The JuneauEmpire reported Oil Spew Commissioner Fran Ulmer is on her way to Louisiana to serve as a member of the National Commission on the Deepwater Horizon Spill. Ulmer is a former Lieutenant Governor and currently Chancellor at the University of Alaska. Both the state and university are dependent on oil money.
BP gave over $3 million to the University of Alaska (UA) in 2008. BP and ConocoPhillips donated over $30 million to UA since 1999.
The BP/ConocoPhillips connection leads to Commission co-chair William Reilly. Reilly is on temporary leave of absence from the ConocoPhillips board of directors, but he still controls over $2 million in stock. Why is this important?
BP and ConocoPhillips are partners in the massive Tiber field in the Gulf of Mexico. Would BP sell their share to make things more comfortable for Reilly? Morgan Stanley says maybe, maybe not.
Obama's Oil Spew Commission has two members with significant BP ties. They hear from the general public this coming Monday and Tuesday, after meeting with locals in Houma, La on Saturday.
Update: Toyota pressured Southern Illinois University over a professor who claimed electronics, not sticky gas pedals or floor mats, were the problem. E-mail among administrators cited the need to tout Toyota's "very productive relationship" with the university. Mrs. Ulmer is an administrator and BP has more at stake than Toyota.
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