Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company  
The Boston Globe
March 26, 2002, Tuesday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A21

LENGTH: 996 words

HEADLINE: ENERGY PAPERS REVEAL INDUSTRY CONTACTS

BYLINE: By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff

BODY:
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration turned over thousands of documents tied to Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force last night, revealing numerous contacts between powerful industry lobbyists and key agency officials in the months before the panel issued its final report last year.

The papers, released under court order, showed that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham invited members of a business round table to an "off-the-record discussion about the administration's energy policy" on April 4, even as the Cheney task force refused to share most of its dealings with the public. The final task force report was issued in May.

    Another document showed that US coal producers were invited to the White House as the task force report was in its final stages - to meet not only with Bush administration energy officials but also with senior Bush political figures, including Karl Rove and a White House deputy director of political affairs. An e-mail to an Energy Department aide described a piece of draft legislation from Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, as "apparently inspired by Enron," the energy firm that donated millions to the Bush campaign before spiraling into bankruptcy in December.

Environmental lobbyists, however, did not appear to be a regular presence at the White House, according to the schedules released last night. Also, most of the correspondence released was blanked out, prompting accusations that the White House is continuing to hide the manner in which the energy report was drafted.

Larry Klayman, head of the watchdog group Judicial Watch, which is suing the White House for full access to the energy documents, accused the Bush team of "obstructing the proceedings" and said its behavior was "absolutely identical" to the Hillary Clinton health-care task force conducted in secrecy in 1993. Judicial Watch and other groups plan to press the administration to release the contents of the e-mails and letters that were omitted from the papers released yesterday.

Bush officials denied any impropriety in failing to turn over all relevant documents. Six agencies released paperwork last night; the Cheney task force has declined to do the same, choosing instead to fight the matter in court.

"Generally, we're pleased to provide these thousands of pages of documents," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "We're committed to providing this information in accordance to the law." As for the blanked-out correspondence, Stanzel said the White House had "applied consistent and well-established standards" in deciding which papers to release.

Among the redacted documents were seemingly benign e-mails between employees at various agencies, as well as entire blank pages that provided no explanation of what material was missing. Hundreds of e-mails were also released without the relevant document attachments, some with titles such as "proposed energy policy language" and "draft energy plan."

The extent of the energy industry's lobbying efforts was evident in the stacks of position papers among the agency documents. Three major oil companies - CITGO Petroleum Co., Chevron, and Conoco - sent letters urging the administration to prevent states from creating individualized fuel standards resulting in what they called "boutique" fuels. That matter was later addressed in the Cheney report, which instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to seek a solution.

Another advisory, from the American Petroleum Institute, laid out what it saw as simple truths about the industry, listing "Myth #1" as: "Gasoline is incompatible with clean air."

"That's simply not true," continued the industry paper, which was included in the documents released by the Energy Department. "The air in the United States is cleaner, and growing cleaner still, thanks in large measure to 25 years of improvements to the internal combustion engine and to gasoline itself."

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, meanwhile, wrote to the EPA that the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards are "an ineffective energy policy." Another lobbying coalition, the Clean Energy Group - which includes Northeast Utilities - recommended market-based environmental approaches such as those the Cheney panel adopted.

Among the most telling papers were the daily schedules of the energy secretary, who met with representatives from the nuclear power industry, the electric utilities, the oil and gas industries, and the National Association of Manufacturers in addition to the US coal producers. Among the lobbyists Abraham held discussions with were Haley Barbour, who represents Southern Electric, and Tom Kuhn of the Edison Electric Institute. Both Barbour and Kuhn - as well as former Enron lobbyist and Republican National Committee chairman Marc Racicot - are named in the Judicial Watch lawsuit seeking further details of their energy lobbying activities.

One Energy Department schedule, for June 13, 2001, after the report had been released, shows that House majority whip Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, attended a meeting of the Energy Task Force.

Cheney has balked at releasing most of the energy task force paperwork, insisting that the executive branch has the right to conduct its business in private in order to let outside experts speak freely and anonymously. The administration has denied that the energy industry played a special role in formulating the report, declaring that environmental groups were sought out.

The National Resources Defense Council was among the environmental groups consulted for the task force; the White House notes that some 19 of the group's recommendations ended up in the final report. But the environmental group has said that some of its chief concerns, such as raising the CAFE standards, went unheeded. The NRDC is joining Judicial Watch in its lawsuit against the energy panel, which heads to a hearing before a federal judge in Washington, D.C., today.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, DICK CHENEY Opposes release of papers

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