Meet the Revolvers

By Ken Silverstein

Last week former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice after admitting that he lied to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff. According to an account in the New York Times , prosecutors said that Abramoff had “sought and received” advice from Griles on behalf of his Indian tribe clients; the newspaper also produced an email in which Abramoff referred to Griles as “our guy” at the Interior Department—“the one who gets everything done.”

Though unrelated to the Abramoff case, an inspector general's report from 2004 described Griles's entire tenure at Interior as an “ethical quagmire.” Previously an oil and gas lobbyist, Griles became a chief architect for the Bush Administration's energy policies, and his friends occasionally benefited in the process. For example, his former lobbying client Advanced Power Technologies won $2 million in contracts from the Interior Department when he was at the helm, and Griles also pressed the EPA to support a plan, developed by six other former clients, to drill for oil in Wyoming and Montana. Upon leaving the public sector, Griles formed a lobbying firm called Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles with former White House National Energy Policy Director Andrew Lundquist and retired Congressman George Nethercutt. The firm's clients included the American Petroleum Institute, BP, Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation, and CONSOL Energy Inc. (and that covers only the first three letters of the alphabet).

The “revolving door” is not unique to this administration, but it's been spinning like a pinwheel since Bush took office. Top officials involved in energy policy are among those who have moved through it with particular alacrity and profitability, which is no surprise given the administration's pro-industry stance. A few other notable revolvers:

Francis Blake served a mere ten months as a deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy before retiring from that post in March 2002. While there, he helped to craft the White House's National Energy Plan and led an interagency review of a Clean Air Act program. The review called for a steep reduction in lawsuits against the owners of old, highly-polluting coal-fired power plants and instead favored incentives for companies that voluntarily reduced toxic emissions. Two years after leaving his government job, Blake was named to the board of Southern Co., which had been one of the biggest beneficiaries of and advocates for the changes that Blake had implemented. Southern Co. was a major contributor to a lobbying campaign that sought the abandonment of still-active Clinton-era lawsuits against the coal companies. A number of Southern's plants had been targeted for legal action before Blake stepped in. Even before signing up with Southern, Blake had become an executive vice president at Home Depot. “Frank previously served as deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), a role similar to that of chief operating officer in the private sector,” says his bio on that company's website.

Carl Michael Smith , a former president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, was assistant secretary for fossil energy between 2002 and 2004. While in government, he pushed to promote oil drilling wherever a drop might be found, saying that improved technology would allow for “exploration and drilling [that] would leave virtually no lasting trace on the surface.” Among the areas he wanted explored was (of course) Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge. “It looks like the Sahara covered by snow,” Smith said of complaints the drilling would damage the Alaskan wilderness. “It's simply a non-issue with me.” Shortly before leaving his government post, Smith attended a $4,000-per-head event at an Arizona resort where energy industry executives golfed and dined with key congressional Republicans and administration officials. According to a published account, the executives heard “top Bush administration officials talk about an upcoming rewrite of the federal Clean Air Act and the effect of energy policy on business interests.” By the end of the week, the assembled guests had drafted a “Top Ten to-do list for Congress.”

After leaving his government post, Smith managed the Washington office for an Oklahoma-based firm called Dunlap Codding & Rogers, to which, said his bio on the firm's website, he brought "a unique understanding of public policy and energy issues and how best to address them in the public and corporate arenas." He then became a senior advisor at the Abraham Group, an international consulting firm headed by Spencer Abraham, Bush's first secretary of energy. The Abraham Group is made up entirely of revolving-door alumni, particularly cronies of Abraham. (Check out their website for the full list, not to mention the assorted photos of Spence with Bush and Cheney.)

Robert Card worked for the Kaiser-Hill Company and CH2M HILL, companies that clean up nuclear waste sites. He was named undersecretary of energy in 2001, and at the Energy Department he supervised the Office of Environmental Management—which is in charge of cleaning up nuclear-waste sites. While there was a fuss over his appointment, the Office of Government Ethics rolled over and decided there was no conflict of interest. Card left government in 2004 and soon accepted a position as president and group chief executive officer of CH2M HILL.

Randa Fahmy Hudome worked with the Bush/Cheney reelection campaign before becoming associate deputy secretary of energy, where she was the “point person” for American energy companies seeking overseas contracts. She now runs her own consulting firm, Fahmy Hudome International, where she “draws on her vast [government] experience . . . to provide superior strategy and service to an elite group of clients.” One of those elite clients was Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who wanted his name off the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. It was no easy feat, because even as Hudome (and other lobbyists retained by Qaddafi) were trying to brighten up the Colonel’s image, it was revealed that his regime had hatched a plot to assassinate then–Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, the lobbyists helped facilitate Qaddafi's move from the “bad guy” to the “good guy” column.

Vicky Bailey was deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the Energy Department until 2004. She thereafter founded Anderson Stratton International, “which advises clients on federal affairs, energy, environment, defense, and private equity.” She has also joined the boards of Scottish Power, which is looking to expand its U.S. business; Equitable Supply, the largest natural-gas producer in the Appalachian basin; and Cheniere Energy, a Houston-based company with operations along the Gulf Coast.

These entries are just the tip of the iceberg—I'll introduce you to more revolvers as time goes on.