Bono’s big boner

September 21, 2010 13:16


Bono announced how happy he was with oil revenue transparency provision which makes oil and mining companies disclose any government payments to the SEC.

‘Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) won a measure in the Wall Street law approved months ago that forces many oil and mining companies to provide the Securities and Exchange Commission information on payments to foreign governments for production licenses and other aspects of energy and mineral projects’ according to an article in The Hill.

In a weekend New York Times op-ed Bono said:

“I’m pleased to give you an update on an intervention that some of us thought of and fought for as critical: hidden somewhere in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill (admit it … you haven’t read it all either) there is a hugely significant ‘transparency’ amendment, added by Senators Richard Lugar and Benjamin Cardin. Now energy companies traded on American exchanges will have to reveal every payment they make to government officials. If money changes hands, it will happen in the open. This is the kind of daylight that makes the cockroaches scurry,”

Although Bono joked about no one having read the bill maybe he should have. While Lugar and Cardin relished in the praise from the leftist Bono who has connections through Earth First to Human Rights Watch, everyone seems to have missed the fact that the SEC does not have to disclose any information even under the Freedom of Information Act. ‘The section exempts the SEC from disclosing information it receives during examinations of companies if the commission is using that information for “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.”‘ according to IB Times.com.

Although that little nugget was not in either the House or Senate version it was somehow slipped in during the reconciliation. No one has yet taken credit for adding the SEC FOIA waiver according to Fox News. Conceivably the SEC could use this provision to selectively release information to pressure companies to do what it asks without having to resort to the courts.

Sorry Bono, unless you’re on the inside at the SEC you still won’t see ‘the kind of daylight that makes the cockroaches scurry’.

-Editor



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