American Petroleum Institute to Conduct Citizen Rallies

FT reported:

API is organising a series of “citizen rallies” beginning on September 1 in Texas as part of a broader effort to fight the Obama administration’s temporary moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling and industry-targeted tax proposals that have been proposed in Congress.

“We believe the public is on our side. When you survey the public today, about two-thirds of the public opposes increased taxes on the oil and natural gas industry. Now is not the time to advance those proposals and we will aggressively oppose them,” he said.

API will pay most of the cost of the rallies. The lobbying group is running an ad campaign. It shows citizens opposing higher taxes on energy.





API also agreed with the Bipartisan Policy Center on the need to lift the drilling moratorium:

"The Bipartisan Policy Center report is another indication of what we've been saying for some time: We need to lift this deepwater moratorium, which is having the effect of further harming an already-struggling Gulf community.

Tom Daschle is a founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center and member of BP America's External Advisory Council.

The Center's National Commission on Energy Policy is co-chaired by William K. Reilly. Reilly also co-chairs Obama's Oil Spew Commission, which will decide the future of deepwater drilling. It seems Tom Daschle and William Reilly already have too many jobs, many with deep conflicts of interest. Both should be shared.