The Golden Jackpot is given in recognition of indefensible government decisions that benefit special interests at the expense of the public interest. Rep. Waxman explained that there were two outstanding nominees for the award. That's a pretty good reward for a management team that both helped create the California energy crisis and drove the company into bankruptcy. The second nominee, President Bush, has been faced with a choice on gasoline for California. By granting a waiver the state requested regarding oxygenate requirements, he could have lowered gasoline prices, increased gasoline supply, and ensured that gasoline would cause less air pollution.
Special interests win and California families take it on the chin.
In 1999, California Governor Gray Davis requested the waiver. California presented EPA with exhaustive scientific, technical, and analytical documentation supporting the environmental and economic benefits to California that relief from the oxygenate mandate would provide. Relief from the mandate would allow refiners to produce gasoline that meets the Clean Air Act requirements for emission reductions, but does not use MTBE, which contaminates drinking water, or ethanol, which drives up the cost of gasoline. The first Golden Jackpot award was presented on March 28 to the mining industry and EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman for the incomprehensible decision to allow more arsenic in our drinking water. The second award was presented on April 4 to President Bush and Vice President Cheney on behalf of the entire Bush Cabinet for their plans to completely repeal the estate tax, which would save President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and the Bush Cabinet hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.