To repeat -- What officials, elected or appointed, are you cliaming have conflicts of interest? And in each case, what is the substance of the conflict?
Listen, can Senate/House members own stock in the oil industry and do you think it is right?
As for who...
http://www.foeaction.org/expose/housevotecharts.pdf
The top five oil and gas stock holders in the House of Representatives, in order, are:
Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA) $15 million
Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC) $5.6 million
Rep. John Carter (R-TX) $5 million
Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) $1.9 million
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) $1.7 million.
The Senate’s top holders are:
Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) $1.4 million
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) $646,000
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) $600,000
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) $515,000
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) $500,000. [*]
Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) owns more oil and gas company stock than any other senator, holding as much as $1.47 million. On ten significant energy votes, DeWine sided with the oil industry 70 percent of the time. While environmentalists have applauded DeWine’s opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, he voted against taxing the excess profits of oil companies, in favor of opening new areas off Florida’s Gulf Coast to drilling and against a proposal to reduce foreign oil imports by 40 percent.
Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) holds as much as $80,000 in oil and gas company stock and sided with the oil industry 90 percent of the time on ten key votes. He supported an energy bill that provided billions in tax breaks to oil companies, opposed a proposal to reduce foreign oil imports by 40 percent and voted against a proposal to tax the excess profits of oil companies.
Several top House holders including Representatives Wally Herger (R-CA), John Carter (R-TX), Robin Hayes (R-NC), Chris Chocola (R-IN), and Anne Northup (R-KY) voted in favor of oil company interests 100 percent of the time. They supported an energy bill larded with billions in oil company tax breaks, opposed stronger fuel economy standards for automobiles, voted to allow oil companies to drill offshore without paying royalties to the federal treasury, and to let refiners off the hook for polluting groundwater with a toxic gasoline additive.
Mind you, on some of the votes above I agreed with the how the votes went but again, on many issues I question whether those who own this stock vote for what is right by the consumer or what is right by their wallets.