Join AFL-CIO, Working Families in ABQ Today to Protest Gas Prices and Giveaways to Big Oil

The latest federal legislation aimed at tamping down windfall profits for the big oil companies, as well as out-of-control speculation that's a big factor in driving up gas prices, was blocked by Repub Senators yesterday. GOP Senators even used a filibuster threat to stop the extension of tax credits for solar and wind energy, some of which have lapsed and some that will sunset at the end of the year. This last move will almost certainly damage alternative energy development businesses in New Mexico, causing the loss of more good-paying jobs down the road.

Good going Pete Domenici and crew. As always, GOP Senators buckled to pressure from Bush, who had threatened to veto the bills if they came to his desk. The Big Oil cronies like things just the way they are -- transferring huge gobs of money from ordinary people into the hands of their wealthy friends and supporters -- as profits and prices skyrocket for goods and transportation.

This latest Repub move to protect Big Oil -- regardless of the consequences -- follows on the heels of their blocking climate change legislation last week that would have enacted a much-needed cap and trade program and requirements designed to rein in rampant oil futures speculation and price fixing.

The boondoggle continues. Big donors to the GOP cause prosper beyond all reason. Working people suffer. Bush doesn't care. Worst of all -- prez candidate John McCain wants to continue Bush's energy horror show for at least four more years.

Join Today's Protest
AFL-CIO members, their families and local citizens won't take it sitting down. They'll join together this afternoon to speak out and protest the record high gas prices. The event will take place at the Shell gas station located at 5210 Central Avenue SE (at San Mateo), at 4:30 PM. Plans for the protest were sparked this week when the national average price of gas hit $4 on Monday, June 9, 2008, up from $1.47 the week President Bush took office.

"This is the first time in our nation’s history that gas has hit such a record high. The price of gas is literally choking working men and women out the American dream. It’s time for Pres. Bush and Sen. McCain to stop the giveaways to their friends in Big Oil and instead start sticking up for working people at home,” said Chris Chavez, Executive Director of the New Mexico State Federation.

At today's protest, union members and citizens will be calling on President Bush to boost the local economy in New Mexico and invest in jobs and energy independence. They will also be calling for an end to tax breaks that benefit Big Oil. The Albuquerque event is one of sixty happening nationwide as part of an AFL-CIO campaign to call on solutions to the record high gas prices.

WHO:  AFL-CIO working families in New Mexico
WHAT: Protest against soaring gas prices
WHERE: Shell Gas Station, 5210 Central Ave. SE (San Mateo & Central)
WHEN: Wednesday June 11th, 4:30-5:00 PM

Think about this: McCain's corporate tax cut proposal alone would give the five largest oil companies $3.8 billion in tax breaks. McCain loves big breaks for Big Oil.

I like this quote:

Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, called the tax breaks given to the oil companies "the largest packet of corporate welfare" ever granted by the U.S. Congress.

"Last year Exxon Mobile made $83,000 a minute in profits. Are they using all this profit to invest in alternative fuels? How about increasing refinery capacity? Oh no, they've got their hand out to us. This is the nerve," she told colleagues. "What nerve does it take for us to give oil companies $17 billion in taxpayer money with those kind of profits? This is like the twilight zone."

AFL-CIO President President John Sweeney had this to say: "Record gas prices are choking off the American Dream for millions of working families. When gas costs $4 a gallon, it defies logic that President Bush and Sen. McCain continue to support massive tax giveaways for Big Oil, while offering no real path to energy independence.  Are Bush and McCain so dangerously out of touch that they think the answer to the gas price crisis is billions more in tax breaks to ExxonMobil?"

At the rallies this week, AFL-CIO working families will highlight the oil industry's massive profits under George Bush -– which top $525 billion -– as prices have skyrocketed from $1.47 a gallon when Bush took office to a historic high of $4 a gallon today.

McCain's Dismal Energy Record
Union members will also raise awareness about Sen. McCain's record in support of the oil industry's interests, and highlight his lack of empathy for working families who are struggling. In addition to proposing massive tax giveaways for Big Oil, McCain has repeatedly voted to protect the oil industry's profits, even as they're squeezing working families at the pump. McCain voted against curtailing oil companies' windfall profits to give working families a tax cut in 2005, and he skipped a vote in 2007 that would have repealed tax breaks for Big Oil. Despite the economic woes facing working families, McCain asserted again last week that he believes the fundamentals of the economy are "very strong."

"Working people are getting battered in today's economy, and they're fed up with business as usual," Sweeney said. "It's more than the gas prices. The economy is bleeding jobs and people's stagnant paychecks can't cover the grocery and housing bills. Record gas prices are part of a much larger problem –- leaders like Bush and McCain have handed the reins of the economy over to Big Oil and other corporate interests whose only concern is maximizing their profit margins."

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