US Representative Jeb Bradley, Republican of New Hampshire, is under fire for owning nearly $1 million in oil, gas and electric company shares, whilst consistently “voting with energy interests since taking office, often stripping key environmental and consumer protections in the process”. Bradley has also taken over $45,000 in campaign contributions from energy industry PACs.
The revelations in Harpers Magazine are said to have “set off a spark in this fall’s New Hampshire House race”, where several Democratic contenders are vying to unseat Bradley, considered one of the more liberal Republicans in Congress.
According to Harpers: “In 2005, Bradley backed big energy companies at least nine times. In April 2005, he voted to allow oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes, voted against requiring electric utility companies to reduce dependence on nonrenewable energy sources, and voted to weaken the review and approval process for oil refineries in areas with high unemployment rates. The following month he voted against $15.5 million in funding for energy efficiency and conservation, and he went to bat for the industry again in October, opposing a measure that would have increased fines for price gouging to three times the profits gained”.
Bradley also opposed a measure intended to curb no-bid government contracts for Iraqi oil operations while holding Halliburton stock. Bradley is said to be incencesed by the Harpers article, telling the Boston Globe he has “continually” voted against big subsidies for corporate oil, and voted for environmental protections.
Harpers argued that Bradley’s was “a textbook case of why there should be some financial threshold at which it becomes mandatory for members of Congress to put their wealth in blind trusts”.
We argue its another reason to Separate Oil and State.