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Thursday, April 03, 2003
The Trojan whore
Beware of lobbyists appointed to important positions.
The No. 2 official in the U.S. Interior Department participated in meetings on oil and gas leases involving companies that were clients of a lobbying firm he had worked for previously.
Clients of Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles' former lobbying firm had huge financial stakes in the leases off Florida and California.
Some of the meetings involving Griles figured in a dispute that ended with the Bush administration paying $46 million to Chevron USA Inc. to abandon a natural gas drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico, just 30 miles from Florida beaches.
Before the Senate confirmed Griles in 2001, he promised to refrain for a year from involvement in any issue in which one of his former clients or employers had a financial interest.
Though Griles is listed as a lobbyist for Chevron in reports filed with Congress by his firm, he says he did no personal lobbying for the company.
While Griles' nomination was pending before the Senate, Chevron was paying Griles' firm $80,000 to lobby the Interior Department, according to reports filed with Congress.
In September 2001, two months after he was confirmed, Griles participated in the first of at least four meetings with Interior Department colleagues about the Chevron project, according to Griles' appointment calendars, which were obtained by news organizations and environmental groups under the Freedom of Information Act.
Interior spokesman Mark Pfeifle defended Griles' actions, saying he acted ethically.
Pfeifle said Griles participated in discussions about the dispute involving Chevron's leases, but made no decisions. The Justice Department negotiated a settlement with the company.
``Steve Griles made as many decisions for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl as he did on the Destin Dome buyout,'' said Pfeifle. Destin Dome is the name of the area of the Gulf where Chevron's leases were located.
Pfeifle said the Chevron settlement was negotiated by career employees who saved taxpayers more than $285 million because Chevron and other oil companies had sued the federal government for far more than they collected.
After inquiries by The Associated Press, Griles' former lobbying partner Marc Himmelstein said the firm plans to change each of the three lobbying reports it filed with Congress to remove Griles' name.
So it looks like Griles lied at his confirmation hearings.
He wouldn't be the first Bush appointee to do that. He won't be the last.
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