Gerlach Is Proud of His Energy Act Vote

....and the oil industry is forever indebted to him for doing so. Congressman Jim Gerlach sent a franked letter to his constituents in the Sixth CD last week bragging about his vote for Bush's (Cheney's Energy Task Force wrote it) Energy Bill. The bill gave the oil industry something like $10 billion of taxpayer funds since they were in such woeful condition (just joking there).

BP has now announced their quarterly sales and profits:

BP, one of the world's largest oil companies, posted a net profit of $7.3 billion for the three months ended June 30, up from $5.6 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 24 percent to $73.5 billion from $59.3 billion.

That's a pretty nice return for the money the industry spent to buy Jim Gerlach. According to this press release:

According to the AP, "The five oil behemoths releasing quarterly results
[this] week - BP (BP), ConocoPhillips (COP), Chevron (CVX), ExxonMobil (XOM)
and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) - earned an estimated $33.6 billion, 32% more
than a year earlier, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial."
[Associated Press, 7/21/06]

Meanwhile, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Jim Gerlach has
taken $53,000 from oil and gas interests during his numerous campaigns for
Congress. [Center for Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org]

Since he was elected Gerlach has voted time and time again in favor of his
big oil donors and against the interests of Sixth District families.

Gerlach has also supported the Bush foreign policy failures which have led to $75/barrel oil. He has supported the wholesale destabilization of the Middle East. This instability has created the panic over oil supplies and resultant $3.17/gallon gas prices in his district. He's proud of his votes, though.