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Today's
Stories
June
30, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
The Political Function of PBS
June
29, 2005
Mike
Schaefer
How the Washington Post Lied About
Its Own War Poll
Roger
Burbach / Paul Cantor
Bush's Big Democratic Hoax in Iraq
Sharon
Smith
Democrats Shift into Reverse
Sam
Husseini
A Quick Way to End the Insurgency
John
Stauber
Put a Photo of Mad Cow #2 on a Milk Carton
Ahmad
Faruqui
Is Militarism Irreversible in Pakistan?
Linda
S. Heard
Bush's Speech: the View from Cairo
Stew
Albert
Chet Helms: a Rock and Roll Hero
Ray
McGovern
Bush at Ft. Bragg: Stay the Crooked
Course
June
28, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Defeat Bred in Deceit
Landau
/ Hassen
Bush's Meddling in Internal Syrian
Politics
John
A. Murphy
Keeping Nader Off the Ballot: an Analysis of Political Profiling
in Pennsylvania
Mike
Whitney
More Lies from Rumsfeld: Those "Meetings"
with Insurgents
CounterPunch
News Service
JFK on Staying in Vietnam: Is Bush Reading
from Kennedy's Playbook?
Dave
Zirin
Pining for the Pistons
Dave
Lindorff
Showtime in Washington
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq: a Bloody Mess
June
27, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
Blood Sacrifices for Empty Slogans
Mike
Marqusee
G8: Who are the Hijackers?
Mark
Scaramella
When a Corporate Raider Claims
Economic Hardship: the Court-Approved Lies of Charles Hurwitz
Leigh
Saavedra
Press Apologists for Torture
Kathy
Kelly
Where is the UN?
June
25 / 26, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
The Supreme Court's Jackboot
Liberals
Jennifer
Van Bergen
America's Parallel Legal Systems
George
Corsetti
This Land is Their Land: Condemnation
for Corporations
Mark
Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer
Let's Open the Gulag: a People's Mission
to Gitmo
Kevin
Zeese
Counter-Recruitment: How to Keep
the Military From Getting their Hands on Your Kids
P.
Sainath
Russian Roulette in Vidharbha
John
Stauber
How to Bury a Mad Cow
Scott
Handleman
Gay in the Third World
Tom
Barry
The Politics & Ideologies of
the Anti-Immigrationists
John
Walsh
Looking for Peace in All the Wrong
Places
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Hairless Apes of Kansas vs.
the Reality-Based Community: Why Progressives Have a Stake in
the War on Evolution
Alan
Wallis
The Story of Pinky: the Drug Trade
in My Neighborhood
Ben
Tripp
Negative Space: an Artful Lesson
Frederick
B. Hudson
Songs to Lose Your Loneliness By:
the Raised Voices of Sweet Honey in the Rock
Poets'
Basement
Gaffney, Engel, Davies, and Albert
June
24, 2005
Ray
McGovern
The Downing St. Fixation: Fixing
to Fix "Fixed"
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Only Call Us Americans
When They Need Us for War": the Paradox of Mexican Americans
in Iraq
Desiree
Hellegers
Portland vs. the FBI
Zeynep
Toufe
What Do the American People Know and
When Did They Know It?
Joshua
Frank
Call Him Senator Con Job
David
Lindorff
Which Flag Would Jesus Burn?
Michael
Neumann
Victory and Recruitment
Website
of the Day
Gagging
Dr. Dean
June
23, 2005
Christopher
Brauchli
Thomas Griffith and Rule 49:
He Practiced Law Without a License; Now He's a Federal Appeals
Court Judge
Clay
Conrad
Killing Off the Jury with Tort Reform
Standard
Schaefer
A Retort to Military Neo-Liberalism
P.
Sainath
Vidharbha: No rains and 116F, But
It Does Have "Snow" and Water Parks
Mark
Engler
CAFTA Deserves a Quiet Death
Norman
Solomon
Voluntary Amnesia in America
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Frank Calzon
Kathy
Kelly
Where You Stand Determines What You
See
June
22, 2005
Kevin
Zeese
The Bush Administration's Psy-Ops on
the American Public: an Interview with Col. Sam Gardiner
William
S. Lind
Afghanistan: the Other War
Arsalan
Iftikhar
Patriots Against the PATRIOT Act
Dan
Nagengast
Give Populism a Chance: From
France to Kansas
David
Krieger
To the Graduates: We Live in an Interdependent
World
Kathleen
& Bill Christison
Tempest in Santa Fe: Confronting
Israeli Myth-making
June 21, 2005
Brian Cloughley
Destroy
the Unbelievers!
