Lawmaker who apologized to BP may chair House energy panel
Lawmaker who apologized to BP may chair House energy panelMany Americans - they're called conservatives - apparently missed that good old corruption we had from 2000 to 2008. Well its back and more corrupt than ever.
The Texas lawmaker who apologized to BP for the US government's insistence that the oil giant set up a fund to compensate oil spill victims may soon be the most powerful voice in the House on US energy policy.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) is a leading contender for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a position he held once before, during the 2004-2006 congressional session.
Barton brought attention to himself in June, when the Obama administration announced that BP would set up a $20-billion escrow fund to compensate businesses and households affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Barton said. "I think it's a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown ... in this case, a $20 billion shakedown with the Attorney General of the United States...."
Barton concluded: "I'm not speaking for anybody else, but I apologize."
....As the New York Times noted shortly after the "apology" controversy, Barton "has long been one of the top beneficiaries of campaign donations from big energy companies, cornerstones of the Texas economy."
"BP and other major players in the oil business might hope for more of [Barton's] kind of solicitude from the House Energy and Commerce panel," writes Brett Michael Dykes at The Upshot. Dykes argues that putting Barton back in the Energy and Commerce driver's seat could be bad politics for the GOP.
people who think America is a democracy are naive at best. We're the best plutocracy money can buy - Conservatives outspent liberals 2-1 in elections
