[Senator Clay Davis]

A conspiracy? The medical lobby in the US has done everything in its power to ensure public health care is defeated, and that practices like denying pre-existing conditions succeed. Would you not say that has a major public benefit? Yet the government only just passed health care, which just as quickly may be repealed.

Oil and Gas companies clearly have a vested interest in ensuring oil is the energy resource of choice. And their shareholders equally would like to see oil and gas continue to thrive and deliver record profits. Its not a conspiracy, its reality. Is it as bad here in Canada? Not really, but to act like interest groups don't have influence is silly.

Bringing European politics into this is irrelavent as they obviously operating under totally different political conditons than here in North America. And for the record, Exxons 2.5 billion barrells represents $490 billion (billion!) dollars in revenue. So yeah, I'd say they'd be concerned to lose that.