Transocean hires U.S. lobby firm to work Congress

This article, which was written on May 13, 2010, summarizes the issues Transocean is dealing with regarding the explosion of the oil rig right off of the shores of Louisiana. Because of these issues, Transocean hired a United States lobby firm to work Congress to back their situation. The firm, called Capitol Hill Consulting Group registered as a lobbyist for Transocean and is hoping to smooth out the conflict between BP, Transocean, and Halliburton. Each of the oil rig powers are blaming each other for the horrific accident, so Transocean took it upon themselves to lobby Congress for a positive result. In the past, Transocean has donated less than $100,000 on lobbying tax issues, but since the accident, employees and others have spent a little more than $10,000 in campaign contributions to members of the House and Senate to gain backing from the government. Hopefully for Transocean, the Capitol Hill Consulting Group will appear in front of the Senate and House of Representatives oversight committees in order to gain support, an answer as to who is to blame, and possibly funding to fix the problem that the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon has caused on the environment and the lives of others. This article was significant to our studies of interest groups and the study of lobbying and congress. Interest groups would lobby Congress to get their voices heard and rally support, just as Transocean is lobbying Congress to rally support for their company (even if it means throwing BP and Halliburton under the bus). If this technique works to the advantage of Transocean, the blame will be lifted from their shoulders and onto those of the other group. I sure do hope it works, because as long as these three groups keep disregarding their involvement in this tragedy and the less government gets involved, the more time we are wasting watching our environment fade away.

Photo Credit

Article Credit May 13, 2010