Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am going to try to be very brief. I am rising to return to the topic of the effort of the CRA to roll back transparency in the oil and gas industry, and I will speak briefly. I know my colleague from Arizona is here and wants to speak too. The issue has been described. It is an SEC rule requiring energy companies to disclose the payments they make to foreign governments for natural resources. The reason is that many countries with abundant natural resources are run by dictators, and there has been a long history of payments by oil companies--American and others--to those dictators that don't get to the people and actually further the corruption of the country. Just one example: An IMF report stated that in just 1 year, 1998, the Government of Equatorial Guinea received $130 million in oil revenue, and $96 million of that went directly into the personal bank account of the dictator, Teodoro Obiang. Meanwhile, hunger in that country is rampant, and that is what led to this. I am on the Foreign Relations Committee. In preparation for our hearing on the nomination of Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, for Secretary of State, I read a wonderful report that was done by Senator Lugar when he was the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. October 2008: Report to members of the Foreign Relations Committee from the ranking member. The title was ``The Petroleum And Poverty Paradox: Assessing U.S.…”