Obama confuses us on 2005 energy vote [UPDATED]

As has been stated before, Barack Obama voted for the Cheney 2005 Energy Bill. The bill included tax giveaways to “big” oil companies, something he is decrying now. He was interviewed on Nevada television and was asked what the deal was with the yea vote.

The fact of the matter is that I supported that energy bill saying at the time that those tax breaks were wrong but also recognizing that this was the largest investment in alternative energy in history.

But was he really complaining about the tax breaks back in the 2005? Not really.

Here’s the press release from Obama’s 2005 vote. There’s no mention of the tax breaks for big oil or how Obama hated them. The release simply touts how awesome Obama is for voting in support of the bill. Don’t ya think if Obama was against those tax breaks he would have slammed them in the press release? There’s really no better time to get your voice heard on that dissatisfaction.

Furthermore why isn’t anyone pressuring Obama on ethanol tax breaks. The price of our food is skyrocketing because we put so much pressure on farmers to turn their corn into ethanol rather than sell it as food. No one has connected Obama to that mess, and that was included in the 2005 energy bill and something Obama championed in that press release.

I’ll talk more about this tonight, it’s pretty clear to me that Obama did not speak out against those tax breaks in 2005, but I’m still looking for some proof that he did.

UPDATE: As I’m reading information on Obama’s website, I get the feeling that Obama didn’t vote in favor of the bill because it was the largest investment of alternative energy, but rather because it was great for his state, thus re-election if needed.

The title of this article on Obama’s website is, “Senate Energy Bill Contains Goodies for Illinois”

The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved an energy bill that would dramatically increase the use of ethanol, providing Illinois farmers a steady market for corn and bolstering the growing ethanol industry in the state.

In an 85-12 vote, the Senate passed the bill that also contains tax credits for clean coal technology supported by the Illinois Coal Association.

So it appears that his support of the bill wasn’t necessarily because it was the largest investment in alternative energy, but rather because he brought home the bacon. The bill was great of Illinois, thus great to get the Senator re-elected.

UPDATE: I just got done looking through the amendments of that 2005 energy bill. There were no admendments regarding the tax breaks for big oil. But if Obama was so against them, as he says in the Nevada interview, why didn’t he offer up an amendment to strike them. Here’s what Obama said during the Nevada TV interview.

and I immediately said during that time and subsequently that we should strip out those tax breaks for oil companies.

If Obama was so insistent on stripping out those tax breaks why didn’t he a.) mention it in his press release and b.) offer up an amendment to the legislation that actually stripped the bill of those tax breaks.

–jb