How To Hold A Phony Hearing On Record Oil Industry Profits

It was supposed to be a serious hearing on the record $100 billion profits recently claimed by the big oil industry, but Alaska Republican Senator, Ted Stevens, chairman of the committee managed to turn the hearings into an empty public relations farce.

Ted Stevens is notorious for wanting to use Congress for an FCC crackdown on shock disc jockeys like Howard Stern on one hand, and favors record fines that could run into the millions, but when it comes down to the actual harm done to a public who cannot afford to heat their homes or afford gas to put in their cars to drive to work, then every attempt to water down the work of the committee was done by Stevens today.

Every Senator involved in the committee today has received big oil campaign donations, including Stevens who has received $132,000 during the past five years. And Stevens refused to swear in the testimony of the oil executives, so any falsehoods or outright lies could not be charged with crimes such as contempt of Congress or purjury. And when some Sentors such as Barbra Boxer or other Democrats sought to have the oil executives answer some serious questions, Stevens cut them off, and told them that their time was up.

There was absolutely no intent by Stevens for the major oil executives to give America honest answers on why Americans are facing record prices. The entire hearing was an absolute farce. Ted Stevens is one of the worst Senators ever elected to office. Alaska voters and the American public stuck with record oil prices deserved a fair hearing today, not a Ted Stevens public relations farce to claim that he "held hearings on oil prices". Congress should hold some serious hearings and Ted Stevens should not chair these hearings.