Friday, March 16, 2012
The Layer Ploy
Of all the political tactics used to protect business interests, none is as powerful as the layer ploy—the one in which an ugly corporate giveaway is hidden one layer beneath something popular. It's the oldest trick in the book: Offer up Mom and apple pie, and few are likely to notice the noxious serving plate.
Whether it's a lobbyist-written trade deal lurking beneath a bill extending unemployment benefits or a corporate subsidy undergirding a must-pass defense spending bill, this is the way some of the most corrupt policy has become law in recent years. It's also the way oil and gas business allies are now advancing that industry's interests in the face of proof that drilling may be endangering Americans' health.
The situation is harrowing. In just the last year, the Environmental Protection Agency and Duke University have both uncovered evidence linking groundwater contamination to the controversial drilling practice known as hydrofracking. The incriminating findings are so clear that according to Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate, fossil fuel firms in Pennsylvania acknowledge that the "natural gas exploration industry is partly responsible for rising levels of contaminants found in area drinking water."
In response, many communities are trying to slow the drilling boom. That has created a serious problem for oil and gas companies, who want to drill as much and as quickly as possible. So their political allies are working to tie drilling to Mom-and-apple-pie initiatives as a means of crushing any opposition.
In Republican-controlled Ohio, where Columbia University scientists say drilling caused recent earthquakes, that means trying to lash oil and gas revenues to the GOP's popular income tax cut orthodoxy. Indeed, this is the obvious objective of Ohio Gov. John Kasich's recent proposal to institute a hydrofracking tax whose "fresh revenue (will) give a personal income tax cut to Ohioans," according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
To understand Kasich's true motive is to appreciate that he is no tax-and-spend liberal or fossil-fuel hater. He's the opposite: an anti-tax crusader who has taken $213,000 in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry, and who has tried to open up state parks to drilling. That record suggests his new tax moves are really designed to help drillers overcome any grassroots opposition—in this case, by tying drilling's expansion to alluring tax-cut policies. In the vernacular of political sloganeering, Kasich is basically saying, "Drilling for Tax Cuts."
In Colorado, where 343 oil and gas spills occurred in 2011, the oil and gas industry's mantra is a bit different: It's "Drilling for Kids," according to state Sen. Morgan Carroll (D). She has criticized the state land board for giving ConocoPhillips the drilling rights to a 26,000-acre parcel adjacent to Aurora, Colorado's third-largest city. The massive swath of land is not just any old property; it's an old Air Force base that's home to a Superfund site and a major reservoir, and also filled with unexploded munitions and depleted uranium.
The idea of drilling on such a fragile and dangerous site seems ludicrous -- but the governor-appointed land board has been able to push the deal forward and stymie tougher regulations by insisting that oil and gas exploration will help schoolchildren.
"They've been telling Democrats in the legislature that it's really for the kids," Carroll says. "They are able to make that argument because some of the money from the sale is earmarked for K-12 education."
As the industry's "drill, baby, drill!" mantra butts up against more science-based opposition, be on the lookout for this same layer ploy in every state. It's at once enticing and deceptive—but when that platter of Mom and apple pie is inevitably served up, try to remember what the dish is made of.
David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com
Whether it's a lobbyist-written trade deal lurking beneath a bill extending unemployment benefits or a corporate subsidy undergirding a must-pass defense spending bill, this is the way some of the most corrupt policy has become law in recent years. It's also the way oil and gas business allies are now advancing that industry's interests in the face of proof that drilling may be endangering Americans' health.
The situation is harrowing. In just the last year, the Environmental Protection Agency and Duke University have both uncovered evidence linking groundwater contamination to the controversial drilling practice known as hydrofracking. The incriminating findings are so clear that according to Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate, fossil fuel firms in Pennsylvania acknowledge that the "natural gas exploration industry is partly responsible for rising levels of contaminants found in area drinking water."
In response, many communities are trying to slow the drilling boom. That has created a serious problem for oil and gas companies, who want to drill as much and as quickly as possible. So their political allies are working to tie drilling to Mom-and-apple-pie initiatives as a means of crushing any opposition.
