VP's energy task force met almost exclusively with energy industry groups and corporations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071701987.html

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

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."

The Energy Task Force: Who Was at the TableThe 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.

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.

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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