So you think Congress is ever going to get tired of being lied to and marginalized by this administration or, at this point, have they grown to kinda like it?
A White House document shows that executives from big oilcompanies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 --something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently aslast week by industry officials testifying before Congress.
Thedocument, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows thatofficials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger withPhillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White Housecomplex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energypolicy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still beingdebated.
In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commercecommittees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp.and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did notparticipate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said hedid not know.[...]
The task force's activities attracted complaints fromenvironmentalists, who said they were shut out of the task forcediscussions while corporate interests were present. The meetings wereheld in secret and the White House refused to release a list ofparticipants. The task force was made up primarily of Cabinet-levelofficials. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club unsuccessfully sued toobtain the records.
The executives were not under oath when they testified, so they are notvulnerable to charges of perjury; committee Democrats had protested thedecision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) not to swear inthe executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to fiveyears for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulentstatement or representation" to Congress.
It was always odd that Stevens had loudly rejected attempts to make his witnesses not lie to his committee. At the time, it just looked like a play for campaign donations, now it looks like complicity in their attempts to mislead. Stevens, the oil execs, and Cheney all have some 'splaining to do.
