Top G.O.P. Donors in Energy Industry Met Cheney Panel
The New York Times
Page 1, The National Edition
March 1, 2002
( Energy Companies' Access, See graph on Page A15)
By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and NEELA BANERJEE
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 -
Eighteen of the energy
industry's top 25 financial
contributors to the Republican
Party advised Vice President Dick
Cheney's national energy task
force last year, according to
interviews and election records.
Critics of the Bush
administration's energy policy
have long suspected that many of
the corporations that were invited
to advise the White House were
large energy concerns that had
contributed heavily to President
Bush's campaign and the
Republican Party in 2000.
The
White House has refused to
release the names of the
companies and individuals
consulted during the formulation
of the administration's energy
policy last spring. It has been
sued for the information.
But interviews and task force
correspondence demonstrate an
apparent correlation between
large campaign contributions and
access to Mr. Cheney's task force.
Of the top 25 energy industry
donors to the Republican Party
before the November 2000
election, 18 corporations sent
executives or representatives to
meet with Mr. Cheney, the task force chairman, or
members of the task force and its staff. The companies
include the Enron Corporation, the
Southern Company, the Exelon Corporation,
BP, the TXU Corporation,
FirstEnergy, and Anadarko Petroleum.
Critics of the process said that President Bush and Mr.
Cheney were quick to respond to executives from the
energy sector not only because of campaign contributions
but also because they share the philosophy of the oil
patch, where both made fortunes.
"It's this bunch of guys in energy who say, `Boo! We don't
like this,' and the Bush administration says, `Well, they
elected us,' " said Eric Schaeffer, who was chief of
regulatory enforcement for the Environmental Protection
Agency until his resignation on Wednesday. "This is a
natural alliance. The administration didn't need a lot of
persuading."
Mr. Schaeffer, who worked at the E.P.A. for 12 years,
resigned over what he called lax enforcement of clean air
laws.
The energy task force produced a report on May 17, 2001,
that sketched out a national energy policy that was largely
favorable to the energy industry. The report recommended
additional oil and gas drilling and made note of the
nation's need to build 1,300 to 1,900 electric plants to
meet the projected demand over the next two decades.
Next week, the Senate begins deliberations on the Bush
administration's energy bill, which has already been
passed by the House.
The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of
Congress, sued Mr. Cheney last week to force him to turn
over lists of the executives who had advised the task force.
A federal judge has ordered the Energy Department to
release 7,500 pages of documents related to the task force
under a Freedom of Information Act request by the
Natural Resources Defense Council.
The government sought to dismiss another suit today from
Judicial Watch, a legal watchdog group here, which had
requested thousands of pages of documents relating to
the task force from federal agencies. A federal judge
allowed the suit to go forward, and the group said it has
received some of the documents.
Two Congressional Democrats are trying to learn the level
of influence that industry executives may have had on the
White House's national energy policy.
Mary Matalin, counselor to Mr. Cheney, said the task
force also consulted with trade groups and other
organizations, including labor unions, that did not give
money to the Republican Party.
"Not everyone who got access were contributors or
supporters," Ms. Matalin said. "No one ever got on the
schedule for any other reason than their expertise in the
field of energy."
But energy industry officials expressed some wonderment
at Mr. Cheney's adamant refusal to release the list of
executives he met with. They said meetings between
industry officials and the White House have long been
routine, even in Democratic administrations, and that the
list of corporations that advised the task force was hardly
an industry secret. Several said a list of the top financial
supporters of the Bush-Cheney ticket would reveal some,
if not all, of the most influential voices on energy policy.
An oil industry executive suggested that as long as the
White House withheld the list of those who talked to the
task force, suspicion about secret agendas would tar the
energy industry itself. "I understand philosophically why
the vice president may be doing this," the executive said,
"but this sure puts us in a pickle."
Mr. Cheney has argued that releasing the identities of
outside advisers on energy policy would make it
impossible to have confidential conversations and receive
unvarnished advice from those outside the government.
More than 400 corporations and groups sought meetings
with the energy task force last spring. About half that
number were granted access, a group that included 158
energy companies and corporate trade associations, 22
labor unions, 13 environmental groups and a consumer
organization, task force staff members have said.
Some environmental groups have complained that the
process was tilted toward industry. The leaders of many
groups have said Mr. Cheney's office turned down their
requests to meet with him. Instead, midlevel staff
members from the groups met with energy task force staff
members.
The Sierra Club met with the task force before the report
was released on May 17. Two weeks later, Carl Pope, the
group's executive director, met again at the White House
for 30 minutes with Mr. Cheney.
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