One of which happens to be Vice President Dick Cheney's "energy task force" which he had put together in the interest of shaping United States energy policy. Now, the issue here is just who was on this task force, and what advice was give to Cheney regarding US energy policy. Just one of the problems that arose during the time this energy task force was in existence was the California energy crisis where, on the advice of the White House, California Governor made decisions that would make private energy providers millions, even billions, of dollars but would put the state of California $9 billion in debt. Another problem that arose, connected with the energy task force was the Enron debacle. Enron's Ken Lay is generally believed to have been on Cheney's energy task force and the reasonable person must wonder, why was the CEO of a company that would later be found to have committed seriously questionable accounting practices for his energy company be allowed to help form US energy policy?
In fact, putting that in context with the advice given the California governor during that state's power crisis, it seems to create little wonder as to why energy companies did so well during that time period while the people of California did so poorly.
Now, in an effort to get to the bottom of just who was in this energy task force and how this energy task force influenced the Bush/Cheney White House, a lawsuit has been brought against Cheney jointly by the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch. On July 8, 2003, a bid by Cheney lawyers to stop the lawsuit on the grounds that it would be, as an Associated Press article posted at WashingtonPost.Com put it "an unwarranted intrusion into the internal deliberations of the executive branch of government."
Luckily the federal appeals court did not agree. The suit will go on and the court went on to say that the Bush 43 administration must turn over some information regarding the energy task force or at least provide a listing of the documents they plan to withhold from the court.
We'll see what happens...
Read the Washington Post's coverage of this story.
From the Associated Press and WashingtonPost.Com:
Court Allows Suit on Cheney Energy Panel
By PETE YOST
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 8, 2003; 11:33 AM
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected the Bush administration's bid to stop a lawsuit that seeks to delve into the energy industry's ties to Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.
In a 2-1 ruling, the court said administration officials must turn over some information about the task force or list specific documents that they intend to withhold from the proceedings.
The administration argues that the lawsuit by the Sierra Club and a conservative group, Judicial Watch, is an unwarranted intrusion into the internal deliberations of the executive branch of government.
But Cheney and administration officials "have not satisfied the heavy burden" required for the appeals court to get involved in the case, wrote Appeals Court Judge David Tatel.
Bush administration officials have not even produced a log of documents they want to keep confidential, the appeals court said.
Appeals judges David Tatel and Harry Edwards rejected the administration's effort to stop the case. Judge A. Raymond Randolph dissented, declaring that "for the judiciary to permit this sort of discovery" into the actions of the executive branch "strikes me as a violation of the separation of powers."
Tatel said that if the administration is so concerned about unwarranted intrusion, it can "invoke executive or any other privilege" in an attempt to keep the material out of the public domain.
Federal agencies have disclosed 39,000 pages of internal documents related to the work of Cheney's energy task force, material which so far has yielded nothing.
The energy plan adopted four months after President Bush took office favored opening more public lands to oil and gas drilling and proposed a wide range of other steps supported by industry.© 2003 The Associated Press
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