Just in time for Peak Oil they sell the two most important metals to create alternative energy. Of, course!
Oh, James Baker(he is always in on the dirtiest deals) and Baker Botts here again to make our lives better in the USA. This is truly disgusting again.
I hate these people.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2004/05/04_406.htmlThe Bush administration is high on hydrogen. The president's proposed 2005 budget includes $228 million to help businesses develop better hydrogen fuel cells, triple the assistance the federal government provided in 2001. What's left unsaid in his speeches about America's potential to "lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles" is that the initiative holds out a massive windfall for Bush insiders and well-connected lobbyists, not to mention a Russian oligarch with a history of shady dealings and environmental destruction
(snip)
To understand what this has to do with hydrogen and why there's so much money at stake, begin with this fact: Fuel cells will use platinum or palladium as a catalyst. The metals speed the process by which hydrogen combines with oxygen, releasing energy that could power a vehicle. The metals also could be used in storing hydrogen and are already used in catalytic converters. If the market for fuel cells booms, so too will demand for palladium and platinum. There are only a few locations in the world that mine platinum metals, and the largest producer of palladium and the second largest of platinum is the Potanin-owned Norilsk Nickel Mining Co. on the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia.
(snip)
Norilsk Nickel hired Baker Botts, the lobbying firm headed by longtime Bush family political adviser James Baker III. Baker Botts assigned a special counsel named Diana Dietrich, a former Federal Trade Commission litigator, to plead Norilsk Nickel's case before the agency where she used to work. The Russian company also put forward the group it planned to add to Stillwater's board of directors after the takeover, and four of its five nominees are neither Russians nor mining executives, but American power players. They include Craig Fuller, the former chief of staff to then Vice President George H.W. Bush; Steven Lucas, a partner at Nielsen-Merksamer, a California firm specializing in lobbying and electoral law; former Senator Donald Riegle (D-Mich.), who served as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee; and Todd Schafer, who works in Moscow for the lobbying firm Hogan & Hartson and has assisted Potanin in battling challenges to his control of Uneximbank. Stillwater vice president John Stark says that his company proposed some of these nominees to Norilsk Nickel, while others were suggested by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Norilsk Nickel hired Baker Botts, the lobbying firm headed by longtime Bush family political adviser James Baker III. Baker Botts assigned a special counsel named Diana Dietrich, a former Federal Trade Commission litigator, to plead Norilsk Nickel's case before the agency where she used to work. The Russian company also put forward the group it planned to add to Stillwater's board of directors after the takeover, and four of its five nominees are neither Russians nor mining executives, but American power players. They include Craig Fuller, the former chief of staff to then Vice President George H.W. Bush; Steven Lucas, a partner at Nielsen-Merksamer, a California firm specializing in lobbying and electoral law; former Senator Donald Riegle (D-Mich.), who served as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee; and Todd Schafer, who works in Moscow for the lobbying firm Hogan & Hartson and has assisted Potanin in battling challenges to his control of Uneximbank. Stillwater vice president John Stark says that his company proposed some of these nominees to Norilsk Nickel, while others were suggested by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
(snip)
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
