Wednesday, January 12, 2011
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 202-222-0722, ktrout@foe.org
Alex Moore, 202-222-0733, amoore@foe.org
Freedom of Information Act request targeted correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her former high-ranking campaign staffer turned pipeline lobbyist
Former Clinton staffer also appears to have been lobbying without disclosing activities
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. State Department notified environmental groups last week that it has denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for correspondence between the agency and a former presidential campaign staffer of Hillary Clinton’s who in his new role as oil industry lobbyist is seeking Secretary of State Clinton’s approval for the controversial Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline.
The FOIA request was submitted by Friends of the Earth, Corporate Ethics International, and the Center for International Environmental Law and targeted Paul Elliott, lead Washington, D.C. lobbyist for TransCanada, the company aiming to build the pipeline.
In a related development, Environment and Energy Daily reported today that Elliott registered with the U.S. Congress as a lobbyist for TransCanada on December 16, 2010, three days after the groups publicly announced they had filed the FOIA request. Elliott’s registration form cites the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill as one of his lobbying issues, which indicates that he has been lobbying without disclosing his activities for more than a year.
Marcie Keever, legal director for Friends of the Earth, characterized the State Department’s refusal to release the records as an “evasive maneuver.”
The State Department based its denial of the FOIA on two grounds, claiming the groups had not “reasonably described the records you seek in a way that someone familiar with Department records and programs could locate them” and citing the groups’ request for a waiver on the fees associated with the processing of the FOIA.
Keever concluded, “We do not believe that the State Department has legitimate legal grounds to deny our FOIA request, and assert that the agency is ignoring its own written guidance regarding FOIA requests and the release of public information. This is the type of delay tactic we would have expected from the Bush administration, not the Obama administration, which has touted its efforts to usher in a new era of transparency in government, including elevated standards in dealing with lobbyists.”
Friends of the Earth is committed to continuing its efforts to obtain the records from the State Department despite the initial denial.
The Keystone XL pipeline would be constructed by Canadian oil and gas giant TransCanada. If approved by the Obama administration, it would bring high-carbon, dirty tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to Gulf Coast refineries near Houston at a rate of 900,000 barrels per day.
*Here's the "official answer" from the US Department of State dated December 14, 2010:
"The Department is not, and will not be influenced by prior relationships that current governmental officials have had."
Sure they won't. wink wink
But we're betting she won't because this is almost indefensible given her stance on climate change and green energy. You cannot serve two masters although we see our politicians up to their necks in the idea with alarming regularity.
In an equally disturbing story from the Michigan Messenger, January 14, 2011 the House Democrats have gone off the cliff and bought into the lie of jobs before people, communities and the myth of clean coal. In what sounds more like the big business republican mantra, they are proposing a new coal plant as one of their three initiatives to create jobs.
Let's all wander outside right now and observe the flying donkeys and pigs shall we?
With fewer and fewer exceptions the merging of the two parties into corporate slugs is all but complete. Clinton has some explaining to do I so agree!
ReplyDeleteIf I had not read it in an "official capacity" I would have never believed the dems are actually pushing for a coal plant.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable!!!
And it really pisses me off!!!
Check into it Max and see which of them are coming up for re-election in 2012. I just bet some campaign money promises have been dangled, don't you?
The denial of the FOIA is crap. I don't find any solid footing in their reasons for denying the request. Even on the last one of not agreeing to pay the fees for copying, they could have at least given it chance and said 'we don't recognize your status if you want the documents you have to pay', but that obviously didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteKat, Hammell is in his third term I think and term limited so why is he pushing this might be the question.
ReplyDeleteCould be his UAW pipefitters background and wanting to keep in good graces with the union. He will need a job once he is out of office. But it's a dinosaur of an idea and hopefully he' and the others relics will get some fierce blowback for it.