Apostasy

Via Kevin Drum, I took a look-see at the list of all interests and individuals who got to meet with Cheney's energy task force and I find it... remarkably balanced. For Dick Cheney anyhow. Obviously Cheney was going to do what Cheney was going to do, and I don't imagine for a second that the fact that he met with the NRDC twice and then totally ignored what they had to say is in any way exculpatory. But he met with the NRDC! Twice! Seriously, if you'd asked me yesterday whether Cheney had met with a significant number of Democrats when crafting our national energy policy, I think I would have suggested you move to Norway. But it's right there! It makes you realize that a). all the semi-paranoid back-room theories about Cheney's energy task force were in some way fomented by people who we might have suspected would never have been allowed access, but who were actually allowed access, and b). Cheney met with plenty of greens, conceivably as window dressing, and then spent 6 years trying to hide that window dressing behind a brick wall. Perhaps he was worried that his friends at Exxon might think he'd gone soft. Or perhaps he just wanted to set a precedent early on--with the press and with oversight offices--that he would, as policy, not share anything with anybody ever.

Notable omission, The Sierra Club.

Also, Matt just pointed out to me that there's a suspicious number of Canadian interest groups on here. Maybe he didn't want anybody to know he'd sold our energy policy to a bunch of people with Universal Health Care.

Comments

[JimPortlandOR]

[hands skullduggery filter to Brian]

Here's my comment from Ezra's place. This makes more sense to me.

Well, secretcy as an exhibition of power makes sense (if one has the Cheney world-view).

But I sense that their is far more to what the ETF actually did than has been revealed.

I envision something like the French and British dividing up the Ottoman Empire after WWI. All those nice straight lines (in the sand) to create new client-states.

One Iraqi oilfield to BP, one to Exxon, one to Shell, etc.

Cheney's sendoff line to Oil Guys after the spoils were divided:

"We'll even provide the security".

[ken]

I wonder if Suncor was there. I wonder if Cheney owns SU or whether Haliburton has a relationship with them. May be public record for all I know, but the "suspicious number of Canadian interest groups" would be worth exploring. I can imagine Cheney seeking asylum there one day if he's not worried about having to wait 18 months to get a pacemaker.

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