Mike Whitney
President
Disconnect
Dave Lindorff
Who Needs Big Bird, Anyway?
Mark Weisbrot
Bush's Lonely Campaign Against Hugo Chavez
Matthew R.
Simmons
The Coming Saudi Oil Crisis
Dave Zirin
The Crass Slipper Fits: Ron Howard's Terrible "Cinderella
Man"
Virginia Rodino
The Anti-War Movement and Impeachment
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
War Waged by Liars and Morons
June 20, 2005
Alan Maass
The
GM Job Massacre
Tariq Ali
To
the Gates of the Gleneagles Hotel!
Mickey Z.
WMDs American-Style: It's 60 Years Since Alamogordo
William Blum
Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends
Gary Leupp
Old News Indeed: In 1999, Bush Craved Chance to Attack Iraq
Jason Leopold
Someone Tell Bush Iraq Wasn't Behind 9/11, Before He Starts Another
War
Dave Lindorff
Why the Media Should be Schiavo'd
Alan Maass
The
GM Job Massacre
Uri Avnery
Condi and Hamas
Website of
the Day
Crimes Against Poetry
June 18 / 19,
2005
Alexander Cockburn
Is
the Jury Dead?
Greg Moses
Race
Bias and the Death Penalty, One More Time
Benjamin Shepard
Arrested for Stickering, Biking and Other Misadventures: Creative
Direct Action in the Era of the PATRIOT Act
Stan Goff
Stuff to Do to Stop the War: 95 Days to Pre-Nixonize George W.
Bush
Lee Sustar
Does Iraq's Main Labor Union Support the Occupation?
Jude Wanniski
The Tipping Point: Getting Out of Iraq
Diana Barahona
Librarians as Spooks: the Scheme to Infiltrate Cuba Via Libraries
Brian Concannon, Jr.
Justice Dodge in Haiti, Again: Impunity and the Raboteau Massacre
Fred Gardner
How Many Wins Can We Take?
Mike Whitney
Gen. Tommy Friedman's Plan to "Win" the War in Iraq:
Reinstate the Draft
Ahmad Faruqui
Star Wars or Earth Wars?
Manuel García, Jr.
De-Eichmannizing America
Roger Howard
Leave Iranian Politics to Iranians
Ron Jacobs
Eros and the Grateful Dead
Ben Tripp
Situation Desperate: Why Am I Not Pleased?
Poets' Basement
Louise, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Christ's Entry into Washington
June 17, 2005
Ricardo Alarcón
Who
Helped Posada Enter the US?
Clay Conrad
Medical
Marijuana: Is Jury Nullification the Next Step?
Marc Estrin
Open-Ended Closure: the Death Penalty and the Culture of Victimhood
Colin Brown
Firebombing Fallujah: Pentagon Lied About Use of Napalm in Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Pennies for Africa: Bush's Phony Money
Joshua Frank
Blue State Warriors: How Democrats Derailed the Peace Movement
Norman Solomon
The Killing Street Memo
Mary Rizzo
Who's Afraid of Gilad Atzmon?
Bond / Brutus
/ Setshedi
How
Bono and Trojan Horse NGOs Sabotage the Struggle Against Neoliberalism
June 16, 2005
John Walsh
The
Iraq War Polls: Dems' Stance Even Less Popular Than Bush's
Dave Lindorff
Work 'Till You Die: the Bush Retirement Plan
Adrian Lomax
Torture
in U.S. Prisons: Common, Lethal, Unreported
Tom Crumpacker
The CIA, Posada and the Bombing of Cubana Flight 455
Jeffrey Kolakowski
The Kinsley Paradigm: Downsizing the Downing St. Memo
Julene Bair
Turning Off the Ogallala Spigot: Toward a New Way to Farm on
the Great Plains
Michael Dickinson
As We Forgive Our Debtors: the Madness of Money
Francois Houtart / Isabel Parra,
et al.
