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Here we are as a country about to vote for the first President of the new millennium when out of the mouth of the Republican candidate is condemnation of releasing part of the strategic oil reserve to help this countries poor in the coming winter months pay for heating oil. The deal is that the Government releases oil earmarked for heating oil while signing contracts to by it back for less then they originally bought it for in the first place next spring. About the same time he accuses his opponent of “risky and futuristic” policies for advocating the exploration of alternative energy sources. While it might come as a shock to some that a presidential candidate would not be inclined to explore new ways to heat our houses and fuel our transportation needs in the upcoming century those that know the Bush family and its ties to Big Oil aren’t surprised at all.
The ties to Big Oil stretch back generations with the Bush family. And it is not in the interest of the Bush family or their supporters in either of these policies. It affects Big Oils bottom line, so it affects their bottom line. That is why Bush advocates opening up the world’s most fragile environment to Big Oil namely the Artic wilderness. Profit is the motive here. It behooves both the Bush family, their supporters and campaign workers to keep this country relying on Oil for it’s major, and in some cases, only fuel needs.
Here are just a small history of the ties to Big Oil that the Bush family and their supporters have. In 1950 when Prescott Bush ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate his 26-year-old son George H. W. Bush, with Wall Street backing cultivated by his Uncle and namesake Herbert Walker started the Bush-Overby Oil Exploration Co. in Midland Texas. After many successful deals in 1953 (with the help of family connections) the company branched out with the addition of the Zapata Petroleum Corp. Here’s where Big Oil and politics helped to create the Bush family destiny, as it is known today. A few months before the start of Zapata, Prescott Bush won a special election the US Senate from Connecticut in 1952. In 1953 Sen. Lester Hill of Alabama introduce legislation that would federalize offshore resources including oil. The revenues from this were tapped to increased spending for education. Prescott led the charge to defeat the bill. And his son added offshore oil exploration to the Zapata business. Score – Bush and Big Oil – 1, education for Americas children – 0.
Then around 1963 George H. W. Bush went into the other family business, namely politics. In 1966 he won a US Congressional seat from Houston. As a freshman he was appointed to the powerful house Ways and Means Committee. Something never done before in the history of congressional politics. From his seat on the powerful tax-writing panel he was positioned to protect Big Oil. In the late 1960’s Congress was considering reforming the inequities of the tax code. One that was earmarked was the 27.5% tax depletion allowance enjoyed by Big Oil. Back then it was called a “government giveaways”, today it is known as “cooperate welfare”. Another was high quotas to protect Big Oil from cheaper foreign exports. Big Oil with Bush helping won on both counts. Score – Big Oil & corporate welfare 2, US consumers – 0. Bush left Congress in 1970 to run for the Senate. He lost, but went on to become Ambassador to China, head the CIA, VP and ultimately the President. On to the next generation.
George W. Bush virtually traced every step of his father. From going to elite schools like Andover and Yale, in joining exclusive secret societies like the “skull and bones” at Yale. There were some differences though. The father was an All-American baseball player and captain of the team. George was head of the cheerleading squad. Father, deans list, son barely able to keep a “C” grade level. He used his father’s connection and family influence to leap ahead of 10,000 other applicants to join the Texas Air National Guard to avoid the draft during the Viet Nam war when his grades could not get him a student deferment. And some say he not the sharpest toll in the box! He then followed his father into the Oil business but with quite the opposite results. In 1978 George W. Bush opened Arbusto (Spanish for Bush) Energy in Midland Texas in the same building as his father 25 years before. Arbusto was a bust. Kept afloat by family and friends in 1982 Arbusto went public. At the time Arbusto Energy had less then $50,000 cash on hand and owed various banks nearly $500,000. So with new partners, an infusion of money, and a name change to Bush Exploration they went public. Hoping to raise 6 million of the public’s money by trading on the countries VP’s name, they only garnered 1.14 million. Soon Bush was in financial trouble again. Again trading on name and influence George W. Bush received help from outside sources wanting to do business with the son of the VP of the USA. Bush Exploration merged with Spectrum 7. It to failed to make anyone who invested with the company any money but it did keep George W. Bush afloat for the time being. But fortunes had changed for the younger Bush. One of the partners in Spectrum 7 was a man