Cheney must be smiling

White House refuses to disclose information on meetings with coal executives 10

Is the White House taking a page from Dick Cheney’s playbook by refusing to disclose who’s visiting the West Wing to lobby on energy and climate issues?

Much like the preceding administration, Team Obama is fighting to keep White House visitor logs secret. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonpartisan watchdog group, recently requested that the Secret Service make the White House logs public, asking specifically for access to records of visits by coal company executives. The request was denied, and the group is now filing suit.

CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request [PDF] to the Secret Service on May 15, requesting “all records relating to any visit” made to the White House by the CEOs of 16 major coal companies and lobby groups.

In their response to the request [PDF], the Secret Service claimed that the logs qualify as presidential and vice-presidential records and thus aren’t covered by FOIA—and could also be protected under “presidential communications privilege.”

In its formal complaint [PDF] filed with the Department of Homeland Security, CREW argues that:

CREW is harmed by DHS’s failure to process CREW’s FOIA request on an expedited basis, because that failure hampers CREW’s ability to satisfy the compelling public need for full, accurate and current information about the influence that executives of the 10 largest coal production companies within the United States have had, or attempted to have, on the president and his administration in formulating the nation’s energy policy. Absent this critical information, CREW cannot advance its mission of educating the public to ensure that the public continues to have a vital voice in government.

Another request for access to White House visitors logs made by MSNBC was also denied recently. The same claim of executive privilege was used by the Bush administration to block requests from environmental groups to find out who participated in Dick Cheney’s infamous energy task force meetings.

Federal judges have rejected that argument twice, but litigation continues. The Obama White House has had two opportunities—in late January and May—to change policy on this subject when it filed papers on the case in appeals court. It seems the new president has decided to stick with the Bush administration’s policy, however.

CREW Chief Counsel Anne Weismann was on NPR’s On the Media on Friday to discuss the policy. “The president has been a big proponent of clean coal. They’re in the process of formulating the nation’s energy policy, and we wanted to know to what extent have coal executives, you know, been major players in that process,” said Weismann.

“The similarities with the Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force are really striking,” she continued. “[I]t’s particularly ironic because when President Obama was running for office, he made a point, at one point, of criticizing the Energy Task Force meetings and said, when big oil companies are invited into the White House for secret energy meetings, it’s no wonder they end up with billions in tax breaks. So it’s really kind of extraordinary that this very man is now saying that we cannot find out what, if any, secret meetings he and his staff had with energy executives.”

Kate Sheppard is Grist’s political reporter.

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  1. Olive Ridley Posted 5:27 pm
    22 Jun 2009

    Disgusting. But he is from a coal state, so why am I not surprised. He has not relinquished too many powers that the Bush tam gave themselves, but he does not appear to have used these powers for any good either. 

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  2. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 6:39 pm
    22 Jun 2009

    They closed the doors because they wanted to make sure Obama wasn't distracted catching flies while the grown ups are talking. 

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  3. Green Granny's avatar

    Green Granny Posted 5:12 am
    23 Jun 2009

    So much for "change" or transparency.

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  4. arielarose Posted 10:38 am
    23 Jun 2009

    Seriously not surprised either. Instead of taking a page from Dick Cheney's playbook I like to keep it a little more light hearted and earth friendly, thank you very much. I was just checking out the new posts on http://www.girliegirlarmy.com ...they made me feel much better after reading this.

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  5. tmullins Posted 12:36 pm
    23 Jun 2009

    Appalachia can't stand four more years of Bush/Cheney.http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138 

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    1. the green machine Posted 1:59 pm
      23 Jun 2009

      I know! What's happening in Appalachia is just awful isn't it?  Even though Obama's President, not enough is being done to stop coal mining by mountaintop removal.  I recently read that by the end of the next decade the coal industry will have destroyed a piece of Appalachia the size of Delaware!! You should definitely take a look at this video I found that really encapsulates the damage of coal mining:http://www.thedirtylie.com/>> see "symphony of destruction" 