Against Terrorism; In Defense of Humanity: an Appeal
Tom Barry
Meet
Bolton's Replacement: Robert "First Strike" Joseph
June 15, 2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to US Troops on Loyalty
Daniel Wolff
The
Palace at 4 A.M.
Tim Wise
Discover the Nutwork: David Horowitz
and the Politics of Ad Hominem Distortion
Ricardo Alarcón
The New CIA Revelations About Posada
Joshua Frank
House Republicans vs. Bush: "This is Not a Conservative
War"
John Hilary
Bloodsuckers' Summit: Why the Left Should Rendezvous at the G8
Norman Solomon
Iran's Reformers: a Threat to Theocrats and Neocons
Alexander Cockburn
/ Jeffrey St. Clair
Juries
and Lynch Mobs
Website of the Day
What It Feels Like to be Tasered (Turn Up the Volume)
June 14, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners
Forrest Hylton
Stalemate
in Bolivia
Richard Gott
The Crisis in Bolivia
Fred Gardner
The
Raich Decision: All Power to the Feds
Steve Breyman
Doing
the Right Thing is Also Politically Expedient
Dave Zirin
Sacred Hoops: Basketball in the Barrio
Robert Kent
Outsourcing Torture and the Stop-Loss Program
Paul Craig
Roberts
Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners
June 13, 2005
Gary Leupp
Another
Damning Document
Dave Lindorff
The Inca and Us
John Stauber
Mad
Cow USA: the Cover-Up Begins to Unravel
Fred Gardner
Supreme Indignity: Medical Pot Doctors Respond to Justice Stevens
Evelyn J. Pringle
TeenScreen: the Lawsuits Begin
Norman Solomon
Letter From Tehran
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Neo-Con Unfurls the Big Picture
June
10 / 12, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Thomas Friedman's Imaginary World
Sharon
Smith
Torturers and Liars: Masters of Deception
Brian
Cloughley
"Support Our Torturers!"
Chris
Kromm
Home Cookin': Pentagon's Base Relignment Plan Would Increase
South's Share
Heather
Gray
A Day in Mississippi: Some Things Have Changed; Some Remain the
Same
Kevin
Zeese
What the Left Must Learn from 2004: an Interview with Josh Frank
Mickey
Z.
The Pentagon Papers, 34 Years Later
Gary
Leupp
A Review of Sison's "At Home in the World"
Eli
Stephens
The Asshole in El Paso: Why Posada Carriles Matters
Nick
Dearden
A Scottish Band in the Occupied Territories
Oscar
Olivera
Recovering Bolivia's Oil and Gas
Robert
Fisk
Screening "Kingdom of Heaven" in Beirut
Michael
Dickinson
Oh My God!: Gunning for Blasphemers
Poets'
Basement
Engel, Albert, Louise, Ford
Website
of the Weekend
Gravity's Rainbow, Illustrated
June 9, 2005
Len
Colodny
Felt Was Asked Under Oath in 1975
If He Was "Deep Throat"
Christopher
Brauchli
From Baseballs to Hand Grenades
Ron
Jacobs
Light a Candle; Curse the Darkness
Dave
Lindorff
US Media Shamed by Brit Journalist
Katrina
Yeaw / Alex Schmaus
Repression 101: Anti-War Students Sanctioned at SFSU
Alan
Farago
Spin Machine Busts a Gasket in the Everglades: Fed Judge Whacks
Jeb
Saul
Landau
The Charmed Life of a Mass Murderer
June
8, 2005
Jim
Hougan
Strange Bedfellows
Deep Throat, Bob Woodward and the CIA
Alan
Maass
Is Bolivia on the Edge of Revolution? an Interview with Tom Lewis
Jason
Leopold
Enron Lives!: Former Army Sec. White
Wants Govt. Money for New Energy Scam
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Exit Right, Advani: Unpardonable Acts of Statesmanship
Dave
Zirin
The Rotting Soul of the 49ers
Derrick
O'Keefe
Bush's Terrorist: the Case of Posada Carriles
Diana
Johnstone
Non, Neen, Angelene!
Why Defenders of the "Oui" are Wrong
Website
of the Day
The Meatrix
June
7, 2005
Forrest
Hylton
Bolivia's Agony of the Stalement Continues
Greg
Moses / Susan van Haitsma
Pushing Back the Violence
Lenni
Brenner
What Madison Would Think About the Air Force Academy's Offical
Fanatics
Col.
