This White House is leaking faster than the pipes under my house.
Today’s frontpage WaPo brings us news FINALLY of who Cheney met with back in 2001 when determining energy policy… and of course, none of us will be surprised at who that was…
Oil Executives.
A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney’s energy task force in 2001 — something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.
The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.
In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate “to my knowledge,” and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.
Chevron was not named in the White House document, but the Government Accountability Office has found that Chevron was one of several companies that “gave detailed energy policy recommendations” to the task force. In addition, Cheney had a separate meeting with John Browne, BP’s chief executive, according to a person familiar with the task force’s work; that meeting is not noted in the document.
…
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who posed the question about the task force, said he will ask the Justice Department today to investigate. “The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force,” Lautenberg said.
…
The executives were not under oath when they testified, so they are not vulnerable to charges of perjury…But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making “any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation” to Congress.
Now it all makes sense why they didn’t “need” to be sworn in to testify under oath… because we all know what can happen then… just ask Scooter.
But of course, the good brownshirts shielded the poor oil cartel’s from harm by making sure that just wasn’t going to be a possibility.
2006 is going to be an interesting year as the leaks seem to be coming fast and furious… from Republicans… now to see how the Dems decide to capitalize on them.
