Pleading for mercy from the Senate's Energy Subcommittee, Texas oil producers claim that the Obama administration's planned tax changes for oil and gas would cost just their big ol' state $20 billion over the next four years.

Up to 70,000 oil patch workers would lose their jobs, and the whole industry would collapse. Supposedly backing up those hyperbolic claims by the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers (TAEP) is a study it commissioned and sent straight to Congress.

The problem? Sweetheart tax breaks the industry's independent producers (not the few giant oil companies) have historically gotten are in danger, and there just ain't no way out no how, the oilmen argue.

"The repeal of the tax provisions would be a quick death, while cap-and-trade would be a slower death," TAEP says.

Looks like the oil and gas industry's been pumping a dry hole on Capitol Hill, considering all the money it's spent on rigging — oil rigging, that is. The oil and gas sector poured a record amount of campaign cash into D.C. pols — $35 million — during the 2008 election cycle. Of course, only 33 percent went to Democrats. Oops.