The Gist

Senate Sellouts Shill for Shell

Four dollars-a-gallon gas may be killing the economy and sparking a wave of economic populism, but that isn't stopping Senate Republicans from serving their favorite constituency: Big Oil.

"Saved by Senate Republicans, big oil companies dodged an attempt Tuesday to slap them with a windfall profits tax and take away billions of dollars in tax breaks in response to the record gasoline prices that have the nation fuming...

The Democratic energy package would have imposed a 25 percent tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies, which together made $36 billion during the first three months of the year. It also would have given the government more power to address oil market speculation, opened the way for antitrust actions against countries belonging to the OPEC oil cartel, and made energy price gouging a federal crime...

But Republican leaders said the Democrats' plan would do harm rather than good — and they kept the legislation from being brought up for debate and amendments."

It's no secret to anyone that America's current energy policy consists mainly of 1) Catering to oil cartels and 2)Systematically destroying anything that might stand in the way of catering to oil cartels:

"Shortly after the oil tax vote, Republicans blocked a second proposal that would extend tax breaks that have either expired or are scheduled to end this year for wind, solar and other alternative energy development, and for the promotion of energy efficiency and conservation. Again Democrats couldn't get the 60 votes to overcome a GOP filibuster."

We are going to need to win more seats in Congress if we ever hope to move our national energy policy in a progressive direction. Luckily the Republicans are giving us plenty of issues for us to hammer them with November.