Paper Late

Last night, the U.S. Energy Department released 11,000 pages of documents pertaining to the drafting of the Bush administration's energy policy, just hours before a court-ordered deadline to turn over the papers. An initial review of the documents confirmed the suspicion of environmental organizations and Democrats that the Bush administration relied almost entirely on meetings with utilities and representatives of the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear sectors to draft the policy. All but a few of the corporations that met with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham contributed large amounts of unregulated soft money to the Republican Party during the 2000 elections. Spencer held no meetings with conservation or consumer groups, the documents show. Large portions of the documents released had been deleted, most attachments were missing, and in many cases documents included only the subject line; thousands of other documents were withheld entirely. The groups that filed suit in the first place, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, say they may return to court.