Posted on 30-3-2002

Energy In US Captured By Commerce
By Cat Lazaroff from ens.lycos.com (photo shows Richard Cheney)

WASHINGTON, DC, March 26, 2002 (ENS) - Thousands of documents released
Monday by the Bush administration appear to support charges that
environmental and citizen groups were given short shrift last year by the
Bush administration's energy policy task force. Conservation groups and
Congressional Democrats have charged that the energy industry exerted too
much influence over the crafting of the nation's official energy policy.

The energy policy task force chaired by Vice President Richard Cheney
excluded conservation and public interest groups, suggest documents
released Monday. With great fanfare, the Department of Energy (DOE)
announced that the more than 11,000 documents released would prove that the
agency had made numerous efforts to seek and incorporate input from public
interest groups during the 2001 meetings of Vice President Richard Cheney's
National Energy Policy Development Task Force. But a review of the
documents shows that while Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham held meetings
with 36 representatives of the energy industry and other business
industries, as well as many Bush campaign contributors, the DOE held no
meetings with consumer or conservation groups.

The release, ordered by federal courts in two separate cases brought under
the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), includes documents from the DOE, the
Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the
White House Office of Management and Budget, the agencies most involved
with the energy task force. However, thousands of documents were withheld,
and of those that were released, many were edited and censored, missing
their attachments, and in some cases reduced to nothing but a title or
subject line.

The DOE says the information was withheld under specific exemptions to FOIA
that cover information "related solely to the internal personnel rules and
practices of an agency," and "personnel and medical files and similar
files, the disclosure of which could constitute unwarranted invasion of
privacy." Also excluded was information consisting of "pre-decisional and
deliberative process material," such as early drafts of the National Energy
Policy and comments and questions about that draft, the DOE said. Tax
incentives proposed in the administration's energy plan would encourage the
continued operation of existing nuclear power plants, such as Calvert
Cliffs in Maryland.

For 11 months, the Bush administration resisted petitions and lawsuits
filed by public interest groups, Congressional Democrats and the General
Accounting Office seeking the release of schedules, attendance lists and
other documents related to the task force meetings. The documents released
Monday night mark the first public release of any task force papers, and
the first confirmation of the extent to which energy producers may have
helped shape the Bush energy policy, released May 16, 2001. Because the
documents are so heavily edited, the groups whose lawsuits forced the
release, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and
Judicial Watch, a public interest law firm, say they may take additional
legal action against the administration.

The Bush energy policy calls for a dramatic boost in domestic production of
fossil fuels and nuclear power, largely from public lands, while making few
concessions to the need for energy conservation and renewable energy
sources. The U.S. Senate is now reviewing legislation that would implement
much of the Bush energy plan, including a controversial provision to open
part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The Senate is
expected to vote on that provision when it returns from its spring recess
in two weeks.

Among the corporations who met with Secretary Abraham regarding the energy
task force were energy giants Duke Power, Entergy, Exelon Corporation and
the American Coal Company, and industry groups the Independent Petroleum
Association of America and the National Association of Manufacturers. In
contrast, the documents list no meetings with environmental groups or other
public interest groups.

On Monday, the DOE issued a statement arguing that "substantial public
input" went into developing the Bush administration's energy policy. "The
National Energy Policy is a balanced and comprehensive energy plan for
America," said Secretary Abraham. "The information released today will only
further confirm that it was indeed a balanced plan that not only sought but
included all viewpoints. It assures the American people that it was an open
and appropriate process." According to the DOE, "Department officials
carefully considered the views of energy experts, stakeholders and public
interest groups who chose to participate." The agency added, "in many
cases, documents were obtained from the web sites of stakeholder
organizations, many of which have been publicly available for the past year."

Conservation groups counter that lifting position papers off a website is
not the same as holding open and detailed discussions with
environmentalists regarding their views on energy policy. The NRDC also
disputes the DOE's assertion that the final Bush energy policy includes any
of the recommendations made by the group in its own energy report. For
example, the DOE released a copy of an energy report by the NRDC, titled "A
Responsible Energy Policy for the 21st Century," which the agency claims
was "carefully reviewed by DOE staff and resulted in nine of 19 NRDC
recommendations (47 percent) getting included in the National Energy Plan."

Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney for the NRDC, said the DOE's claim is "an
outright lie," adding that the NRDC finds little evidence that the
administration made any attempt to collect or consider recommendations from
environmentalists. The DOE's own documents indicate that the administration
did not make substantial efforts to contact conservation groups until late
March 2001. "Successful contacts and at least one substantive discussion
was held," with each of 10 environmental and energy efficiency groups,
states a memo from the DOE to the General Accounting Office sent in August
2001. "We asked each organization for policy suggestions that might be
considered for inclusion in the national plan directed toward energy
supply, conservation or efficiency," the memo continues. "Not all
organizations were responsive. Several did not return phone calls and
messages." The groups in turn claim that they made numerous efforts to
contact the DOE with their suggestions on energy policy, but were rebuffed.