The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on increasing coordination between state and federal governments concerning crimes associated polygamy. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said some crimes committed by fundamentalist polygamist groups are almost unspeakable. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) said the crimes include statutory rape, domestic abuse, and child abuse. (more…)
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on offenses committed by polygamist groups, Brett Tolman, a United States Attorney for the District of Utah, reads an exhausting list of varied crimes his office has investigated since 2004, from child abuse to tax fraud. (1:16)
New Mexico Republican Senator Pete Domenici said that the energy bill offered by his state’s junior senator is “not a very big solution to a big problem.” The reconfigured energy bill, written by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) features a component that encouraged energy companies to “use it or lose it,” when it comes to lands that are already under lease. “Use it or lose it doesn’t mean anything,” said Domenici at a press conference with Senate Republican colleagues.
Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has offered little debate on the bill and is not allowing much room for amendments, said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D). Domenici said that their amendments are a good way of “finding more and using less.” He cited the Repubicans’ strong support for electric cars. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) said that oil shale is not addressed and that other countries, like Brazil, are taking advantage of this technology while oil shale is off limits in Utah and Colorado. He called for “massive” investment to recover oil shale, which he said is equal to 800 billion barrels of recoverable petroleum.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that speculators represent about 20 percent of the problem when it comes to the current energy prices. He said that he spoke with billionaire Warren Buffet, a prominent U.S. businessman and investor, who told Cornyn that this problem will be solved with the simple law of supply and demand. Cornyn said that the Senate Republicans are dedicated to addressing the problem of supply and demand by drilling for more oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the oil shale of the American West.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) held a hearing this morning focusing on the effects of high oil prices and the nations economy before the Joint Economic Committee. Schumer and the other democrats on the committee lambasted the Bush Administration for what they said was an inability to “lesson our dependence on foreign oil,” said Schumer. (more…)
