March 26 — Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met with 36 representatives of business interests while helping to write President Bush’s energy policy, and he held no meetings with conservation or consumer groups, the Energy Department disclosed last night.
EnEnergy department discloses - - -
THE INFORMATION was released by the Energy Department just a few hours before a court-ordered deadline and after 11 months of resistance by the administration to lawsuits by public interest groups seeking to determine who influenced the writing of the administration’s energy plan.
A first review of the 11,000 pages of documents released bolsters the contention of Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups that the Bush administration relied almost exclusively on the advice of executives from utilities and producers of oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy while a White House task force drafted recommendations that would vastly increase energy production.