In Republican-controlled Ohio, where Columbia University scientists say drilling caused recent earthquakes, that means trying to lash oil and gas revenues to the GOP's popular income tax cut orthodoxy. Indeed, this is the obvious objective of Ohio Gov. John Kasich's recent proposal to institute a hydrofracking tax whose "fresh revenue (will) give a personal income tax cut to Ohioans," according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
To understand Kasich's true motive is to appreciate that he is no tax-and-spend liberal or fossil-fuel hater. He's the opposite: an anti-tax crusader who has taken $213,000 in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry, and who has tried to open up state parks to drilling. That record suggests his new tax moves are really designed to help drillers overcome any grassroots opposition—in this case, by tying drilling's expansion to alluring tax-cut policies. In the vernacular of political sloganeering, Kasich is basically saying, "Drilling for Tax Cuts."
In Colorado, where 343 oil and gas spills occurred in 2011, the oil and gas industry's mantra is a bit different: It's "Drilling for Kids," according to state Sen. Morgan Carroll (D). She has criticized the state land board for giving ConocoPhillips the drilling rights to a 26,000-acre parcel adjacent to Aurora, Colorado's third-largest city. The massive swath of land is not just any old property; it's an old Air Force base that's home to a Superfund site and a major reservoir, and also filled with unexploded munitions and depleted uranium.
The idea of drilling on such a fragile and dangerous site seems ludicrous -- but the governor-appointed land board has been able to push the deal forward and stymie tougher regulations by insisting that oil and gas exploration will help schoolchildren.
"They've been telling Democrats in the legislature that it's really for the kids," Carroll says. "They are able to make that argument because some of the money from the sale is earmarked for K-12 education."
As the industry's "drill, baby, drill!" mantra butts up against more science-based opposition, be on the lookout for this same layer ploy in every state. It's at once enticing and deceptive—but when that platter of Mom and apple pie is inevitably served up, try to remember what the dish is made of.
David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at www.davidsirota.com
© 2012 Creators.com
Remember the Gas Wars of the 60's? 2 gas stations in a tight community, one owned by a local Ma and Pa, the other owned by Big Oil. Ma and Pa didn't need a lot of markup, but Big Oil needs to support several higher layers of management, needs to make a higher profit. Of course, Big Oil could drop the price in Podunk, subsidize it from money made in Metro. They only have to sell it at a loss long enough for Ma & Pa to go out of business, then Big Oil can come back and charge higher than either did before the Gas War.
Our current economy is similar to that a Gas War, use this economic stress to get changes made.. While we, the 5-figures and below Middle Class and the Working Poor are struggling, the real movers and shakers will hold our recovery hostage until they get the environmental regulations shut-down or crippled.
Could be a Keystone XL Pipeline over the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska, it's not the leakage of oil that floats on the water so much as the cancer-causing benzene that will dissolve in the water. But, why should we in the Great Lakes watershed care, it's not our water supply. And why should any CEOs be concerned, none of them live in the states where this water is, the portions of the aquifer that may be contaminated by the pipeline route are under states that levy an income tax on personal income, therefore the high-paid execs will never live in those states.
Could be a GTAC strip mine in Northern Wisconsin. For kicks, you could google the "Richmond Mine at Iron Mountain" in Northern California. The same kinds of minerals were exposed there, poisoning their water, creating an environment that supports bacteria that produces strong sulfuric acid, which only takes more minerals out of the rock, even after mining operations are stopped.
More immediate in the GTAC issue is the change to DNR rulings. They wanted "certainty of timeline", meaning they did not want the DNR or repeated lawsuits to delay the yes or no vote. Most evil in my mind is language that kind of says "If they cannot prove a No-vote within 365 days, then the project is automatically approved". So that means the state's response should be to hire enough DNR staff to do the evaluation in time, but we all know that a (R) government can strip the DNR of its scientists (who probably belong to a state employees union), therefore approving many projects that should not be approved. And if a (D) government, such a law mans that many bogus projects could be submitted, overloading the DNR so that the real ones may slip through on an automatic yes.
Remember the scandal of backlogs in the State Crime lab a few years back? Conservatives will beg to hire more Lab Techs if it means putting more criminals behind bars, but not if it means they produce evidence that gets those falsely accused (and from Milwaukee's northside) to be set free.