Dan Smith
Liberation vs. Survival in Iraq
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC: the Establishment vs. the Elites
Dave
Lindorff
Fair-Weather Allies: US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing
Rights
Margot
Veranes / Adrian Navarro
Xenophobia in the Desert: Racist Fever Becomes Law in Arizona
Michael
Neumann
Sharing Music: Property Gone Wild
June
6, 2005
Stew
Albert
Everybody Must Get Busted: Supremes
Rule Against the Sick
Paul
Craig Roberts
Federal Bureau of Entrapment
Nicole
Colson
Inside Walter Reed Hospital
Ali
Khan
Friendly Renditions to Muslim Torture
Chambers
Jason
Leopold
When Will Rumsfeld Be Indicted?
Charles
Walker Poff
Rumsfeld, China and Hypocrisy
Ramzy
Baroud
My Grandpa's Right of Return
Rep.
John Conyers
Did Bush Deliberately Deceive America About Iraq?
Evelyn
Pringle
TeenScreen's Top Pusher
Gary
Corseri
25 Reasons to Impeach Bush
Website
of the Day
Save This 200 Year Old Burr Oak from Bible Thumpers with Chainsaws
June
4 / 5, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
France's Magnificent Non!
James
Petras
The Centrality of Peasant Movements
in Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Samir?
Patrick
Cockburn
My Father, Claud Cockburn, the MI5 Suspect
Rev.
William Alberts
When Pride in Power Corrupts: the Story of a Methodist President,
His Bishops and an "Incompatible" Lesbian Minister
Saul
Landau
40 Interns and a Mule: Will the Dems Ever Take Advantage of the
Republicans' Blunders?
Mario
Lamo Jimenez
Dante with a Brush: Botero Immortalizes Bush
Dave
Lindorff
What is the Media Running From?
Lance
Selfa
Why Bush is Getting Away with Murder
Tom
Crumpacker
On the Use of State Terrorism: the Posada Precedent
Joshua
Frank
How Beltway Dems Sank Dean for America
Fred
Gardner
Don't Bogart That Taxable Commodity
Michael
Dickinson
Roll Out the Barrel: Blood, Oil and Baku
Roger
Martin
We Can See, But Not Far Enough
Reza
Fiyouzat
Welcome to the Third World
Ben
Tripp
Romance: Advice from a Pro
Graeme
Greenback
Pardon Me, While I Piss on this Bible
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Albert, Engel, Smith
June
3, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
Welcome to a Has-Been Country
Joseph
Massad
Witch Hunt at Columbia
Jeff
Halper
The Process of Transfer Continues
Tom
Barry
The Immigration Debate: Whose Side Are You On?
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Bush Seeks Military Control of Space: "It's Our Destiny"
Joshua
Frank
Bombing Iran: Facts Don't Matter
Mickey
Z.
Deep Throat as Sideshow
Gary
Leupp
"Peddling Lies About How They
Were Mistreated"
Website
of the Day
Tattoo on My
Heart: Warriors of Wounded Knee, 1973
June
2, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Slave Traders of the Gitmo Gulag
Forrest
Hylton
Bolivia: the Agony of Stalemate
Mike
Whitney
Post-Mortem on the 4th Amendment: Warrants without Judges
Brian
Cloughley
Anarchy in Afghanistan; Ignorance in America
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
A Two-State Solution is No Solution
Russell
D. Hoffman
High Tension at San Onofre
Norman
Madarasz
"Le Jolie Mois de Mai": the Meaning of the French "Non"
Norman
Solomon
War Made Easy: from Vietnam to Iraq
David
Price
The Shallowness of Deep Throat
Website
of the Day
Fallujah on Film
June
1, 2005
James
Petras
Beyond Hypocrisy: the Deeper Meaning
of Posada
Justin
Delacour
Framing Venezuela: US Media Bias
Against Chavez
Edward
Jay Epstein
Was "Deep Throat" a Fictoid?
Omar
Barghouti / Lisa Taraki
The AUT Boycott: Freedom vs. "Academic"
Freedom
Dave
Lindorff
When War Goes Off the Script
Kevin
Zeese
Reality Check: Who to Believe on Iraq War and Gitmo?
