Bush Energy Task Force Consulted Environmentalists
11-Apr-2002 2:10:15 GMT
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Energy Department consulted
environmentalists while working on the Bush administration's
energy policy last year, but in a rushed effort well after
industry executives had their say, government documents
released on Wednesday showed.
Environmentalists have complained they were largely snubbed
by administration officials who held dozens of meetings with
executives from oil, coal and utility companies last year while
the administration drafted an energy policy widely perceived as
pro-industry.
But the papers released on Wednesday showed the Energy
Department did reach out to environmentalists such as the
Sierra Club and Greenpeace -- but not until late March, two
months after the administration's energy task force was created
and after many energy industry executives had made their
suggestions about policy to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
The 950 pages were the second installment of documents
released as a result of federal court orders in cases brought
by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental
group, and Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm.
Dan Becker of the Sierra Club, an environmentalist called
by Energy Department official Peter Karpoff and asked for his
views, said he did not feel the consultation was serious.
"This was extremely late in the process, and this guy
called up, introduced himself and said he had to get the
information in 24 hours," Becker, head of the Sierra Club's
global warming and energy program, told Reuters on Wednesday
after the documents were released.
"I got the sense it was a pro forma request so they could
say they got our input," Becker said. He said he made seven
recommendations about energy policy, none of which ended up in
the administration's energy plan.
The Bush energy task force, headed by Vice President Dick
Cheney, produced a policy in mid-May which called for more oil
and gas drilling, as well as a revival of nuclear power.
Environmentalists immediately complained that they were
largely left out of the policy-making and began seeking the
task force documents, ultimately going to court to get them.
"NEED BY FRIDAY NOON"
A March 21 memo released with the batch of documents
instructs Karpoff to contact 11 environmental groups and get
their policy ideas "by Friday noon" -- two days later.
But the memo also suggests that only ideas that fit in with
the administration's existing attitudes should be forwarded up
the chain of command.
"Can you contact these groups and get them to send you any
energy policy options they are advocating?" the memo asks.
"Can you then review the proposals and recommend some we
might like to support that are consistent with the
administration statements to date?"
The memo is from Margot Anderson, deputy assistant
secretary for policy in the department's Office of Policy and
International Affairs.
An Energy Department spokeswoman acknowledged Abraham had
met energy executives, while lower level department officials
talked to environmentalists about the energy plan.
But she noted the energy task force was an
inter-departmental effort, and said some environmentalists had
met the head of the Interior Department and the Environmental
Protection Agency while the plan was being developed.
"This was part of an ongoing process," she said. She also
rejected the notion that environmentalists were contacted late,
saying it was March 29 when staff from various departments
first met to hash out recommendations for the energy plan.
Anderson also complained not all of the environmentalists
were responsive.
"In general, we encountered a lack of responsiveness to the
offer to submit ideas ... reflected in the paucity of callbacks
and the occasional response of 'check our web site,"' she wrote
in a letter to the General Accounting Office in August.
By that time the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress,
was also seeking details of the energy task force. It has since
filed suit against the White House and that suit is pending.
The Energy Department on March 25 released the first set of
11,000 pages of documents related to the energy plan.
The NRDC and Judicial Watch say they will contest in court
the department's claim that it could not release another 15,000
pages of documents because they reflects internal discussions.
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