DOCs Obtained By Wapo Shows-ENERGY INDUSTRY'S ROLE-Cheney's Secret Energy Task Force is Revealed!

[kpete]

Papers Detail Industry's Role in Cheney's Energy Report

By Michael Abramowitz and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; Page A01

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Vice President Cheney fought two legal challenges to keep records of the meetings of his energy task force secret. In both cases, the Government Accountability Office and government watchdog groups argued that Cheney's office was hiding the extent to which energy and oil industry players had access to the panel that was shaping energy policy. This schedule -- culled from dates noted in a document obtained by The Washington Post -- shows energy industry representatives were granted early and frequent meetings.

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. By the time of the meeting with environmental groups, according to a former White House official who provided the list to The Washington Post, the initial draft of the task force was substantially complete and President Bush had been briefed on its progress.

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. But while it clears up much of the lingering uncertainty about who was granted access to present energy policy views to Cheney's staff, it does not entirely explain why the Bush administration fought so hard to keep it and other as-yet-unreleased internal memos secret.

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Waxman said he was not surprised to see the prevalence of energy industry groups on the list of meetings. "Six years later, we see we lost an opportunity to become less dependent on importing oil, on using fossil fuels, which have been a threat to our national security and the well-being of the planet," he said.


much more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701987.html?hpid=topnews

[spanone]

1. K&R

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Sneer, sneer, sneer" - Dickie "Five Military Deferments" Cheney

"Screw all of you. You're JUST citizens of the USA, so shut up and sit down. Let me and my cabal of 'elite' republicon oil cronies count up our profits. There's not a damn thing you little people can do about it. Smirk. Sneer, sneer, sneer."

[Captain Hilts]

3. What's your problem?! They gave environmental and energy conservation groups a full day...

out of four months!

[OzarkDem]

4. Its taken Wa Po 7 years

to seriously report on this incident. Why?

I blame them as much as I do Bush and the GOP for letting this happen.

[kpete]

5. yes, but

better late then never, I say, kpete

[kpete]

6. AMAZING GRAPHIC

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/07/18/GR2007071800236.html

[seafan]

7. Finally, we see who was on Cheney's Energy Task Force, in the devious pre-Iraq invasion period.

Impeachment, conviction and imprisonment is only a matter of time now. It is going to happen.


Papers Detail Industry's Role in Cheney's Energy Report

July 18, 2007

At 10 a.m. on April 4, 2001, representatives of 13 environmental groups were brought into the Old Executive Office Building for a long-anticipated meeting. Since late January, a task force headed by Vice President Cheney had been busy drawing up a new national energy policy, and the groups were getting their one chance to be heard.

Cheney was not there, but so many environmentalists were in the room that introductions took up "about half the meeting," recalled Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth. Anna Aurilio of the U.S. Public Interest Group said, "It was clear to us that they were just being nice to us."

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. By the time of the meeting with environmental groups, according to a former White House official who provided the list to The Washington Post, the initial draft of the task force was substantially complete and President Bush had been briefed on its progress.

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In all, about 300 groups and individuals met with staff members of the energy task force, including a handful who saw Cheney himself, according to the list, which was compiled in the summer of 2001. For six years, those names have been a closely guarded secret, thanks to a fierce legal battle waged by the White House. Some names have leaked out over the years, but most have remained hidden because of a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that agreed that the administration's internal deliberations ought to be shielded from outside scrutiny.

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Energy Task Force Meetings Participants

Vice President Cheney's energy task force had a busy spring in 2001. While drafting a national energy policy, the group, chaired by Cheney, met with approximately 300 groups and individuals, ranging from the American Petroleum Institute to Defenders of Wildlife. Below, a list of individuals and organizations who met with the energy task force, as detailed in a document provided to The Post by a former White House official. (link to list here)

The Energy Task Force: Who Was at the Table

Vice President Cheney fought two legal challenges to keep records of the meetings of his energy task force secret. In both cases, the Government Accountability Office and government watchdog groups argued that Cheney's office was hiding the extent to which energy and oil industry players had access to the panel that was shaping energy policy. This schedule -- culled from dates noted in a document obtained by The Washington Post -- shows energy industry representatives were granted early and frequent meetings. (link to graphic here)

And here is John Dean on Scalia's Supreme Court ruling, protecting Cheney's Task Force secrecy.


The Supreme Court's Ruling on Cheney's Energy Task Force

July 2, 2004

On June 24, in Cheney v. U.S. District Court, the Supreme Court gave Vice President Dick Cheney only a partial victory in the suit that seeks to learn how his National Energy Policy Development Group developed its recommendations.

The plaintiffs in the suit suspect that - and want to find out whether - there was extensive involvement and improper influence by private industry in what was supposed to be a government group. They note that the Group's recommendations had a decidedly pro-energy slant.

Cheney wanted the suit to be dismissed. Instead, the Court sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for further adjudication.

As I noted in an earlier column, this case is laden with important implications. That is still true. Indeed, the Court may have avoided an ultimate decision in the case in part because of the political reverberations that would doubtless have resulted from their examining the separation of powers issues (read: the secrecy powers of the presidency) in an election year.

How the Justices Voted: Scalia Sides with Cheney as Expected

This case received a great deal of press attention because Justice Antonin Scalia refused to recuse himself from it, despite his duck hunting trip with Cheney. And unsurprisingly, Scalia did indeed side with Cheney in the case.

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