Jason
Leopold
When Presidents Lie
William
S. Lind
Wreck It and Run
May
31, 2005
Sen.
Mike Gravel
Thank You, Mark Felt: We Need a New
Deep Throat
David
Krieger
US Nuclear Hypocrisy
Tad
Daley
The Nuclear Me-Too Club
Joshua
Frank
Pelosi at AIPAC: Israel Comes First
Richard
Gott
Chavez Leads the Way
Norman
Solomon
Time to Get Serious About Impeachment
Tom
Segev
Our Man in the Territories
Walter
Brasch
Killing Americans with Secrecy
Diana
Johnstone
The French "Non"
May
28 / 30, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
There's Their Way or the Galloway
Richard
Lichtman
We Wuz Framed! the Consolations
of George Lakoff
Sharon
Smith
The Road to Abu Ghraib
Paul
Craig Roberts
Bush Opts for Civil War in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Whigged Out: the Dems Have Become
Merely a Vestigial Opposition Party
Ramzy
Baroud
Muslims Were Desecrated, Not Just
Their Holy Book
Brian
Cloughley
Why Are Nukes OK for You, But Not for Us?
Fred
Gardner
Advice from a Lawyer About Medical Pot
Lee
Sustar
Chavez Gets Proactive
Joshua
Frank
Isikoff Comes Clean: "Nobody in the US Said a Word, Until
the Riots"
Justin
E.H. Smith
What About the People? a Report from Romania
Jackie
Corr
A Montana History Lesson on Assfulness
Michael
Kimaid
Bush as Ahab
Toufic
Haddad
Lessons from the Reversal of the AUC Boycott
Justin
Taylor
The Fear of Paul Virilio
Amir
Butler
Searching for a Saladin
Ben
Tripp
Insomnia and Sarcasm
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Engel, Davies and Louise
May
27, 2005
Gary
Leupp
It Really is a Crusade!
Daniel
Estulin
Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005
Kevin
Zeese
Iraq Withdrawal Vote: If Walter "Freedom
Fries" Jones Can See the Light, Why Can't Nancy Pelosi?
Robert
Fisk
Mubarak's Goon Squads
Dave
Zirin
Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer
Silent
Website
of the Day
Stuckists
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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Here for More Stories.
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June 30, 2005
Meet the New Chair of the FERC
James Kelliher,
the Man Who Invited Enron to Help Write Bush's National Energy
Policy
By
JASON LEOPOLD
The audacity inside the Bush administration
never ceases to amaze.
The latest example of chutzpah from Bush and co. is the announcement
that Joseph Kelliher, a former policy adviser with the Department
of Energy who currently serves as a commissioner on the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that controls the country's
natural gas industry, hydroelectric projects, electric utilities,
and oil pipelines and has played a critical role in the deregulation
of those industries, will be named by the White House Thursday
to chair FERC.
President Bush had previously picked Rebecca Klein, the former
Republican head of the Texas Public Utilities Commission and
a close friend of the president, to chair FERC but red flags
were raised recently during a routine FBI background check on
Klein which forced the president to choose a new chairman at
the last minute. The White House would not comment on the FBI's
probe on Klein. Klein did not return numerous calls for comment.
Still, news of Kelliher's appointment to chair FERC came late
Wednesday as a welcome surprise to many industry lobbyists and
energy executives who view him as a staunch supporter of the
free-market principles of deregulation and an advocate for eliminating
regulatory restrictions that interferes with the free-market,
despite the fact those rules are in place to protect consumers
from energy price gouging and market manipulation that took place
prior to the Enron scandal four years ago and, to some extent,
is still somewhat routine in various parts of the country.
However, what's most troubling about Kelliher's appointment to
head FERC, a role in which his main priority will now be to protect
consumers from the manipulative tactics of the very industry
he enjoys a cozy relationship with, is the relentless lobbying
of bigwigs in the energy industry in early 2001, as a member
of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, to help write
President Bush's National Energy Policy in such a way that would
be financially beneficial to energy corporations-at the expense
of consumers.
