Well shucks, why didn't I realize this? The only thing wrong with our oil policy
is . . . we need to produce more of it:
The U.S. energy secretary says insufficient oil production, not speculation, is driving soaring crude prices.Secretary Samuel Bodman's comments Saturday on the eve of an energy summit in the Saudi port city of Jiddah set the stage for a showdown between the U.S. and conference host Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has largely blamed speculation in the oil markets for the record prices.
Now, in the midst of all the hubbub over torture and telecoms, I have to admit I didn't realize we even had an Energy Secretary anymore, so who is this Bodman fella anyway? And where does he come from? Mostly, it appears, from a buncha venture capital firms by way of MIT. Outside the financial sector, his only substantial work history is a stint at the company mentioned here:
In 1987, he joined Cabot Corporation, a Boston-based Fortune 300 company with global business activities in specialty chemicals and materials, where he served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and a Director.
Hmmm, that's a new one on me. What exactly does Cabot produce, anyway?
Under Bodman's leadership from 1987 to 2000, Cabot was one of the U.S.'s largest polluters, accounting for 60,000 tons of airborne toxic emissions annually.
Lovely. But wait, there's more:
The Cabot Corporation has been involved in the mining of coltan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Involvement of Cabot in this region has led a United Nations Panel of Experts to accuse corporations (Cabot among them) of being involved in the support of atrocities in this region. Accusations have included bribery of officials, in a business that extracts more than $6 million in raw cobalt from the DRC per day. Specifically, the UN panel accused Cabot Corporation of being involved in "unethical business practices." The UN report further alleges that Cabot purchased coltan from the DRC during the war. While Cabot has denied these allegations, a report by the Belgian Senate states that Eagle Wings Resources International had a long-term contract to supply Cabot with coltan. These actions taken by Cabot were said to be against the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's "Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises", a set of international standards for responsible corporate behavior. The conflict in the DRC, in which warlords and militias have funded themselves by control of the mining industry, has led to the deaths of more than 5 million individuals.
What does this have to do with anything? Not much maybe, except again to remind us of the sterling moral character of the fine Christian men and women in the Bush Administration who are looking out for our interests every day.
---Vitelius
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