Gingrich lies about migratory birds for Big Oil

United States Republican party presidential candidate Newt Gingrich does not just insult newts. He lies about birds as well.

This video from the USA says about itself:

In 1997, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) estimated that 2 million migratory birds were lost each year to oil pits throughout the United States.

From the Statesman Journal in the USA:

Fact Check: Gingrich energy ad errs on facts

9:00 PM, Feb. 25, 2012

WASHINGTON — A 28-minute political ad offers a candidate something sound bites can never capture — a chance to explore a subject in depth.

But in the case of Newt Gingrich’s unusual extended commercial on American energy policy, it just means more time for mistakes.

In the ad, Gingrich offers a pain-free prescription for cheap energy that betrays a misunderstanding of how oil markets work, blames President Barack Obama for suppressing development that is actually on the rise, criticizes a dependence on Iranian oil that doesn’t exist and misstates the facts behind the deaths of migratory birds in oil waste pits in North Dakota. …

Here are some of Gingrich’s claims and how they compare with the facts: …

GINGRICH: “In North Dakota, where the developments are on private land so the liberals have not been able to stop them, the Obama U.S. attorney for North Dakota filed a lawsuit because eight migratory birds had been found dead near oil fields.”

THE FACTS: In August 2011, U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon — an Obama appointee and top Democratic activist — charged seven oil companies with killing 28 migratory birds in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Some of the birds were not found “near oil fields” as Gingrich claims, but were discovered drenched in oil in waste pits, which birds and waterfowl land in after mistaking them for ponds. In North Dakota, such waste pits have multiplied in the state’s drilling boom.

Prosecutors have dismissed charges against one company, and a federal judge in September dismissed charges and rejected plea agreements for the other six firms. The U.S. attorney plans an appeal.

All seven companies had previously been fined for violating the same law, and some of those enforcement cases had been filed under previous administrations. Bird deaths from oil pits can be avoided by simply covering the open tanks with netting, federal inspectors say.

The Justice Department has also brought criminal proceedings against oil companies for breaking the law prior to Obama’s tenure.

Newt Gingrich on Drugs. Mike Ludwig, Truthout: “Irina Alexander is a young activist with a college education. When she approached Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich at a New Hampshire town hall and asked if she should be arrested for being a recreational drug user, Gingrich told her, ‘… no, you shouldn’t be arrested for being a recreational drug user, but you also shouldn’t do it.’ Does this mean Gingrich could support drug decriminalization and deescalating the war on drugs and people who use them? Well, no”: here.

US democracy up for grabs by moneybags under new laws: here.

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