U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation at a joint hearing on energy pricing and profits
in Washington. Executives with the biggest oil companies testified at
the hearing but Stevens, who received more than $100,000 in contributions
from oil executives, refused to compel executives to testify under oath. |
The American public has been in an uproar following news of windfall
oil industry profits such as Exxon Mobil’s record-breaking 75 percent
jump from last year. But the Senate, which has launched an “investigation”
of the matter, seemed compromised by oil industry campaign contributions.
An unusual joint hearing of two committees, the Commerce Committee and the
Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was called by Senate GOP leaders. But
the oil barons were holding all the cards.
Five oil barons “testified”—but not under oath—on Nov.
9 during the Senate hearing about possible gasoline-price gouging after Hurricane
Katrina.
A formal request for sworn testimony from energy-company CEOs was denied by
the chairman of the Commerce Committee, who also chaired the special joint session.
The barons were invited to speak; they were not under subpoena.
From the start, the softness of the Senate’s tepid, softball questioning
seemed suspiciously proportional to the amount of industry funds a questioner
had received.
When Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska, $102,190) announced
he would not require the executives to give their testimony under oath, Sen.
Maria Cantwell (D-Wash., $9,400) asked for a vote on the issue. Stevens shot
back:
“There will be no vote. . . . It’s the decision of the chairman,
and I have made that decision.”
Cantwell has been leading Senate Democrats in a publicity campaign against
potential price gouging. “I move that we swear in witnesses,” Cantwell
insisted.
“I second the motion,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif., $9,450).
“That’s the last we’re going to hear about that, because
it’s out of order,” Stevens replied. When the two women continued
their protest, the chairman informed them:
“I intend to be respectful of the position that these gentlemen hold.”
When Boxer later displayed a large chart showing the executives’ obscenely
large income, Stevens cut her off.
Lee Raymond, chairman of ExxonMobil Corp., acknowledged the high gasoline and
home heating prices “have put a strain on Americans’ household budgets,”
but he defended his company’s profits.
Petroleum earnings “go up and down” from year to year and are in
line with other industries when you consider the oil industry’s enormous
revenues, he claimed.
Chevron’s David O’Reilly, Conoco Phillips’s James Mulva,
BP America’s Ross Pillari and Shell Oil’s John Hofmeister also spoke
at the hearing.
