Thursday, November 15, 2012

Big Oil Cries Foul Over Anti-corruption Efforts

A U.S. financial regulator dismissed a challenge from groups advocating on behalf of the petroleum industry who said transparency rules regarding payments made to foreign governments put them at a competitive disadvantage. U.S. lawmakers in 2010 supported rules to combat corruption overseas through tightened disclosure rules. The energy industry, led by the American Petroleum Industry, challenged the measure but came up empty handed.
U.S. President Barack Obama in 2010 signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in response to the economic recession brought on by the mortgage crisis in the late 2000s. A provision that grew out of the measure aims to tackle corruption overseas by requiring members of the so-called extractive industries to provide a detailed account of the payments they make to foreign governments.
The American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce led a challenge to the ruling, saying it put them at a competitive disadvantage in a globalized energy sector where state-owned energy companies may lack complementary safeguards. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, however, ruled against the industry by saying the Dodd-Frank measure wouldn't cause "irreparable harm" to their business interests.

Read more: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Big-Oil-Cries-Foul-Over-Anti-corruption-Efforts.html

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