Heh. Dick Cheney is formulating an energy policy, but refuses to say who he's meeting with. Just like Hillary Clinton and her health panel meetings. Oh, and after being slammed (Bush/Cheney) for ridiculing energy conservation, and having made fun of Gore during the presidential campaign for wanting to offer tax credits for hybrid car purchases, now recommends doing the same thing. Politicians. ---- http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/26/politics/26CHEN.html?searchpv=day01 # # Cheney Withholds List of Those Who Spoke to Energy Panel # # By JOSEPH KAHN June 26, 2001 # # WASHINGTON, June 25 - Vice President Dick Cheney has declined # to identify the people who met privately with his energy task # force, raising tensions with Congressional investigators who # have repeatedly requested the information. # # The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, # sent Mr. Cheney's office a letter late last week complaining # that a month had passed since it first submitted an inquiry about # the workings of the task force. The letter said the vice president # had a legal obligation to provide the information immediately. # # Mr. Cheney's office said the letter was sent one day after it # submitted 77 pages of documents to the accounting office. # # "Our correspondence crossed in the mail," said Juleanna Glover # Weiss, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney. # # But Ms. Weiss said the vice president had not provided the names # of people, including industry executives, who may have influenced # the formation of the Bush administration's energy policy, which # was released last month. # # "Our counsel and the G.A.O. will continue to talk about this," # Ms. Weiss said. # # The energy task force Mr. Cheney headed spent several months # compiling a lengthy energy strategy that contained about 150 # recommendations for administrative and legislative actions to # address what it termed an energy crisis. # # Administration officials have said that they met with a wide # variety of people concerned about energy issues, including # executives of oil, natural gas, electricity, nuclear power and # energy infrastructure companies. They have declined to provide # a list of people who had access to the task force. # # Some Democrats have asserted that leading Republican donors had # special access to the task force and that the energy policy is # skewed toward measures favored by major corporations. Two # Democratic representatives, Henry A. Waxman of California and # John D. Dingell of Michigan, asked the accounting office to report # on the officials who served on the task force, what information # was collected by the panel, whom they met with and how much the # task force spent. # # The White House provided the G.A.O. with the financial records # of the task force. But administration officials have told the # investigative body that they are not compelled to provide the # names of outsiders who met with the task force. # # The accounting office's general counsel, Anthony H. Gamboa, said # in a letter to Mr. Cheney's office last week that the # investigative body is entitled to more information. # # The letter warned that if the White House does not provide the # full range of information the G.A.O. is seeking, it may issue # a "demand letter," a more formal request. Under the law, the # White House would have 20 days to respond. # # If the dispute continues, the accounting office could bring a # civil action against the administration. ---- Ugh, my previous complaint about missing mail: entirely my fault. I managed to have two different POP clients running.