[Lamplighter]

Your congress in action - working for the good of (his) people

NY Times
ERIC LIPTON
12/3/11

As Gas Riches Remake Plains, Lawmaker Shares in Bounty

The spreading wealth from gas fields has also benefited Representative Dan Boren,
a Democrat who has deep family ties to the industry
— and has acted as one of its best friends on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Boren’s stepfather is an independent oil and natural gas producer in East Texas, just over the border.
His father, David Boren, a former senator and Oklahoma governor, received $350,000 last year
in total compensation for serving on the board of Continental Resources,
whose stock has surged while it helps lead the exploration of gas reserves nationwide.<snip>

Mr. Boren was among the 41 House Democrats who joined Republicans
in 2005 to pass legislation that largely prohibited the federal government
from regulating fracking under the Safe Water Drinking Act,
and he has repeatedly pushed the Obama administration since then to keep the prohibition in place.<snip>

The congressman’s income has jumped in the last six years, thanks to two family businesses
he partly owns that have signed more than 300 mineral leases,
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Many of those deals are with Chesapeake Energy, a top donor to his campaigns.<snip>

Between 2005, when Mr. Boren entered Congress, and 2011, his family
signed 325 oil and gas leases on thousands of acres of mineral rights;
in the previous five years they signed only 35, according to state records.<snip>

Serving as co-chairman of the House Natural Gas Caucus, Mr. Boren has worked
to block any move by federal regulators to restrain the drilling and efforts
by the Obama administration to curtail tax benefits for the gas and oil industries.
He has also pushed for federal incentives to increase demand for natural gas.

And he sees no problem with entangling his professional advocacy and his self-interest.
“There’s zero conflict,” Mr. Boren said in an interview.
“It’s like if you are living in a timber community and your parents are working for the local mill.
You should go and advocate for your local mill, even if you derive some benefit from it.”