Especially with record-high prices for crude oil, it's not easy to be the oil industry these days. In poll after poll, the American people rank the industry's popularity at pariah levels. Congress wants to take away tax incentives the industry has enjoyed for years.
And now, the industry's leading trade group can't even give their money away to charity.
America's premier museum, The Smithsonian Institution, has taken the unusual step of putting on hold a $5 million donation from the American Petroleum Institute over worries that the money from the oil industry could taint a program on the world's oceans.
According to a recent story in the Washington Post, the donation raised a red flag for two members of the Smithsonian's Board of Regents. One, Roger Sant, a former energy industry executive himself, citing oil spills like the Exxon Valdez, told the Post: "I think it is in everyone's mind that oceans and oil are not consistent."
Sant is the largest donor for the "Ocean Initiative," slated to open a major Ocean Hall exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History in late 2008, along with a multimedia Web site. He is also is a billionaire who made his money through AES, a power company he founded. AES is a member of API.
API has given the Smithsonian about $200,000 in recent years, and on August 29 signed a $5 million, five-year sponsorship agreement for the oceans program, pending approval by the Board of Regents.
The board has put off voting on whether to deny the donation until November 16.
The last time the Smithsonian publicly rejected a major donation was a $5 million gift from Saudi Arabia in 1985 that would have funded a Center for Islamic Arts and Culture, after lawmakers and others objected.
One should wonder if rising prices and speculation by investors will eventually lead to all energy becoming regulated, like electricity has been. Attempts to deregulate electricity have generally failed to lower consumer costs. After years of benign prices energy is in danger of affecting national economies.
I think the oil industry is still running good, but not for so long. The price for example is one tuning for the demand, in maybe 3 years the prices will be difficult to buy the same quantity of gas that we buy today, and if we include the tax incentives, getting away, maybe will be impossible drive our cars with gas. Maybe the gas will be only for the industry, not for the customers.