DNC: Senator Stevens Wants Special Christmas Gifts for Naughty Special ..

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2005

Contact: Josh Earnest
202-863-8148

Senator Stevens Wants Special Christmas Gifts for Naughty Special Interests

Washington, DC - Apparently, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens doesn't believe
in Santa's rule about the naughty kids not getting Christmas gifts.

Today, even as Senator Stevens continued to inject special interest perks for
Big Oil into Senate legislation to properly fund our military, an Alaska
state government agency accused oil companies in Alaska of illegally conspiring
to slow the transport of natural gas and artificially drive-up already sky-high
prices.

According to a report in today's Wall Street Journal, the Alaska Gasline Port
Authority filed a lawsuit accusing BP and Exxon Mobil of illegally conspiring
to
choke the flow of natural gas out of Alaska and into the lower 48 states to
reduce natural gas supplies and increase natural gas prices. (Wall Street
Journal, 10/20/05)

The state's legal action prompted Walter Hickel, a Republican, and a former
Alaska Governor and Interior Secretary to say that the suit "reveals a story
of
extreme corporate greed that has abused Alaska and punished the American
consumer."

Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Josh Earnest criticized Senator
Stevens for holding up critically needed funding for our troops to reward his
special interest friends - even as those special interests are being accused by
officials in his home state of illegally driving up energy prices:

"Holding up critical national defense funding for our men and women in uniform
is bad. Holding up critical national defense funding in order to insert a perk
for special interests is even worse. Holding up critical national defense
funding to get a special perk for energy companies that are conspiring to
gouge
Americans at the gas pump is the Republican culture of corruption at its worst.

"Millions of American families are scaling back their holiday budgets this
year, because of the spike in energy prices. Now, Senator Stevens is
withholding funding for our troops to reward the same energy companies that are
accused by officials in his home state of making the energy price problem
worse.

"America can do better than Republican senators who are playing games with
military funding and rewarding oil companies accused of price gouging. It's
time for Senator Stevens to withdraw his special interest amendment and join
Democrats in passing badly needed funding for our men and women in uniform."

###

**********

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.
org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's
committee.