Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) (right) shotdown efforts to make oil company executives testify under oath when they appeared before a committee looking into record profits amid times of reported shortages.Sen Stevens appeared hostile as Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) moved for a vote on placing the executives under oath. He insisted the execs were appearing voluntarily and there was no need for any promises to tell the truth.
He's become pretty emotional lately. Throwing what was described in the Washington Post as a "hissy fit" on the Senate floor and threatening resign before giving up his pork barrel "bridge to nowhere."
The opposition to swearing in oil executives brought to mind how tobacco executives were later caught in lies after sworn testimony to Congress in the 1990s (left).Sen Stevens has collected $369,890 from oil and gas related campaign contributors since 1989 -- that's more than he's collected from any other other sector.
At least he knows to dance with them what brung him. (LAT/OpenSecrets.org)
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Join Cantwell to Protect Puget Sound from Big Oil Tankers
Washington, D.C. -- Maria Cantwell is working to protect Puget Sound from a top Senate Republican's efforts to open the Sound up as a super-port for oil to be shipped overseas and across the country.
Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, the very same Senator who defeated Maria Cantwell's efforts to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling, has quietly introduced a bill in the Senate to permit high-volume oil tankers to dock in the Puget Sound, making Washington's pristine waterways and coastlines at risk for oil spills and tanker traffic.
In response to Stevens' legislation, Cantwell not only vowed to stop the bill, but emailed Washingtonians to warn them of the threat our state faces.
"We have to show Senator Stevens that Washington state won't stand by silently and let one of our greatest treasures fall to the whims of greedy oil companies," said Cantwell in her email. "Please join me in signing this petition to keep the Magnuson Amendment in place and protect Washington's waterways and coastlines from being overrun with oil tankers."
In 1977, Washington's Senator Warren Magnuson moved to protect Puget Sound against just such a move with the Magnusson Amendment which limited oil tanker traffic in Puget Sound and kept the Cherry Point Refinery near Bellingham focused on meeting the energy needs of our state, not the rest of the country.
Stevens' secretive plan will reverse important protections that both Republicans and Democrats in Washington have supported for decades. Senator Stevens is working for the oil companies and against Washington state – helping oil companies increase their profits, while putting one of Washington state's greatest treasures at risk.
SIGN CANTWELL'S PETITION: Visit www.cantwell.com and join Maria Cantwell in the fight to protect Puget Sound.
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