One side fits all
The records made public Monday, under order of two federal judges, were
heavily edited (in fact, some were blank), and the Energy Department is still
withholding 2,600 documents totaling 15,000 pages. It's fair to surmise that
the most embarrassing records are still under wraps -- among them those
dealing with meetings between Mr. Cheney and Enron CEO Kenneth Lay.
Louisville Courier Journal
March 27, 2002
PRESIDENT Bush recently defended meetings between his administration's
energy task force and energy companies. "If you're developing an energy
plan, one place to start is to listen to people who know something about the
business," he said. "We also listened to environmental groups."
Well, not exactly.
The first release of documents and e-mail messages related to the task force
headed by Vice President Dick Cheney -- including 11,000 pages from the
Energy Department -- indicate that the gathering of facts and the weighing of
perspectives were astonishingly one-sided.
In the most deplorable example, <b<Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met
with 36 representatives of business interests between Feb. 14 and April 26 of
last year, but held not a single session with environmental or consumer
groups.
That explains a lot -- both why the Bush energy plan turned out the way it
did, and why the administration is so resistant to releasing full records of its
study.
The administration's energy proposals, which were issued last May, focused
almost entirely on increasing production of fossil fuels and virtually ignored
conservation. The plan proposed relaxing regulations and granting subsidies
for the coal and nuclear industries, drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge and building between 1,300 and 1,900 power plants
during the next 20 years.
The House passed a bill in August that incorporated most of these ideas. The
Senate is to take up its own version, which is weighted more toward
conservation, after the Easter recess. It is imperative that the Senate adopt a
more balanced approach that protects environmental and consumer
interests.
The records made public Monday, under order of two federal judges, were
heavily edited (in fact, some were blank), and the Energy Department is still
withholding 2,600 documents totaling 15,000 pages. It's fair to surmise that
the most embarrassing records are still under wraps -- among them those
dealing with meetings between Mr. Cheney and Enron CEO Kenneth Lay.
Sunshine is looked upon with disfavor by administration officials, perhaps
because it suggests to them only an unprofitable, non-fossil energy source.
But Congress and public interest groups should press the fight for release of
all the energy task forces records until the full story is brought to light.
courier-journal.com |
