Bush Administration holds on to Cheney Energy Task Force secrets
Administration asking for Supreme Court hearing
In yet another tactic designed to delay the Sierra Club’s suit against the
secret Cheney Energy Task Force, the Bush Administration filed papers with the
U.S. Court of Appeals announcing that they will ask the Supreme Court to review
the case.
Ventana readers will remember that the Club is seeking release of documents
related to Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force including information
regarding who participated in the Task Force. The judiciary has told the White
House four times to make the information public.“
At some point, the Bush Administration is going to have to realize that the
American people want to know what kind of influence energy corporations had over
America’s energy policies,” said David Bookbinder, senior attorney for the Sierra
Club. “President Bush is touting a plan to weaken clean air standards for power
plants. And he’s promoting an energy bill largely inspired by these secret meetings.
The public deserves to know who actually wrote these plans.” In July, a three-judge
panel of the Court of Appeals said the Bush Administration is subject to “discovery,”
and must comply with requests for information from Sierra Club and Judicial Watch
about the Cheney Energy Task Force. The Club and Judicial Watch are suing the
Administration to shed light on how much influence polluting industries had over
the Administration’s destructive energy policy that is the basis for the energy
bill currently before Congress. In rejecting the government’s arguments, the Court
noted that the Administration’s position would “transform executive privilege
from a doctrine designed to protect presidential communications into virtual immunity
from suit.”
The Bush Administration attempted to further delay releasing information about
the secret meetings by asking for a rehearing of the appeal by the entire court.
The Court of Appeals denied their request, 5-3. The Bush Administration then asked
the Appeals Court to issue a stay of the case until the Supreme Court decides
whether to hear it.
Sierra Club is suing Vice President Cheney and the Energy Task Force under
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), seeking an accounting of energy industry
participation in crafting the Bush Administration’s destructive energy policy,
which relies on subsidies to polluting and outdated fossil fuel industries. The
District Court ordered the Administration to provide information about participation
from these industries, which the Bush Administration refused to do, claiming Constitutional
immunity from such inquiries. The District Court rejected that contention, pointing
out that the Administration was attempting to “cloak what is tantamount to an
aggrandizement of Executive power with the legitimacy of precedent where none
exists.” The Administration appealed, asking the D.C. Circuit to make new law
that would effectively shield it from any legal scrutiny. The Circuit Court and
Appeals Court have now twice denied their request.
“It’s time for the Bush Administration to stop delaying and fess up to their
secret dealings with the energy industry,” said Carl Pope, Executive Director
of the Sierra Club. “Given that the Congress is currently debating the energy
bill, it’s more important than ever that Americans know who’s deciding their energy
future. Today the public is one step closer to knowing how much influence energy
corporations had over the Bush Administration’s energy plan.”
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