Newsom (SF Mayor), wife invested in BP's gulf oil rig

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San Francisco Chronical:

It turns out that San Francisco's eco-conscious Mayor Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, own a piece of the deepwater rig at the center of the gulf oil disaster.

According to the mayor's most recently filed economic disclosure statement, last year the couple invested between $10,000 and $100,000 in Transocean Inc. - the company whose ruptured deepwater rig, which is leased to BP, is spewing millions of gallons of oil, endangering wildlife and beaches all along the Gulf Coast.

Just last month, Newsom told the San Diego area East County Magazine that "the environmental catastrophe devastating the Gulf of Mexico is a tragic reminder of why we must take a stand against the oil companies and oppose all offshore drilling off California's precious coast."

The Jennifer Lynn Siebel Trust also listed a half dozen other $10,000-to-$100,000 energy-related investments, including stock held last year in three companies involved in oil and gas exploration: Dorchester Minerals, Resolute Energy and Schlumberger Ltd.

The portfolio also includes stock in Petroleo Brasileiro, Brazil's largely state-owned oil company that has been looking

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More two face politicians. Do as I say, not as I do.

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An oil industry-funded initiative headed to the November state ballot that would quash California's air pollution regulations drew the ire of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and environmental groups Wednesday.

 

Newsom and members of the Sierra Club, The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund and San Francisco Baykeeper spoke out against the measure at Pier 7 in San Francisco against a backdrop of the San Francisco Bay, the site of the 53,000-gallon Cosco Busan oil spill in 2007.

 

"This is shameful," Newsom said of the campaign, which has been largely paid for by the Texas-based Valero and Tesoro oil companies.

 

Newsom said the oil companies had already spent millions to defeat AB 32, and he expected much more in the coming months.

 

"This is serious business," Newsom said. "This is an outrage. As a Californian, I'm offended."

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But Dorner said San Francisco's program could be something the organization would support. "I think that sounds like exactly the right kind of step that should be taken in terms of verifiable and meaningful carbon offsets," he said.

 

For Newsom, the offset program is another way to position the city and himself as environmental leaders.

[NCTexan]

last year the couple invested between $10,000 and $100,000 in Transocean Inc.

That's a gap as deep as the Gulf itself. Quite a range in these numbers.