Ryan Zinke to the oil and gas industry: "Our government should work for you"

[Rhiannon12866]

The interior secretary’s latest gaffe was a pledge of allegiance to fossil fuels.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke let the mask slip this week, turning the subtext of his term in office into the headline as he spoke to a friendly audience.

On Tuesday, Zinke gave the keynote address at the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association’s fall meeting in Lafayette, Louisiana. He told the conference over lunch “our government should work for you,” according to organizers:

Link to tweet

You can debate what Zinke meant by “work for you,” but many heard it as a pledge of allegiance to the industry.

And according to the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, the industry members in the room were thrilled with the pledge, giving Zinke a standing ovation. (An organizer told me none of the speeches at the event were recorded.)

However, environmental activists and some lawmakers were appalled by the statement.

Link to tweet

Read more: https://www.vox.com/2018/9/21/17886538/ryan-zinke-interior-oil-gas-industry-environment

[mountain grammy]

1. Sad thing is they do, especially here in CO

[watoos]

3. Also here in Pennsylvania

We are the only state that doesn't charge the gas industry an extraction fee. As a matter of fact our governor is running for reelection promising to charge the gas companies that extraction tax. We shall see if Wolff does once he wins.

[CrispyQ]

6. I read that Polis isn't as tough on oil & gas now that he's running for Gov. -nt

[mountain grammy]

7. Sad but true. Powerful players at work

As usual, but think he’s still open to regulations. Stapleton would be a nightmare.

[watoos]

2. If a joint venture is the ticket

why not have the government take over the oil and gas industry instead of the other way around?

What a terrible Socialist thought, ehh? OK, I am out of bounds suggesting that, back to crony capitalism as usual.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. So, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer exists.

[CrispyQ]

5. Corporations are people, too, don't ya know?

Slavery is the fiction that people are property.
Corporate personhood is the fiction that corporations are people.

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate-personhood/

Introduction to Corporate Personhood

Our Bill of Rights was the result of tremendous efforts to institutionalize and protect the rights of human beings. It strengthened the premise of our Constitution: that the people are the root of all power and authority for government. This vision has made our Constitution and government a model emulated in many nations.

But corporate lawyers (acting as both attorneys and judges) subverted our Bill of Rights in the late 1800’s by establishing the doctrine of “corporate personhood” — the claim that corporations were intended to fully enjoy the legal status and protections created for human beings.

We believe that corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges we willfully grant them. Granting corporations the status of legal “persons” effectively rewrites the Constitution to serve corporate interests as though they were human interests. Ultimately, the doctrine of granting constitutional rights to corporations gives a thing illegitimate privilege and power that undermines our freedom and authority as citizens. While corporations are setting the agenda on issues in our Congress and courts, We the People are not; for we can never speak as loudly with our own voices as corporations can with the unlimited amplification of money.

Much more at link.