Oil Execs Lie Under (Not) Oath

Last week, the extremely nasty-looking (<-- editorial comment) heads of the nation's top oil corporations testified before Congress so that... well I'm not sure what the point was. They pretty much run the country, so not sure what Congress thought they could do. Anyway, you will remember that some on the panel had asked there be a vote on whether the execs be sworn in. The Republicans insisted that they did not need to be sworn in, and that there would be no vote. And so they were not. Among the many questions the oil execs were asked was whether or not they had met with Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force in 2001. They all claimed they did not. New evidence suggests that was, ummm, not so much the truth.

Personally, I am shocked.

I had expected more ethical behavior from powerful oil executives and our Vice President.

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force

A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.

The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

PS- Watch video of them not being sworn in.