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U.S. Court Rules Energy Task Force Records Will Remain Secret
May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Records from a 2001 energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney can remain secret, a U.S. appeals court ruled. DU meltdown in 5..4..3.. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club, two advocacy groups, sued to find out how much influence industry lobbyists may have had on the task force, created by President George W. Bush after he took office in 2001. The panel recommended tax breaks for oil and natural-gas producers and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington ruled today that the task force isn't legally bound to reveal the material. The court said business executives who advised the panel weren't official members and thus the panel isn't required to reveal its consultations with them. ``There is nothing to indicate that non-federal employees had a right to vote on committee matters, or exercise a veto over committee proposals,'' the eight-judge panel said. Federal law says deliberations of executive branch advisory committees can be kept private only if they are made up entirely of full-time federal officials. The Sierra Club and Judicial Watch argued that the non-government officials were effectively members of the panel, which would have required making its deliberations public. Cheney, 64, former chairman of Halliburton Co., the world's biggest oilfield services company, met with former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay as the task force sought industry input on energy policy. The panel also got recommendations from companies such as Chevron Corp. and General Motors Corp. The appeals court previously ruled that Cheney's bid to block all disclosure of the records was premature. The U.S. Supreme Court last June allowed him to avoid turning over the records, citing a need to protect presidential confidentiality. Posted by: Steve 2005-05-10 |
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