A new Gallup poll shows that while President Bush claims “he can do little to address gas prices in the short run, two in three Americans say there are reasonable steps that he should take right now that would significantly lower U.S. gas prices.” They’re right — gas prices can be lowered sooner rather than later, and American Progress has laid out a series of steps to do just that:

Low-income scrap-and-replace programs: Low-income drivers tend to own less efficient vehicles that are also often the least reliable, the least safe and the most polluting cars on the road. Scrappage programs designed to get the most polluting cars off the roads have already been used successfully in a few states.

Feebates: Unlike tax rebates, feebates provide a direct signal of the value of efficiency to consumers where they pay the most attention – at the sticker price. A fee or a rebate is assigned to each individual vehicle type based on a fuel economy benchmark set annually for each vehicle size class. Buyers of more efficient vehicles receive a rebate; buyers of less efficient vehicles pay a fee.

Letting hybrids use high occupancy vehicle lanes: As an additional incentive for early adopters of the most efficient automobiles, single occupant hybrids should be allowed in high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. While advanced vehicles remain a limited portion of the market, this would further stimulate purchase and use of efficient hybrid vehicles.

Replacement tire standards: Under federal fuel-economy standards, automakers equip new vehicles with tires that have a lower rolling resistance, which leads to higher fuel efficiency. By requiring replacement tires to be as efficient as new car tires, gasoline savings would begin immediately, saving over 7 billion barrels of oil over the next 50 years.

Car-sharing: Recognizing that the average U.S. private car sits idle 96 percent of the time, car-sharing programs could decrease annual driving without loss of convenience. Pioneered in Europe and introduced in the United States by Zipcar and Flexcar, car-sharing programs provide participants with access to cars in their neighborhood for short-term rental. Zipcar claims that each of their cars replaces 7 to 10 privately owned cars.

This morning the NYT reported that the State Department will not provide critical documents about John Bolton requested by Sen. Joe Biden (D-CT):

The State Department is refusing to make public internal documents…about repeated clashes between John R. Bolton and American intelligence agencies over Syria, administration officials say.

During today’s press briefing, spokesman Tom Casey revealed two important things about the State Department’s position.

1. The State Department is only responding to requests that are approved by Republicans:

All we’d done is made sure that what we’ve put forward is in keeping with the agreements that the committee had, which was to pursue this in a joint way. And what we’ve been doing is giving answers to the things that the chairman [Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN)] believes he and his colleagues on the Democratic side can all agree are relevant and important to the investigation.

2. The information being withheld may not be classified:

I don’t know whether they are all classified or not. Certainly they involved preparation of, in some cases public statements; in some cases, classified testimony.

Last week, thousands of netroots activists who joined the Drop the Hammer campaign convinced three major corporations — American Airlines, Verizon and Nissan — to stop financing Tom DeLay’s legal defense fund (we’re still working on Bacardi and RJ Reynolds). Asked about the campaign, DeLay was defiant:

You really think a lobbyist group like that is going to have an effect on me and what I am trying to accomplish here?

But check out today’s Washington Post. Whether DeLay wants to admit it or not, Corporate America knows an endangered politician when it sees one:

DeLay’s prowess in fundraising, for instance, was always a pillar of his power in the House. Lining up a corporate aircraft to ferry him to an event was usually arranged with a single phone call. These days, Republican officials report that they are having trouble finding available aircraft — as businesses fret that DeLay may be radioactive.

You’ll probably want to finish your lunch before reading this…unless it’s a hamburger.

The Washington Times reports that U.S. agriculture officials are investigating claims that cow brains, spines and “other risky materials that could carry mad cow disease” might be entering the human food supply “in violation of agency policy.”

And don’t even get started on what “agency policy” does allow. According to the Consumers Union, loopholes in the feed ban currently permit “cow’s blood, poultry litter and plate waste from restaurants” to be fed to cattle that ends up on our plates:

Calves taken from their mothers are fed milk replacers which often contain cow’s blood added as a cheap protein supplement. Poultry litter, which contains chicken feces, feathers, sawdust, and uneaten feed containing cow parts, and plate waste from restaurants such as leftover steaks are added to cattle feed as well.

Not lovin’ it? These practices are currently under public comment, and the chance of mad cow contamination is still quite slim. But it’s worth keeping the issue in mind, considering our Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns likely won’t be reminding you. As governor, Johanns opposed the Department of Agriculture’s policy of informing the public when the nation’s beef supply may be contaminated, and asked the DOA to reconsider their policy of announcing when initial tests of cattle show they may be infected with mad cow. (Johanns’s position ran counter to the conclusions of the USDA inspector general, which found the agency isn’t doing enough to protect the public from mad cow contamination.) Check out NotInMyFood.org for more.