The extent to which Kelliher's went to solicit key players in
the energy industry to help write the National Energy Policy
became apparent in 2003 when Judicial Watch, a bipartisan watchdog
group that sued Vice President Dick Cheney to gain access to
Cheney's list of industry insiders who participated in secret
meetings with Cheney's energy task force, won a legal battle
that forced the White House to release several hundred pages
of task force related documents.
One such document, a
March 10, 2001 email to energy lobbyist Dana
Contratto, was damning in that Kelliher asked Contratto if
he was "King" or "Il Duce" "what would
you include in a national energy policy, especially with respect
to natural gas issues?"
Contratto responded with a three-page
list of ideas, many of which were included in the final version
of the energy policy.
"Kelliher's inappropriate relationship and communications
with corporate lobbyists not only tainted the administration's
National Energy Policy, but raise questions about the ability
of Mr. Kelliher to be an impartial voice at FERC," Public
Citizen Director Joan Claybrook said in a
Feb. 11, 2003 letter sent to the Senate Committee on Energy
and Natural Resources, in response to Bush's announcement that
Kelliher would fill one of the vacant seats on the FERC.
"FERC is weathering a storm of criticism for its deficient
handling of the west coast energy crisis, the Commission's failure
to maintain any effective enforcement of dozens of corrupt energy
corporations, the deteriorating relations between FERC and nearly
half of the state utility regulators who continue to be mistrustful
of the Commission's jurisdictional intentions, and the Commission's
poor track record protecting consumers," Claybrook said.
On another occasion, Kelliher sought out Stephen Craig Sayle,
an Enron Corp. lobbyist, to make similar recommendations. Sayle,
former counsel for the House Commerce Committee, sent Kelliher
Enron's "dream list," including a recommendation that
the administration commit to market-based emissions trading,
which was also used in administration's National Energy Policy.
Sayle wrote Kelliher that the energy policy should also include
"a multi-pollutant regulatory strategy should be estimated
for the power generation sector including: Gradually phased in
[mercury, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions] reductions;
Reform/replacement of NSR; Use of market-based/emission trading
programs; Inclusion of both existing and new plants and equal
treatment for both. The last bullet is the critical one to ensure
that: a) we encourage the new generation that is required b)
we ensure that the new technologies developed through DOE programs
can come into the market.
"Obviously, this is a dream list," Sayle said in the
March 23, 2001 email
he sent to Kelliher. "Not all will be done. But perhaps
some of these ideas could be floated and adopted."
Sayle also provided Kelliher with a PowerPoint presentation on
behalf of his other energy clients in the so-called Clean
Power Group, a consortium made up of a handful of the country's
biggest energy companies, including NiSource Inc., Calpine Corp.,
Trigen Energy Corp., and El Paso Corp, whose mission, according
to the group's website, is to "streamline requirements under
the Clean Air Act for electric generating facilities while at
the same time making major reductions in air emissions."
The PowerPoint presentation, A Comprehensive Multi-Pollutant
Emission Control Strategy for Power Generation, summarized the
Clean Power Group's support of a "cap and trade" method
in addressing emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxides and sulfur
dioxide from power plants, but included a proposal for a voluntary
cap on carbon dioxide. The Clean Power Group stood to benefit
from the initiative it urged Kelliher to get the White House
to adopt in that the companies could release more emissions under
its proposed plan than under the more restrictive rules the Clinton
administration had put in place.
After receiving Sayle's email and supporting material, Kelliher
recommended that President Bush "direct the Administrator
of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to propose multi-pollutant
legislation that would establish a flexible, market-based program
to significantly reduce and cap emissions provide regulatory
certainty to allow utilities to make modifications to their plants
without fear of new litigation; provide market based incentives,
such as emissions-trading credits to help achieve the required
reductions," all of which the president approved and was
eventually incorporated into the National Energy Policy.
In fact, President Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative
consists of many of the bullet points laid out months earlier
in Sayle's email to Kelliher.
In addition to Kelliher correspondence with Sayle, he also met
with oil and gas industry lobbyists who helped write executive
orders that Kelliher passed on directly to the White House. Two
months later, the president issued executive orders nearly identical
to those Kelliher received from the lobbyists months earlier.
Jason Leopold is the author of the explosive memoir, News
Junkie, to be released in the spring of 2006 by Process/Feral
House Books. Visit Leopold's website at www.jasonleopold.com
for updates.
|
