Antonia Juhasz on Fresh Air: Phil Gramm's Enron Loophole scam. And McLame's effort to keep it alive.

[bushmeister0]

"Author and activist Antonia Juhasz argues that the oil industry's grip on policy and government has never been stronger.

What's more, Juhasz says, the business and politics of oil's production pose such grave implications on so many fronts — the environment, human rights, the economy, worker safety, public health — that the current state of petroleum-industry affairs is fundamentally antithetical to democracy."

She speaks to Terry Gross about her book "The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry—and What We Must Do to Stop It"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95465269

See the James Ridgway on the the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, known as the "Enron loophole," and Phil and Wendy Gramm's role in sneeking it into an omnibus spending bill in the middle of the night in 2000.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-01-15/news/phil-gramm-s-enron-favor/

Juhasz descibes how Enron used the legislation to run up energy prices in California and has led to the speculation of the oil prices today.

The loophole was closed by Carl Levin on June 18 2008.

Interestingly, McMummy opposed closing the loophole on the advise of his then chief economic advisor Phil Gramm.

May 19:

"Sen. John McCain says he opposes the $307 billion farm bill because it would dole out wasteful subsidies, but his chief economic adviser Phil Gramm also wants to stop its proposed regulation of energy futures trading, a market that was famously abused when Enron Corp. manipulated California’s electricity prices in 2001.

A McCain aide told me that the Arizona senator opposes the farm bill because it 'rewards lobbyists' by granting rich farmers lucrative subsidies, although he would support 'a reasonable level of assistance and risk management to farmers when they need America's help.' (And then his pants burst into flames!)

But the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee also opposes the farm bill because Gramm advised McCain that he should resist its regulatory language on the energy futures market."

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/051908Leopold.shtml

Yeah, he's for average folks!

Drill baby drill!

[Supersedeas]

1. McCain brags about co-sponsoring a bill that never made it out of R controlled committee, but

had no, NADDA, ZERO objection to the bill that did make it out of committee:

Fannie / Freddie Regulation failed in Reskank controlled committee in 2005 --

HOWEVER, the same committee issued the FINANCIAL SERVICES REGULATOR RELIEF ACT (sponsored by McCain collegue - Mike Crapo) -- which passed without any McCain objection.

Yet, the Free Ride Media just lets that Fannie/Freddie Utter-BS talking point go unchallenged.