Not a Bad ROI

The Energy Bill (HR 6) pours about $9 billion into the oil and gas sector in tax credits and incentives. The industry, which is rolling in dough due to record high gasoline prices, "invested" more than $360 million lobbying Congress over the past two years.

House members who voted for the measure received an average of $43,389 from the energy industry for their 2004 campaigns, three times the $13,592 opponents received, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of Federal Election Commission data from Bristow, Virginia-based Dwight L. Morris & Associates.

Senators who backed the bill averaged $69,348 in donations from the energy industry between Jan. 1, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2004, 73 percent more than opponents, who averaged $40,143.

Which comes first, the support or the money? Whatever, Chevron (the second largest US-based oil company) benefits because of a mandated delay in government review of a competing (Chinese) offer to buy California-based Unocol. Exxon Mobil succeeded in its efforts to repeal "a 1935 law prohibiting utility holding companies from using revenue from customers to subsidize non-regulated businesses." The bill also doubles required ethanol additive use; Archer Daniels Midland Co. is the nation's largest producer of ethanol and contributed $102,175 to candidates in the 2004 elections.

Tags: Campaign Finance Energy, Politics