23 de Agosto 2007

Gore y el petróleo

El título de la oscarizada cinta de Gore parece una suerte de acertijo que se refiriera a sí mismo. Son muchas las auténticas verdades inconvenientes que difícilmente esconde el ecoprofeta multimillonario de Tennessee. Tirando muy poquito del hilo que me sugería Manel en los comentarios a un post anterior, estoy leyendo algunos artículos sobre la relación de Gore con Occidental Oil.

Este es una buena muestra, de la que extraigo un párrafo:

El gobierno Clinton-Gore ha tenido [estamos en 2000] como política la compra de vastos terrenos con el objetivo de impedir su explotación privada. No es que haga mucha falta. El gobierno federal ya posee una cantidad de territorio equivalente a varios grandes estados. Esa política, sin embargo, ha tenido una curiosa excepción. Entre 1995 y 1997, Al Gore cabildeó para la privatización de 74 millas cuadradas de terrenos petroleros en Elk Hills, California. Ha sido la mayor privatización de terrenos estatales en la historia de Estados Unidos. Yo, personalmente, no tengo nada en contra de las privatizaciones [ni yo], todo lo contrario. Sin embargo, me parece curioso que la empresa que comprara los terrenos de Elk Hills haya sido Occidental Petroleum.

En el mismo sentido podemos leer en este otro:

It was the largest privatization of federal property in U.S. history, one that tripled Occidental's U.S. oil reserves overnight. Although the Energy Department was required to assess the likely environmental consequences of the proposed sale, it didn't. Instead it hired a private company, ICF Kaiser International, Incorporated, to complete the assessment. The general chairman of Gore's presidential campaign, Tony Coelho, sat on the board of directors. The very same day the Elk Hills sale was announced, Gore delivered a speech to the White House Conference on Climate Change on the "terrifying prospect" of global warming, a problem he blamed on the unchecked use of fossil fuels such as oil. He said, quoting, "If we ignore the scientific warnings and continue stubbornly on our current course, we better begin to prepare what we would like to say to our children and grandchildren. They might fairly ask, if you knew all that, why didn't you do something about it?"

O en este:

Occidental's planned drilling of the Elk Hills doesn't only threaten the memory of the Kitanemuk [leer el comienzo del artículo]. Environmentalists say a rare species of fox, lizard and the kangaroo rat would also be threatened by Oxy's plans. A lawsuit has been filed under the Endangered Species Act. But none of that has given pause to Occidental or the politician who helped engineer the sale of the drilling rights to the federally-owned Elk Hills. That politician is Al Gore. Gore recommended that the Elk Hills be sold as part of his 1995 "Reinventing Government" National Performance Review program. Gore-confidant (and former campaign manager) Tony Cohelo served on the board of directors of the private company hired to assess the sale's environmental consequences. The sale was a windfall for Oxy. Within weeks of the announced purchase Occidental stock rose ten percent. That was good news for Gore. Despite controversy over Dick Cheney's plans to keep stock options if elected, most Americans don't know that we already have a vice president with oil company stocks. Before the Elk Hills sale, Al Gore controlled between $250,000-$500,000 of Occidental stock (he is executor of a trust that he says goes only to his mother, but will revert to him upon her death). After the sale, Gore began disclosing between $500,000 and $1 million of his significantly more valuable stock.

Y más:

Mr. Gore's connections to Occidental resurfaced this year after the company bought the federal government's share of a huge oil field near Bakersfield, Calif., known as Elk Hills. The 47,000-acre tract was acquired by the government in 1912 to ensure that the Navy had plenty of oil reserves, but it was deemed no longer necessary. The government had tried to sell Elk Hills since the Reagan administration, but succeeded only two years ago as part of Mr. Gore's initiative to streamline the bureaucracy and "reinvent government." The Energy Department sold the property to Occidental for $3.65 billion in cash through a competitive bidding process that drew 22 offers. Department officials said Occidental's price was twice the next-highest bid and double what the government had estimated. The sale was announced in October 1997 and completed in February 1998.

Cambiando el escenario, que no los protagonistas:

The Nation has learned, from a government source and the internal memos of an Occidental lobbyist, that the Clinton Administration has been quietly helping the company--a generous donor to the Democrats in recent years--to win support in Colombia for its drilling plans. While Gore has strong ties to Occidental, the Administration's point man on the issue is Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who last year traveled to Cartagena and met with government officials on the company's behalf. Richardson has also hired a former Occidental lobbyist to work in a key international-policy position at the Energy Department.

La verdad es que las cifras para Gore (hasta donde he leído, el hilo, como adelantaba Manel es laaargo) no son muy impresionantes, al fin y al cabo es un reputado conferenciante, antes político, que pagaba favores, pero sí sirven para confirmar que el ex vice es un profeta en la cuerda floja.