Cheney confounded over energy secrets
"This is going to expose the Bush energy plan for what it is: payback for polluters."
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday March 1, 2002
The Guardian
Environmentalists claimed a significant victory over the Bush
administration yesterday after a federal judge ordered the
release of documents on secret contacts between a government
taskforce on energy policy and industry officials.
The judge, Gladys Kessler, ruled that the release of the 7,500
pages of potentially embarrassing documents was in the
"extraordinary public interest" - overriding the ruling of Vice
President Dick Cheney, who led the taskforce, that disclosure
would infringe on "executive privilege". She told the energy
department to hand over the files by March 25.
The ruling in the US district court in Washington represented a
victory for the Natural Resources Defence Council, an
environmental pressure group which had gone to court to
demand the documents' release.
The NRDC had first requested the documents from the energy
department under the Freedom of Information Act, but had not
received a response. Judge Kessler ruled that "there can be little
question that the department of energy has been woefully tardy"
in its treatment of the request.
The auditing arm of Congress, the general accounting office
(GAO), is pursuing a parallel lawsuit to force Mr Cheney to
release details of which companies his taskforce had consulted
before drawing up a comprehensive energy plan.
That plan is currently being considered in the Senate, where
Democrat majority leaders have taken a stand against it,
denouncing it as soft on the nation's worst polluters. Democrats
and environmentalists have accused the Bush White House of
allowing the energy industry - including the disgraced and now
bankrupt Enron corporation - disproportionate influence over the
drafting of policy, as a reward for substantial campaign
contributions to Republican candidates in the 2000 elections.
Energy departments said they would hand over the papers.
"We've always said we would comply and have worked diligently
to do so," a spokeswoman said.
The ruling only affects meetings and correspondence involving
energy department employees who were seconded to the
Cheney taskforce in the first few months of the year. The parallel
GAO case covers all administration officials, including those
from the White House.
An NRDC lawyer, Sharon Buccino, told the Washington Post:
"Justice is finally served - This is going to expose the Bush
energy plan for what it is: payback for polluters."
guardian.co.uk |