named William DeWitt jr. Dewitt was also looking to buy the Texas Rangers but needed a “face” from Texas to complete the deal. George barrowed $600,000 for the investment and became a very small partner in the Texas Ownership but with the “face” that the investors wanted for the public to see. In both the contracts with Spectrum 7 and the Texas Rangers Bush was to have no actual authority. The investors insisted on this. When George became Governor of Texas the citizens of Texas bought Texas Stadium from the investors for a couple of hundred million. A stadium that was built with public money in the first place. For his investment on barrowed money Bush made millions while sitting as Governor of Texas. But the oil business was failing, badly. In stepped Allen Quasha, head of Harken Energy Corporation. In 1986 George Bush was given $600.000 of Harken stock, named to its Board of Directors, and landed a $120,000.00 a year job as an “advisor”. Not bad for someone who not only had failed at every business he was in, but lost millions of investment dollars never to be repaid. But Harken got what they wanted, i. e. , the son of a VP that was soon to be President. In 1989 the Government of Bahrain was in negotiations with Oil Industry Giant, Amoco for drilling for offshore oil. Michael Ameen who was working as a State department consultant, put the newly appointed ambassador to Bahrain, Charles Hostler, in touch with George W. ’s Harken Energy Corporation. In a move that sent shock waves through the oil industry Bahrain abandoned the giant Amoco and gave the offshore drilling rights to Harken. A company that had never drilled outside of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, let alone drilled offshore for anything. Harken made billions. Now George W. was finally a success at something, if only as a figurehead. The Oil business had finally made him millions like it did for his father.
In his own bid for the presidency he has surrounded himself with people with vast ties to Big Oil. The amount of money contributed by Big Oil to his campaign is the single largest block of supporter’s money. The list includes Donald Evans, CEO of Tom Brown Inc. , a large oil and gas company in Wyoming. Ray Hunt, chairman and CEO of Hunt Oil, and finance chairman of the Republican National Committee’ Victory 2000 Committee. Ralph Kinder and Kenneth Ray current and former CEO’s of the Houston Texas based Enron Corp. The largest natural gas company in the world. Condoleeza Rice, Bush’s top foreign policy advisor and in all probability Bush’s National Security Advisor who is currently in charge of Chevrons public policies board of directors. Chevron even named an oil tanker after her. Lawrence Eagleberger, who held top State Department offices under the senior Bushes White House is a campaign consultant but is also the director of Halliburton Corporation, the worlds largest oil field services company. Halliburton’s Chairman and CEO is Dick Cheney, Bush’s running mate. Since Cheney’s tenure Halliburton has done business with both Iran and Libya along with other oil producing nations. Iran and Libya are both terrorist nations that most American Companies are denied from doing business with. But this matters not to Bush and his friends. Oil is the driving force behind both the man and his campaign.
All of these oil and gas companies have greatly enjoyed doing business in Texas under the Bush tenure. Bush and his policies of letting companies be their own watchdogs as far as pollution is concerned is very agreeable to them. Or he helped pass laws that exempt them from environmental standards through “grand father” clauses. Texas leads the nation in virtually every pollution category where records are kept. Texas ranks first in the amount of cancer causing chemicals pumped annually into the air and water, first in the number of hazardous waste incinerators, first in total toxic releases into the environment, first in carbon dioxide and mercury emissions from industry. Texas has the worst air and water quality in the nation and 4,400 miles of it rivers are unsafe for drinking, fishing or even boating and rafting. That’s roughly half of all rivers in Texas. Houston recently passed Los Angeles as the worst in the Nation in Air Quality.
Bush is running around ranting about “risky and futuristic” policies that have the potential to take from the bottom line of these Big Oil companies and the people that work for them/him. The search for alternative energy resources is neither “risky” nor “futuristic”, but one driven by dire need. And it is only sensible to explore alternative fuel needs as the resource we depend upon now depletes, as it most assuredly will in the next decade or two. The “risky” policy is not to look for alternative energy sources. Which in essence means a vote for Bush puts not only puts the search for alternative energy policies at risk, but the quality of our air and water, and the health of our children. So in November you get an opportunity to vote either for Big Oil’s bottom line or for something as “risky and futuristic” as clean air and water, a healthier environment for our children and a future not dependent on just one resource.
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