Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met 10 times with representatives of energy companies and other industries while the Bush administration worked on its energy policy, but he apparently met with no environmental or consumer groups during that same period, according to documents released Monday as part of an environmental lawsuit.
Abraham met with organizations ranging from the National Association of Manufacturers to the Nuclear Energy Institute to coal producers, all for the purpose of discussing national energy policy. Two meetings took place after the policy was released last May 16.
But specifics from much of the 11,000 pages released Monday under court order were edited out of the documents. The government said the redaction was permissible under the Freedom of Information Act, but critics accused the administration of withholding key information.
Democrats and environmental groups have long complained that Bush’s energy policy was created in close consultation with industry groups, while environmentalists and others were left in the cold. They said Monday’s documents vindicated them.
“The facts speak for themselves,” said Sharon Buccino, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, the organization that brought the lawsuit that forced the release of the documents. “There don’t appear to be environmental representatives listed, and the secretary appears to have spent most of his time meeting with industry representatives, according to Energy’s own documents.”
Energy Department officials insisted they considered a wide range of views. The Bush energy plan incorporated 47 percent of the defense council’s recommendations, department officials said, compared to 16 percent from the American Petroleum Institute, for example.
“The information released today will only further confirm that it was indeed a balanced plan that not only sought but included all viewpoints,” Abraham said.
The list of Abraham’s meetings outlined in the documents may whet administration critics’ appetite for the list of companies that met with Vice President Dick Cheney as he ran the energy policy task force, information that is being fiercely guarded by the White House.
The lawsuit, filed in February, stemmed from the Natural Resources Defense Council’s attempts to find out more about the task force’s work. The White House has been secretive about the task force’s operations, citing the president’s right to receive confidential advice.
But complaints that the task force was largely a front for industry were given new force by the collapse of energy giant Enron Corp., some of whose executives have ties to the Bush administration as well as leading Democrats. Under pressure, the White House has acknowledged that members or staffers of the task force met with Enron officials six times.
Monday’s documents showed that Abraham did not meet with any Enron representatives. In fact, he turned down a July 12 request to meet with Jeffrey Skilling, then Enron’s chief executive officer, and a July 31 request from Kenneth Lay, then Enron’s chairman.
Cheney’s task force faces two other lawsuits attempting to force it to open its records, one by the watchdog group Judicial Watch and another by the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative arm.
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A judge in February ordered the Energy Department documents to be released to the defense council on Monday.
Another judge ordered five other federal agencies, including the Office of Management and Budget, the EPA and the Agriculture Department, to release their documents to Judicial Watch on Monday. When Judicial Watch received those papers, it turned out that they had been heavily edited.
Officials `unresponsive’
“They’ve been very unresponsive, withholding thousands of pages of documents, frankly for specious reasoning,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The administration could have gone the way of disclosure, but instead has continued to stonewall.”
The documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act, but officials are allowed to withhold information relating to internal deliberations or that contain private details about individuals. Those exemptions can be challenged in court, and Judicial Watch said it plans to do so.
The lawsuits are unrelated to the legal case mounted against the White House by the GAO. But many of the documents are believed to be the same.
The council plans a Wednesday news conference to release its analysis, but the Energy Department outflanked the group by releasing its 11,000 pages to news organizations on Monday, including its own 31-page summary and analysis.
The document release provided the first glimpse into the flavor and mood of the meetings that led to Bush’s energy policy. Some of the e-mail messages take on an urgent tone: “Can you guys tell me where you are on the following? WH is cranking it up,” one staffer wrote.
Throughout the months, as the information moved throughout the Bush administration, employees were given clear directives of the topic’s priority and secrecy.
Penchant for secrecy
“As always,” an official in Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta’s office wrote, “please treat this information as CONFIDENTIAL.”
Another e-mail between two staffers provides some intrigue: The e-mail was completely blacked out, by department officials, except for this line: “Here are some comments. I haven’t seen what the boys sent from Houston so there may be some redundancy.” Houston is Enron’s home base.
The documents suggest that Abraham met with some of the capital’s most powerful lobbyists, including a Feb. 15 sit-down with Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, and an April 3 session with Fred Fielding, former counsel to President Ronald Reagan, and the CEO of a company called Utilicorp.
Energy Department officials noted Abraham also turned down 23 requests from industry leaders, including pleas from Texaco and Chicago-based Exelon. A request for a meeting with the aluminum industry, made by Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Wash.), was also rejected.
At the same time, the department said, it had “substantive” discussions with such groups as the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Environmental Defense. Several other groups did not return phone calls, officials added, and in general were not particularly responsive to requests for their input.