PUGalicious
11-16-2005, 07:32 AM
The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842.html) reports:
A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.
The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.
In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.
Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the task force. In addition, Cheney had a separate meeting with John Browne, BP's chief executive, according to a person familiar with the task force's work; that meeting is not noted in the document.
If you want to know what the biggest threat to this nation is, it's not terrorism, natural disasters or the bird flu. It's the pandemic of LYING. In the last ten years, truth has been the biggest casualty in the dog-eat-dog political and corporate worlds.
In the political arena, from Clinton's lying about the Lewinsky affair to Bush's lying about... everything, how can people trust their president any longer? Congress is no better. In their fight to gain and/or preserve power, they will lie about their own agenda and lie about their opponent's agenda. Partisanship poisons an honest discussion of the issues and the nation suffers because of it.
In the corporate arena, lying has become the new business standard for company executives. Enron, MCI Worldcom, the cigarette compaies and any number of other corporate giants have been caught lying to their shareholders, to their employees, to their customers/clients, to the goverment and to the public. Even more in Corporate America are doing the same thing, but are better at covering it up and/or better in the PR campaign — e.g. Wal-Mart. Truth and ethics fall prey to the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Even more, it's the short-term return for the shareholder that is preeminently important even at the peril of the company's long-term health (or survival), compelling company executives to fudge the numbers to show a better financial position than actually exists, masking a growing house of cards that eventually kills the company, cripples their employees and hurts the overall economy.
Lying is killing the country from within. Lying by our national leaders puts our country at peril, from foreign enemies to corporate malfeasance to impending financial collapse. We need to restore integrity and truth-telling as essential American values. Bush promised to do so and then oversaw the worst offenses ever by his own administration and political party. Where is the moral majority? That's right, there more concerned about their own political agenda than standing up for the most important moral there is — truth.
A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.
The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.
In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.
Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the task force. In addition, Cheney had a separate meeting with John Browne, BP's chief executive, according to a person familiar with the task force's work; that meeting is not noted in the document.
If you want to know what the biggest threat to this nation is, it's not terrorism, natural disasters or the bird flu. It's the pandemic of LYING. In the last ten years, truth has been the biggest casualty in the dog-eat-dog political and corporate worlds.
In the political arena, from Clinton's lying about the Lewinsky affair to Bush's lying about... everything, how can people trust their president any longer? Congress is no better. In their fight to gain and/or preserve power, they will lie about their own agenda and lie about their opponent's agenda. Partisanship poisons an honest discussion of the issues and the nation suffers because of it.
In the corporate arena, lying has become the new business standard for company executives. Enron, MCI Worldcom, the cigarette compaies and any number of other corporate giants have been caught lying to their shareholders, to their employees, to their customers/clients, to the goverment and to the public. Even more in Corporate America are doing the same thing, but are better at covering it up and/or better in the PR campaign — e.g. Wal-Mart. Truth and ethics fall prey to the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Even more, it's the short-term return for the shareholder that is preeminently important even at the peril of the company's long-term health (or survival), compelling company executives to fudge the numbers to show a better financial position than actually exists, masking a growing house of cards that eventually kills the company, cripples their employees and hurts the overall economy.
Lying is killing the country from within. Lying by our national leaders puts our country at peril, from foreign enemies to corporate malfeasance to impending financial collapse. We need to restore integrity and truth-telling as essential American values. Bush promised to do so and then oversaw the worst offenses ever by his own administration and political party. Where is the moral majority? That's right, there more concerned about their own political agenda than standing up for the most important moral there is — truth.