RosenbergBPDisasterResearchAnnotation2

Eggen, Dan, and Kimberly Kindy. "Three of Every Four Oil and Gas Lobbyists Worked for Federal Government." // Washington Post - Politics, National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - Washingtonpost.com //. The Washington Post, 22 July 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2011. .
 * 1. Full citation. **

** 2. Where does the author work, what else has s/he written about, and what are her/his credentials? ** The authors, Dan Eggen and Kimberly Kindy, are both national reporters for the Washington Post. Eggen appears to have articles archived online with the newspaper from at least 2006, and has written extensively about issues of campaign finance and other controversies within government from the perspectives of both Republicans and Democrats. Kindy has articles archived online from at least 2008, and seems to write primarily about failures of government in protecting the safety of those involved in commercial operations, in addition to some articles about corruption within government. It is difficult to find much more about the credentials of the authors than what is presented through their writing history, but it may be beneficial to consider that the Washington Post is believed to have a slight “liberal” bias in its reporting: ([] ) Additionally, the Post has an organizational culture of exposing scandals within government, most notably through its investigation into what ultimately was known as the “Watergate Scandal.” 3. What is the main topic or argument of the text? ** The argument of the text seems to be that the “revolving door” between government and lobbying which has plagued the oil industry in particular has led to notable difficulty in addressing problems with the regulatory regime which have enabled lax oversight practices. 4. Describe at least three ways that the main topic or argument is fleshed out. ** As the article begins, data is presented to paint a picture of the potential conflicts of interests arising within government when the lures of private employment are present. Among the hires are 18 former members of Congress, 2 former directors of the Mineral Management Service, and in total about 430 out of the nearly 600 registered lobbyists for the sector were at one point held government employment. The piece then highlights the former Mineral Management Service in particular, in which more than a dozen former employees were found to be working for lobbying firms. Among these staff was Randall Luthi, who left the agency to work for the National Ocean Industries Association right before the BP spill, and earned $580,000 in salary and bonuses in 2008, of which only $160,000 came from his work at the MMS. Last, specific examples are highlighted of the direct conflicts of interest arising between regulators and the regulated, such as that of the Lake Charles, La. Office of the MMS, which received financial benefits from a drilling firm that it was charged with regulating at the time. 5. What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? **     ·  “ The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics calculates that fewer than one in three registered lobbyists in 2009 had revolving-door connections -- less than half the oil industry rate found by The Post.”  ·  “The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's leading trade group, employs 48 lobbyists with previous federal experience, the analysis shows. They include former senator J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), who helped deregulate the natural gas industry, and former congressmen Jim McCrery  (R-La.) and Charlie Stenholm (D-Tex.), both of whom strongly backed oil interests while in Congress.”  ·  “When agency investigators examined the MMS's Lake Charles, La., office this year, they found that inspector Donald C. Howard reaped financial benefits from an offshore firm he was supposed to be regulating. Howard was sentenced last year to one year of probation and fined $3,000. “  6. Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports your research focus. ** If politicians are presented with financial incentives in the form of “revolving door” type lobbying employment when their terms are up, they may be more inclined to support the interests of these firms while in office. These efforts may compromise the impartiality of those drafting regulatory legislation, and encourage loopholes among regulation which permit corporations to not adhere to higher standards of safety. If this is indeed the case, then it is likely that such weakness contributed significantly to the breakdowns which compromised the Deepwater Horizon, and that such trends may continue in the future in the absence of reforms to these practices.
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 *  7. List at least two details or references from the text that will be useful to other members of your research group.  **

1)  The piece references Center for Responsive Politics lobbying data concerning the oil industry. Although the link is not presented in the article, I have located this data on the following website:   [] Expenditures are provided for the period from 1998 to 2010, and comprise industry statistics as well as those of individual firms.

2)  Although some may believe that this issue is limited to Republicans in government in light of historical experience such as Dick Cheney’s task force, this may not be entirely the case, as is demonstrated by the following quote from the article:       “ The party affiliation of lobbyists is fairly evenly divided. About 55 percent of the revolving-door lobbyists with clear partisan affiliations have worked for Republicans, including two former aides to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) who lobby for Exxon Mobil, the records show. Three aides to former vice presidentRichard B. Cheney, himself a former oil-services executive, now lobby on behalf of oil firms, including former energy adviser Kevin O'Donovan, now a Royal Dutch Shell executive. Former interior secretary Gale Norton is a Shell lawyer.” Additionally, the following appointment has occurred within the Obama Administration: “The Obama administration's single revolving-door appointment at the agency is a former BP executive, [|Sylvia Baca] , who was named deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management in June of last year. (Baca served as assistant secretary for land and minerals management in the Clinton administration.)” <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">