Just recently, instead of reigning in some of the eye-popping giveaways that line the designer pockets of the oil and gas executives, the budget bill that passed the Resources Committee permanently forbids the Administration from creating any new fees or raising existing fees on huge oil conglomerates that drill on public lands. The budget bill is now in limbo, as Members of the House and Senate will soon attempt to reconcile the differences in the two chambers’ versions of the legislation.

     "After Mother Nature wreaked havoc on our energy supplies in the Gulf of Mexico just a few months ago, the Republican-controlled Congress responded by heaping more of the pain of balancing the budget on the backs of working families and heaping relief onto the oil and gas industry," said Rahall, the Ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee which has jurisdiction over energy development on public resources.

     "The Bush Administration and the Republican leaders in Congress continue to pursue energy policies that benefit big oil companies that are making billions of dollars in profit while leaving low-income families and seniors out in the cold this winter," added U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a senior Democrat on the Resources Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee.

     Another provision that the Resources Committee adopted, but that never saw the light of day on the House floor, would have opened up our Federal coastal resources to drilling at the discretion of cash-strapped States.

     During Committee consideration of that provision, Rahall stated, "I am no scientist or meteorologist, but I was under the impression that destructive forces threatening our coastal resources and communities originated in the Atlantic Ocean, not Washington, D.C. This proposal confuses acts of God with acts of greed."

     During that meeting, the Committee also rejected an amendment offered by Markey which would have raised the Committee’s obligation of $2.4 billion by raising the fee that oil and gas companies pay to drill on public lands by a tiny fraction over the next five years.

     Last year, the 10 largest oil companies earned revenues of over $1 trillion and had net profits of over $100 billion. Throughout this year, they have repeatedly broken profit records and are steaming toward ever higher numbers in the months ahead

     Just last month, the major oil and gas companies testified at a heated Senate hearing in defense of their record-breaking profits. Subsequently, the House passed legislation ironically granting more sweeping giveaways to the well-off industry.

     "For relief from the scrutiny they were subjected to in the Senate, all the oil and gas industry executives had to do was cross Constitution Avenue to receive some of the biggest giveaways the House Republicans have to offer," added Rahall.

     Markey has introduced legislation with U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), H.R. 4263, that would impose a 50 percent windfall profits tax on oil companies for oil sold at prices above $40 a barrel and return the revenue to consumers by providing an immediate tax rebate and supplementing funding for LIHEAP.

     "GOP used to stand for Grand Old Party, but now it stands for Gas and Oil Party. High gas prices and a home heating crisis is the expected result of the Bush Administration’s policy to ‘Leave No Oil Company Behind,’" concluded Markey.