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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Brian Stout, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Jerry Falwell Jr., Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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The Way They Do Business In DC
Using Congress To Get Rich
March 19, 2024 Republicans accuse D. Sen. Ron Wyden of ruling in tech favor for personal gain. While republicans are doing the same and much more. Ron Wyden Or. Has been accused by Republicans of making money off tech companies which he oversees as Finance chairman. Wydens wife has invested in several well-known tech companies such as $1 million in Apple, $1million Microsoft, $500,000 Google, and $500,000 Amazon. She invested in these companies for years, and now people believe she is cashing on because of her husbands position. Ethics experts” who said the senator is not breaking any laws but noted his proximity to his wife and her investments “could pose a conflict of interest. But so far things are quiet. Of course a GOP group asked Wyden to relinquish his position leading the Finance Committee. The group went on to say. This clear conflict of interest is dangerous to the American people, and we demand that you immediately step down from the chairmanship of the Finance Committee. The Republican group is angry because these companies which Mrs. Wyden has invested in has been out spoken about Republican policies. And like all politicians Wyden has said he and his wife do not discuss policy or each others investments. And keep each’s bank accounts separate. Now lets move on to the Republicans, Republican lawmakers who wrote bills that were wrapped into the H.R. 1 energy package own stock in Marathon Oil, Chevron, and family-held oil and gas drilling operations. GOP Energy Bill Authors Stand to Profit From Oil and Gas Stocks. Several Republican House members who sponsored energy deregulation bills that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has included in his debt ceiling bill could personally profit if McCarthy’s package is signed into law. The bill consists of dozens of measures put forth by House Republicans that would expand oil and gas drilling on public lands, repeal clean energy investments passed into law last year, undo a methane fee set to apply to energy facilities, and speed up exports of liquid natural gas, among other things. Nearly a dozen of the House GOP members who introduced legislation that is now in H.R. 1 and McCarthy’s debt ceiling bill own fossil fuel industry assets in their household portfolios, with several of the bills’ authors holding hundreds of thousands of dollars worth and one holding millions of dollars in oil wells. As the House Energy and Commerce Committee was developing the bill, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbying group, the American Petroleum Association (API), sent a letter to the committee’s leaders expressing its support for the individual bills that were being rolled into it, and the group applauded the House in March for passing the bill. API represents many of the companies in whose stocks the H.R. 1 bill sponsors are invested. Rep. Greg Pence of Indiana, Pence’s spouse holds stock in Marathon Oil Corporation, a Houston-based oil and gas exploration and production company, valued at between $250,001 and $500,000, providing dividend income of between $5,000 and $15,000 that year. The brother of the former vice president, Greg Pence formerly worked for Marathon Oil and petroleum exploration company Unocal Corporation before becoming vice president of Kiel Brothers Oil Company, a family-held business of gas stations and convenience stores. How different than Wyden’s wife? Another member of the Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, & Grid Security, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, Representing the Permian Basin region of West Texas, a region where environmental groups are warning of unpermitted methane flares amid a fracking boom, Pfluger’s family owns the Gentry Creek Ranch. August Pfluger is a member manager and director of Gentry Creek Energy LLC in San Angelo, Texas, which he describes in his latest financial disclosure as a pipeline and infrastructure company. The company provided Pfluger with between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of partnership income in 2021 and between $100,000 and $250,000 in income the year before. Pfluger also holds up to $15,000 worth of stock in pipeline giant Enterprise Product Partners, a member of dozens of industry trade associations that cheered H.R. 1’s passage including API and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers. Enterprise owns the huge Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT) project located off the coast of Texas to export crude oil that was approved in November 2022 by the U.S. Department of Transportation. And involved with API. third-term Rep. Kelly Armstrong, whose family business owns hundreds of oil and gas wells around Dickinson, North Dakota. Armstrong introduced a bill in February, H.R. 1058, that would remove the presidential permit requirement for oil and gas pipelines and electric transmission facilities that cross international borders, authorizing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to review applications for cross-border pipelines and the Department of Energy (DOE) for those for electricity transmission. The bill was included in H.R. 1. One upshot of his bill, Armstrong said in a statement, would be to prevent a future president from blocking a cross-border pipeline, as President Obama decided to do with the KeystoneXL project. Sludge previously reported that Armstrong’s oil and gas assets in his 2020 annual disclosure report were valued as worth between $3 million and $10.6 million, with income of up to $1.5 million from them that year. In addition to serving on the Subcommittee on Energy, Armstrong is a member of the Conservative Climate Caucus, a House group that defends the use of fossil fuels in the energy grid. Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman introduced a bill that got wrapped into H.R. 1 called the COAL Act that seeks to speed the leasing process under the Mineral Leasing Act for sites administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The freshman Hageman’s financial disclosure for 2021 lists an interest in “land/oil and mineral rights” in Converse County worth between $5,000 and $15,000, with income of up to $5,000 that year. In town halls this month, Hageman said she hopes to keep the burning of coal in the energy grid and accelerate coal and mineral leases. Other Republican representatives who introduced bills that were incorporated into H.R. 1 hold stock in the fossil fuel industry: Rep. John Curtis (Utah), in Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Valero Energy; and Rep. Larry Bucshon (Ind.), in an energy exchange-traded fund that includes ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and oilfield services company Schlumberger. Rep. John Joyce of Pennsylvania, who introduced a bill that the House Speaker’s office said would “cut red tape for critical energy resource facilities,” owns ownership interest in Pittsburgh-based gas drilling company 3RC/Sun Energy, LLC that was valued at between $50,000 and $100,000 as of the end of 2021, Republican Rep. David Joyce of Ohio. stock in pipeline companies Kinder Morgan and TransCanada Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, Roy’s most recent annual financial disclosure for 2021 shows his household owns between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of stock in Chevron, a member of trade association API and others, as well as up to $15,000 worth of stock each in pipeline companies Energy Transfer, Kinder Morgan, NuStar Energy, and oil major ExxonMobil. Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Hern owned between $275,000 and $550,000 worth of stock in gas transmission and pipeline giant Williams Companies, as well as between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of stock in ExxonMobil. purchasing between $16,000 and $65,000 worth of stock in oil and gas exploration company Devon Energy the day after H.R. 1 passed the House. Hern’s stock purchases this year have included Pioneer Natural Resources, Magellan Midstream Partners, ONEOK gas transmission company, and utilities such as NextEra Energy. Last year, a Hern spokesperson told the New York Times that the congressman does not have control over the investment funds’ transactions. Hern receives millions of dollars in annual income from his stock holdings, with tens of thousands of dollars in income attributed to the Williams Companies assets. Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas owns up to $15,000 worth of stock in each of ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. He proposed and amendment to the bill. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, chosen this year by his colleagues to chair the House Committee on Homeland Security, has leaned heavily into hundreds of stock trades in pipeline and midstream energy companies over the past few years, with the maximum value of the sales and purchases worth tens of millions of dollars. Most recently, about a week before voting to pass H.R. 1, Green bought up to $250,000 worth of stock in midstream company NGL Energy Partners and sold up to the same amount in Energy Transfer LP, then sold up to $100,000 of stock in the Dallas-headquartered Energy Transfer on April 10. Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, has similarly frequently bought and sold pipeline company stocks in recent years. his year, Foxx’s stock pickups have included liquid natural gas shipping company Flex LNG and electricity and natural gas company Duke Energy, according to periodic transaction reports filed with the Office of the Clerk. In February, Foxx sold between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of stock in Marathon Oil Corporation, and has purchased up to $30,000 worth of stock in coal company Alliance Resource Partners, most recently on March 10. About a week before voting for H.R. 1, Foxx purchased up to $15,000 worth of stock in Plains All-American Pipeline, a stock she also held last year. four Democrats were among those voting “aye.” Two were Texas Reps. Henry Cuellar, nicknamed “Big Oil’s Favorite Democrat” for his pro-industry voting record, and Vicente Gonzalez, who founded the Congressional Oil & Gas Caucus in 2017. Both of their re-election bids benefited last year from supportive campaign spots by a shadowy pop-up group, Better Jobs Together, that Sludge uncovered was funded by API, with its pro-Cuellar spending reaching at least $1.4 million. Gonzalez owns just over $10,000 in Chevron stock, R-Rep. John Curtis, the fifth-ranking member on the House Committee on Appropriations and a subcommittee chair, owns between $2 million and $10 million worth of ExxonMobil stock that provided dividends of between $100,000 and $200,000 in 2021. The household of R- Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the former chair of the Homeland Security Committee, owns millions of dollars worth of fossil fuel industry assets, with his spouse purchasing up to $250,000 worth of ConocoPhillips stock in February.
R-Rep. Roger Williams holds a real property asset, named Quintana Energy Partners, valued at between $250,000 and $500,000, according to his 2021 financial disclosure, and noted as providing partnership income. Quintana Energy Partners is an oil and gas fund managed by the Houston-based private equity firm Quintana Capital Group. Williams also holds up to $100,000 worth of stock in Chevron, with his spouse holding up to $15,000 more, and up to $50,000 worth of stock in oil and gas exploration company Diamondback Energy. I certainly am not excusing any elected persons investments which they may have benefited from any vote or decision they have made. But for the republicans to call attention to Sen Wydens wifes investments, while members of their own party has written a bill, added amendments into laws to benefit companies which they have huge investments in is the pot calling the kettle black. While I believe no elected official should be allowed to own invest into any company which they may make decisions which may effect that industry. In order to try and fix this problem, Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Sherrod Brown of Ohio introduced the Ending Trading and Holdings in Congressional Stocks (ETHICS) Act, which would prohibit ownership of individual securities by a lawmaker and their household. Under the proposal, lawmakers would be required to either divest, diversify into allowable assets like mutual funds, or place assets in a qualified blind trust at the end of their current term in office. The bill has a House companion led by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Michael Cloud (R-Texas), which currently has two other co-sponsors, both Democrats.
Tammy
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