Washington State Democratic Chairs Organization

I am disgusted that the media has done so little to explain and comment on the benchmark which is said to be the bill to ensure fair distribution of oil revenues among the competing factions of Iraq, but really is about making sure that Western oil corporations control the developement of 70% of Iraq's oil reserves.

The developement would be controlled by 30 year developement contracts which would not require that Iraqi drilling companies to be used and would only return 15% of the proceeds to the Iraq national Oil company.

The oil fields are a proven resource and are very shallow, experts estimate that developement costs would be less than $!.00 per barrel.

A Gold mine for who ever gets it, and of course Iraqi labor unions and the Parliment are doing some serious foot dragging.

We need to write our good Senators and Reps, and urge them to disavow this benchmark.