There’s only ONE day left to stop Congress from passing the REAL ID bill. The bill discriminates against millions of immigrants, targets asylum seekers, gives unprecedented power to the Secretary of Homeland Security to disregard federal law and effectively creates a national ID card. The bill didn’t have enough support to pass the Senate. So what did right-wingers in Congress do? They attached the bill to must-pass legislation to fund our troops in Iraq. The House approved it last Thursday. But there’s still time before the Senate votes tomorrow. Contact your senator and learn more about the bill at www.unrealid.com.

- Raj Goyle

The muck surrounding superlobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rep. Tom DeLay just got a little sticker.

It turns out DeLay may have threatened a colleague in the House of Representatives to lay off an investigation into one of his buddy Jack’s pet lobbying gigs.

Here’s the story. In the 1990s, Abramoff represented the Northern Mariana Islands — to the tune of millions of dollars – to help them avoid U.S. labor laws. Abramoff took full advantage of the islands’ balmy weather, flying dozens of lawmakers and their aides for luxurious vacations. One of these vacations was a 1997/1998 New Years trip for DeLay and his wife.

The National Journal reports that, later in 1998, DeLay helped kill a “congressional fact-finding trip that was being planned as part of an investigation of sweatshop conditions in the garment industry in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.” Rep. Peter Hoekstra, (R-MI) was leading a fact-finding investigation into worker abuse in the islands’ garment industry when DeLay’s office threatened the lawmaker with loss of his subcommittee chairmanship if he continued the investigation.

One former aide recalls, “We were under very strict orders not to deal with the Marianas…Hoekstra made it very clear that he was told to lay off the Marianas.” Another former aide charged Hoekstra “returned to his office one day in mid-1998 after a meeting in the majority whip’s office, the congressman was ‘pissed off,’ complaining to some of his staff, ‘They shut us down.’”

It was his trip to the Marianas that DeLay called Abramoff “one of my closest and dearest friends.” It’s time to examine that friendship’s perks.

Over the last year, gas prices have increased by 39 percent. Consumers are struggling to pay prices that average $2.23 per gallon. Meanwhile, the oil companies are raking in record profits, giving their executives fat raises and asking for billions in incentives from taxpayers.

OIL INDUSTRY COFFERS SWELLING WITH CASH: According to the Wall Street Journal, “Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group both reported huge increases in first-quarter income, benefiting from the industrywide bonanza also swelling the coffers of their peers: high prices for the oil they pump and high margins for refining it.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/29/05]

RECORD PROFITS FOR EXXON: Exxon “said net income totaled $7.86 billion, or $1.22 a share, up 44% from $5.44 billion, or 83 cents a share, a year earlier…. Exxon’s results were a record first-quarter take for the oil behemoth… [Wall Street Journal, 4/29/05]

SHELL PROFITS UP 40% FROM LAST YEAR: Shell “reported net income of $6.8 billion … up 40% from $4.85 billion in the first quarter of 2004.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/29/05]

$30 BILLION IN EXTRA REVENUE FOR CONOCOPHILLIPS: The Houston Chronicle reports “ConocoPhillips, the nation’s third-largest oil and gas company, said today that first-quarter earnings soared year-over-year on high oil prices…. Total revenue was $38.9 billion, up from $30.2 billion last year….” [Houston Chronicle, 4/27/05]

EXXON’S HEADACHE — WHAT TO DO WITH $40 BILLION IN CASH?: Exxon Mobil’s “soon-to-retire CEO suddenly has a new anxiety: how to spend the windfall wrought by $55-a-barrel oil. By the end of April, Exxon will have a cash hoard of more than $25 billion…. If oil simply stays where it is now, Exxon’s cash could approach $40 billion in 12 months. By then [Exxon's CEO] is expected to have handed off the top job — and the headache of what to do with all that cash.” [Fortune Magazine]

OIL INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES GET 109.1% RAISE: The recent Wall Street Journal compensation survey found that oil and gas executives’ total direct compensation (2004) was about $16.5 million (median). And the median percent change from 2003 to 2004 was 109.1 percent. This was by far the highest of the industries profiled. [Wall Street Journal CEO Compensation Survey]

BILLIONS IN GIVEAWAYS TO OIL INDUSTRY TUCKED IN ENERGY BILL: In the Energy Policy Act of 2005, oil and gas companies will receive $515 million in authorized spending from the U.S. government, including “$125 million to reimburse oil and gas producers for 115% of the costs of remediating, reclaiming, and closing orphaned wells.” The bill also created a $2 billion ultra-deepwater fund to pay for research that companies are already pursuing without government help. On top of that, the bill provided $3.275 billion in new tax breaks to the oil and gas industry. [Taxpayer.net]