FBN's Bolling hosts George Allen to criticize oil moratorium without noting his oil industry ties

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

Yesterday on Fox Business' Money Rocks (yes, that's the actual name), host and GOP booster Eric Bolling spent eight long minutes discussing oil with former Sen. George Allen (R-VA), who argued against an oil drilling moratorium and the “cap and trade scheme.” Left unmentioned by Bolling: Allen's organization received backing from the oil industry, and his political strategies company says it provides “lobbying counsel, consulting and strategic advice on a range of issues including energy.”

During the segment, on-screen text identified Allen as the founder of American Energy Freedom Center and Bolling noted Allen's position with the group.

According to its website, AEFC “is a project of the Institute for Energy Research.” George Allen's website states of AEFC: “Associated with the Institute for Energy Research, the American Energy Freedom Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization

The Washington Post reported of Allen in 2009: “These days, he says, he is focused on his consulting business, his book and the work of his think tank, which is a project of the oil-industry-funded Institute for Energy Research. The aim of the nonprofit, nonpartisan group is to promote a conservative vision for the country's energy future, Allen says.”

As Media Matters noted, ExxonMobil Corp. has disclosed that it has provided funding for the institute. Further, the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation -- the president of which is an executive vice president of Koch Industries, whose subsidiaries “have been in the petroleum business since 1940” -- donated $85,000 in grants to the institute between 1997 and 2005, according Internal Revenue Service data compiled by mediatransparency.org, a website of the Media Matters Action Network.

Allen is also the president of the conveniently-named George Allen Strategies LLC, which states that it provides “insightful and effective lobbying counsel, consulting and strategic advice on a range of issues including energy, technology and business development.”

None of these oil and energy ties were mentioned during the segment. In the language of Eric Bolling, that does not “rock.”