GOP Donors Lobbied Hard on Energy
Politics: Green groups, largely left out of the policy planning process, say the
documents show the Bush team favored industry interests.
Los Angeles Times
March 27, 2002
THE NATION
By RICHARD SIMON and ELIZABETH SHOGREN, TIMES STAFF WRITERS
WASHINGTON -- A review of newly released government records
shows that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, while working on the
administration's national energy plan, met with more industry officials
than his aides had previously reported.
Many of the special interests that lobbied the administration while the
plan was being drafted were big campaign contributors to the
Republican Party.
A day after the
Energy Department
and other agencies
released 16,000
pages of records
that had been
sought under the
Freedom of
Information Act, the legal and political fracas
intensified over how much influence industry
lobbyists and campaign contributors wielded in
shaping the administration's energy policy.
Environmentalists, who documents show did
not get an audience with Abraham, said the
material supported their contention that the
policy was drawn up to favor the coal, gas, oil
and nuclear industries.
"The overwhelming evidence is that the Bush administration listened to their campaign contributors
when they weighed in with their wish lists of policies," said Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra
Club's global warming and energy program.
But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer responded that environmentalists' views were included,
citing a $3-billion provision to promote hybrid fuel-cell vehicles, and he downplayed Abraham's
meetings with energy companies.
"News flash: It's no surprise to anybody that the secretary of Energy meets with energy-related
groups," Fleischer said.
The release of the documents did nothing to calm the debate over whether the White House should
have to identify individuals who met with Vice President Dick Cheney and other task force
members and to disclose what was discussed in those meetings.
Recent court rulings required only the Energy Department and other agencies to release documents
related to the task force, formally known as the National Energy Policy Development Group.
Because much of the information on the documents released Monday was deleted, Judicial Watch,
a conservative watchdog group that had sued to obtain the material, vowed to go back to court to
make the administration justify the omissions and explain why it withheld 15,000 additional
documents.
Recommendations from government officials on policy options were deleted from the documents,
because, the Energy Department argues, they are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act as
part of the "deliberative process."
Environmental groups said they had requested meetings with Cheney and Abraham and were turned
down.
Representatives of those groups did meet a handful of times with lower-ranking officials, including
one large meeting April 4 with Andrew Lundquist, the task force's executive director.
The meeting with Lundquist merely gave the environmentalists time to introduce themselves, Becker
said. Lundquist then asked them to send their ideas in writing.
"Contrast that with the Exxons, Enrons and General Motors of the world. They were consulted
early, throughout and late--and got what they wanted," said the Sierra Club's Becker.
The documents show that Abraham met with more than the 36 representatives of business interests
that his aides listed on an attachment Monday.
Those meetings, held from Feb. 9 to May 10 of last year, included groups such as the Nuclear
Energy Institute, which has contributed $436,154 to Republicans since 1999, and executives of
Excelon Corp., which contributed $937,386, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Abraham's own schedule shows at least 20 additional meetings with lobbyists, oil and coal industry
representatives.
Abraham met Feb. 21 with representatives of the American Petroleum Institute and five oil
companies, including the president of Anadarko Petroleum, which has contributed $838,921 to the
GOP since 1999, and the president of Chevron Texaco, which has contributed more than $1.6
million to the GOP since 1999.
In total, Abraham met with industry groups and lobbyists that have contributed more than $17
million to politicians since 1999, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. More than $12.6
million of that total went to Republicans.
The documents indicate that key energy officials frequently sought information from lobbyists and
industry groups as they were preparing the administration plan.
There are several groups of e-mail volleys between Joseph T. Kelliher, senior policy advisor and
chief coordinator of the agency's efforts on the energy plan, and lobbyists or representatives from
various energy industries. Kelliher was nominated in October as a member of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission.
For instance, Linda Stuntz, an energy lawyer and lobbyist and former senior official in the first Bush
administration's Energy Department, e-mailed Kelliher on May 21, replying to his request for
"concrete examples" of states having trouble siting transmission lines.
She offered a Southern California example--the Rainbow Valley Project, which she said long had
tried unsuccessfully to site 31 miles of transmission lines connecting Romoland to San Diego
County.
"I think what [Kelliher] was doing was asking us to be a resource," Stuntz said Tuesday.
Stuntz also reached out to Kelliher, whom she described as a personal friend, to ensure that the
energy plan made electricity grid standards mandatory.
Both issues were priorities for one of Stuntz's clients, the North American Electric Reliability
Council, which represents all public and private utilities.
Times staff writer Edwin Chen and researcher Robert Patrick contributed to this report.
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