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  6. tmullins Posted 4:51 pm
    23 Jun 2009

    That is a great video, thanks for sharing, will add it to my web site.   I live in Wise County, VA, there's been enough land destroyed in this county alone space wise to put two cities of Roanoke.   I say Enough!  It's time we all stand up, we are the change we voted for in November.  http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138  

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    1. the green machine Posted 12:31 pm
      26 Jun 2009

      Not a problem, i'm very happy to share it with you and thanks for putting it on your site!! A lot of people think mountain top removal only destroys the environment but there are other dangerous causes as well. Strip mining can cause dangerous toxins to run into streams and seep into the ground. The truth is coal can be replaceable through renewable resources but the damage done to the apalachian mountains can't be replaced.

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  7. Elisa Young Posted 9:28 am
    30 Jun 2009

    Coal does need to be replaced with renewable resources, and it can be.  They have shown now that renewables are less expensive than coal.  The entire United States could be fueled by wave energy within 10 years.  No coal.  My family has been on solar and geothermal for over 30 years.  They are not rich, but they made the decision to invest in those energies during the Carter administration when renewable energy tax credits were a priority - not fossil fuels. The technology is here, what we need is real, honest political will to make the switch.  Shifting the subsidies off coal and putting them where they belong would be a good start.  Making sure that economic stimulus money does not go on coal (is any one paying attention?  It's going on coal, right now, as we type) is critical. I am a seventh generation Appalachian living on a farm that has been in my family since shortly after the Revolutionary War.  We are surrounded by 4 coal-fired power plants and they want to add 5 more.  Nothing is going off line.  We would become the largest concentration of coal-fired power plants in the nation - 9 in a little over 10-mile radius, knowing that the majority of particulates fall within 15 miles.  We have the highest lung cancer death rate in the state, the shortest life expectancy, highest asthma rate and the air quality around our schools was recently ranked in the top 3rd percentile for the worst air quality in the nation - despite being a remote, rural farming community an hour away from any major city.  I have people come here from New Jersey, New York, Cleveland, you name it, and they can't breathe.  One of the villages near us whose emissions blow across our breathing space regularly was bought and depopulated by the energy industry as a result of "clean" coal technology (scrubbers) gone bad that was supposed to clean up the problem.  We now have different problems, and it's tripled the amount of waste left in our community - creating stepped up demand for more strip mining and more landfills. Here is a video that highlights some of the challenges we are facing:  http://www.vimeo.com/2229549 If people are serious about stopping mountain top removal and global warming, you'd better pay attention to where that economic stimulus money is going.  It's not even existing money - it's future tax dollars that have yet to be earned.  Whatever infrastructure is created by that expenditure (which is not even ours to spend), is what our children and grandchildren will be forced to live with.  You can't fight coal mining by building more coal-dependent technologies like power plants, coal-to-liquids, and nuclear. Stand up and demand that no more economic stimulus funding goes to dead end jobs that increase global warming like buildling roads.  We need to be putting construction skills and funding on public transportation.  The two biggest contributers to global warming are coal-fired power and transportation.  Transportation was in the lead the last time I looked.  If we are against global warming, why are we signing up our children and grandchildren to fund the construction of coal-fired power plants?  Or nuclear?  If anyone tells you nuclear is the preferred option to coal, don't join the chorus on our community's account. Even nuclear power runs off coal.  There were 3 coal-fired power plants dedicated to furnishing energy for one uranium centrifuge here alone, and now they have gotten permits to put in another one.  If you think it's any mistake they are concentrating proposals for coal-fired power plants where nuclear facilities are also being proposed, think again. We need renewable, non-polluting energy resources that will not poison future generations or condemn them to problems that we are unwilling to deal with ourselves.  It's absolutely shameful. If we dont' stand up quick instead of waiting to see what those economic stimulus dollars are have been dedicated to, past tense, we are not going to have a planet left to stand on and neither will our children.  Elisa Young

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  8. Elisa Young Posted 9:28 am
    30 Jun 2009

     

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