Feb. 6, 2012 - Last Wednesday, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox was arrested after refusing requests from Republican committee members to leave a hearing on hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." The hearing focused on a recent EPA report that suggested that hydraulic fracturing methods of extracting natural gas most likely caused contamination of drinking water in Wyoming.
The filmmaker, a noted critic of hydraulic fracturing, was removed after Republican members of the
Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee asked his camera crew to leave the hearing because they were not accredited. Mr. Fox refused to leave and was arrested for "unlawful entry." The hearing continued despite the excitement, with Republicans questioning the scientific rigor of the report and Democrats and EPA official Jim Martin defending it.
The process of hydraulic fracturing has been heavily criticized by environmental groups because of its potential to contaminate drinking water, while representatives of the natural gas industry have repeatedly claimed that it is safe.
MapLight has conducted an analysis of campaign contributions to members of the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment from interest groups representing Oil & Gas,
Natural gas transmission & distribution, Major (multinational) oil & gas producers and Independent oil & gas producers as well as Environmental policy and Alternative energy production & services.
- Interest groups connected to natural gas industries have given a total of $199,808 to members of the subcommittee, with 90% of those contributions going to Republican subcommittee members.
- Republican subcommittee members received 9.2 times as much ($180,308) from interest groups connected to the natural gas industry as did Democratic members ($19,500) of the subcommittee.
- Interest groups representing environmental policy and alternative energy have given a total of $99,568 to members of the subcommittee, with 93% of those contributions going to Democratic subcommittee members.
- Democratic subcommittee members received 14.3 times as much ($93,068) from environmental and alternative energy interest groups as did Republican members ($6,500) of the subcommittee.
- Republican subcommittee members received 94% more from interest groups representing the natural gas industry than Democratic subcommittee members received from environmental and alternative energy interest groups.
METHODOLOGY: Includes reported contributions to congressional campaigns of Members of the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, including Ex Officio members, in office during the 112th U.S. Congress, from
Oil & gas, Natural gas transmission & distribution, Major (multinational) oil & gas producers, Independent oil & gas producers, Environmental policy and Alternative energy production & services interest groups selected by MapLight, July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2011. Contributions data source:
OpenSecrets.org.
A link to this data release can be found
here.
MapLight is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that reveals money's influence on politics.
Media Contact:
Pamela Heisey
c: 415-299-0898 | w: 510-868-0894 | e:
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Tigerquoll
Wed, 2012-02-08 21:13
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Is the US Republican Party neo-Nazi or just untouchable?
Well ya gotta laugh when a US Republican presidential candidate proclaims returning the US of A to the perpetual US myth of the 'land of the free'. Do the Republicans mention any thought of closing Dubya's Gitmo? Naah!
When a US citizen is forcibly removed from a Republican meeting and his camera crew "because they were not accredited" and arrested for "unlawful entry" we are witnessing authoritarianism, not freedom. Free speech and public accountability clearly do not fall within US Republican scope of 'freedom'.
That is why Republican extremist, wildlife poacher Sarah Palin has demanded free speech entrepreneur Julian Assange be hunted down and assassinated.
Palin is dangerous.
Is the US Republican Party neo-Nazi or just untouchable?
Does this mean the Tea Party extremist wing of the Republican Party is wearing brown shirts?
It certainly harks to 1930s fascism. Republican presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, is promising Hitler-esk scale military resurgence of America's self-righteous imperial might.
Romney believes America should be "the strongest nation on earth" and argued for an increase in military spending to ensure that the United States can assert military dominance over other nations"...It is only American power--conceived in the broadest terms--that can provide the foundation of an international system that ensures the security and prosperity of the United States and our friends and allies around the world." - Romney said during a speech at the Citadel in South Carolina.
Calling for this to be an "American century" in which "America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world," Romney said that a "feckless" President Obama mistakenly believes that "there is nothing unique about the United States." Romney argued that the president has weakened the nation economically, militarily and in terms of "the enduring strength of our values."
"America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers," said the former Massachusetts governor. "America must lead the world, or someone else will. Without American leadership, without clarity of American purpose and resolve, the world becomes a far more dangerous place, and liberty and prosperity would surely be among the first casualties."
"The United States should always retain military supremacy to deter would-be aggressors and to defend our allies and ourselves," he said. "If America is the undisputed leader of the world, it reduces our need to police a more chaotic world."
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Tigerquoll
Suggan Buggan
Snowy River Region
Victoria 3885
Australia
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