Energy Task Force Lists Revealed: Entire Policy Shaped by Al Gore, the Lorax
ThePosthas the Energy Task Force list!!!!! We've been waitingsix yearsto figure out who, exactly, sat down with Vice President Cheney to draft our nation's energy policy! The answer: the energy industry!
68 "energy groups" and 42 "oil and gas groups" met with Cheney's task force, starting back in February back '01, with more showing up more or less weekly, then daily, from there on out. The panel wasn'tallindustry-led, of course -- 27 renewable energy and environment groupsdidmeet with the panel! They got March 27 and April 4. And Cheney wasn't there. And the draft of the task force's report was pretty much done. And on April 5, they saw another energy company and something called "foreign interests" (oooohh).
Evil bastard roll call!
One of the first visitors, on Feb. 14, was James J. Rouse, then vice president of Exxon Mobil and a major donor to the Bush inauguration; a week later, longtime Bush supporter Kenneth L. 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.
We are shocked -- shocked! -- that the Bush administration's energy policy was drafted more or less by the energy industry. Thank god our Supreme Court shielded us from this terrible information in 2004, or else we might've stormed the White House and toppled the government. If only they could've used executive privilege to prevent us from learning about Iraq. Bush's approval ratings would be way up in the 40s!
Papers Detail Industry's Role in Cheney's Energy Report [WP]