103 energy people met with Abraham Southern, Mirant on adviser list
Eric Sundquist and Matthew C. Quinn - Staff
Friday, March 29, 2002
" No environmentalists were included in the meetings with Abraham."
At least 103 industry representatives met with Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham last year while a White House task force was formulating energy
policy, a government watchdog group reported Thursday.
Among the industry names on the list was Haley Barbour, who lobbies for
Atlanta-based Southern Co. Also on the list was Mirant Corp., an Atlanta-based
energy company created and spun off by Southern.
Sixty-four names were culled from documents released by the Energy
Department under court order this week, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics. They are in addition to the 39 business executives and lobbyists whom
the department previously acknowledged had met with Abraham. Barbour and
Mirant appear on the list of 64, as does bankrupt energy trader Enron.
Critics have charged that the task force, chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney,
was too heavily influenced by the energy industry. Some administration policies
came directly from industry memos, according to the Natural Resources
Defense Council, an environmental group that obtained a court order to get the
documents.
No environmentalists were included in the meetings with Abraham.
The industry representatives who met with the energy secretary have financial
ties to the Bush administration and Republican Party. From 1999 to 2002, the
103 individuals and organizations donated more than $22 million to GOP causes,
compared with $7 million to the Democrats, the center reported.
Barbour is a former Republican national chairman. He and his wife, Marsha,
donated $35,675 to the GOP during the period.
It was unclear if he was representing Southern or some other interest when he
met with Abraham. He could not be reached Thursday.
Mirant gave $89,250 to the Republicans and $50,650 to the Democrats from
1999 to this year.
James Peters, spokesman for Mirant, said company staff members took part in
task force meetings that were "general in nature." The participants included
representatives of other companies, he said. "We feel that dialog about long-term
energy needs for the U.S. is important."
Southern Co. was not listed, but an e-mail found among thousands of pages of
newly released documents showed that one of its lobbyists had pushed to
weaken an air-pollution rule, a position the task force adopted. The Natural
Resources Defense Council cited that e-mail as an example of what it said was
the administration's willingness to relax environmental rules at the behest of
energy industry friends.
Southern's chief executive on Thursday denied that the company had undue
influence in formulating policy.
"I wish we had as much influence as people think," Allen Franklin said.
Franklin said the task force hardly granted Southern's wish list.
The company would have preferred a "stronger endorsement" of coal as an
energy source, he said. Southern Co. also opposed the administration's
endorsement of a restructuring of the electric utility industry and national
electricity transmission grid, Franklin said.
He added that it "just seems odd" that it has become a major news story that an
energy company such as Southern would be involved in federal energy policy.
Southern Co. relies on coal-burning power plants for 72 percent of its electricity,
Franklin said, so naturally it's interested in regulations that would affect the
operations of those plants.
Franklin said the air pollution issue raised in the e-mail is "huge" for Southern
and its shareholders.
Significant" rate increases for customers of Georgia Power and other Southern
Co. utilities could result if the environmental provision is not changed, he said.
--- Washington reporter George Edmonson contributed to this article.
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