WASHINGTON – On April 4, 2001, representatives of 13 environmental groups were brought in to meet with a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney that was busy drawing up a new national energy policy.
But by the time of the only meeting with environmental groups, the initial draft of the task force was substantially complete, and President Bush had been briefed on its progress.
A confidential list prepared by the Bush administration shows that Cheney and his aides had already held at least 40 meetings with interest groups, most of them from energy-producing industries. The list was provided to The Washington Post by a former White House official.
In all, about 300 groups and individuals met with energy task force staff members, including a handful who saw Cheney himself, according to the list, compiled in the summer of 2001. For six years, most of those names have been a closely guarded secret.
One of the first visitors, on Feb. 14, was James Rouse, then vice president of Exxon Mobil and a major donor to the Bush inauguration; a week later, longtime Bush supporter Kenneth Lay, then head of Enron Corp., came by for the first of two meetings. On March 5, some of the country’s biggest electric utilities, including Duke Energy and Constellation Energy Group, had an audience with the task force staff.
British Petroleum representatives dropped by on March 22, one of about 20 oil and drilling companies to get meetings. The National Mining Association, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America and the American Petroleum Institute were among three dozen trade associations that met with Cheney’s staff, the document shows.
Cheney had other meetings, such as with John Browne, then the chief executive of BP, that were not listed on the task force’s calendar.
The vice president also met with energy experts he had known, such as J. Robinson West, chairman of the Washington-based consulting firm PFC Energy and an old friend of Cheney’s.
The list of participants’ names and when they met with administration officials provides a clearer picture of the task force’s priorities, and bolsters previous reports that the review leaned heavily on oil and gas companies and on trade groups – many of them big contributors to the Bush campaign and the Republican Party.
Contacted over the past week, several people who met with the task force staff described their meetings as part of a normal “interagency” review of major domestic policy, and expressed bewilderment that the White House and Cheney labored to keep the deliberations out of the public eye.
“I never knew why they fought so hard to keep it secret,” said Charles Samuels, counsel to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which participated in a March 13 meeting to discuss the idea of tax credits for super-efficient appliances. “I am sure the vast majority of the meetings were very policy-oriented meetings – exactly what should take place.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
