IN THE UNITED
STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
__________________________________________
JUDICIAL WATCH, INC.,
Plaintiff, Civil
Action No.
01-1530 (EGS)
v.
CORRECTED/SUPPLEMENTAL
NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY
DEVELOPMENT GROUP, et al.,
Defendants.
__________________________________________
PLAINTIFF’S
OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO RESPOND TO AMENDED
COMPLAINT
Plaintiff,
by counsel, respectfully submits this opposition to the Defendants’ motion
(“Def Mot.”) for extension of time to respond to the amended complaint. As grounds therefor, Plaintiff states as
follows:
MEMORANDUM
OF LAW
True
to form, the Bush-Cheney Administration is seeking to further delay the prompt
resolution of this case by filing a motion seeking to extend the expeditious
briefing schedule set by the Court at the hearing held in this manner on
February 12, 2002. None of the arguments offered by the Bush-Cheney
Administration to further delay this matter has merit.
First,
the Bush-Cheney Administration claims that because Plaintiff added 14
additional federal defendants in its Amended Complaint, it will need additional time to “coordinat[e] a
full and adequate response to the Amended Complaint.” Def. Mot. at 4. However, the issues in the case have not
substantively changed with the addition of these defendants. Plaintiff added
these Defendants largely as a formality in response to Defendant NEPDG’s
argument that the NEPDG no longer existed and was no longer in possession of
the requested documents. See Transcript of February 12, 2002 Hearing
(“Hearing Tr.”) at 4-7, 60-61. In any event, Plaintiff is willing to drop the
additional defendants from this case if necessary to expeditiously move this
matter along.
Second,
notwithstanding Plaintiff’s offer to drop the new Defendants, the Bush-Cheney
Administration argues that its response will necessarily be delayed by
Plaintiff’s addition of four private parties in its Amended Complaint. Def.
Mot. at 4. However, the Bush-Cheney Administration cites no reason why briefing
and/or discovery in this manner cannot be bifurcated to allow the additional
Defendants to respond the Amended Complaint as ordered by this Court on March
1, or shortly thereafter, but also maintain the briefing schedule previously
set at the February 12, 2002 hearing.
Finally,
the Bush-Cheney Administration refers to a motion it intends to file to
consolidate and transfer this case with Sierra Club v. Vice President
Richard B. Cheney, et al., No. C 02-0462 (N.D. Cal.) The Bush-Cheney
Administration can provide no compelling reason to justify further delaying
this case while this satellite issue is being litigated, and cannot demonstrate
any prejudice that it would suffer by proceeding according to the briefing
schedule already in place. Apparently, the Plaintiff in Sierra Club does
not perceive any prejudice either as it is the Bush-Cheney Administration, not
the Plaintiff in Sierra Club, that plans to file a motion to
consolidate. If Sierra Club wanted to transfer and consolidate these cases,
apparently it would already have so moved on its own; as the Plaintiff it has a
right to choose the forum. In a telephone conversation of today with General
Counsel Alex Levinson, the Sierra Club advised Judicial Watch that it
strenuously opposes the transfer and
consolidation of its case with the above-captioned matter. A letter from the Sierra Club has been sent
to this Court’s chambers. See Exhibit 2. Sierra Club v. Vice
President Richard B. Cheney, et al., No. C 02-0462 (N.D. Cal.) was recently
assigned to a U.S. District Judge, The Honorable Phyllis Hamilton.
In
recent press reports, members of the Bush-Cheney Administration have admitted
that its strategy is to delay the disposition of this lawsuit and the recently
filed GAO lawsuit. Bush-Cheney officials have boasted that the legal process
could take years to complete. This obviously would not serve the public
interest as American citizens have a right to the documents at the earliest
practicable time to know what the Bush-Cheney Administration was doing behind
closed doors with energy interests/lobbyists.
An article today entitled “Oil Executives Lobbied on Drilling” published
in The Washington Post, provides a disconcerting glimpse of what is at
issue. Exhibit 1.
WHEREFORE,
Plaintiff respectfully requests that the Bush-Cheney Administration’s motion
for extension of time be denied and that this Court adhere to the briefing schedule
established at the February 12, 2002 hearing in this matter.
Respectfully
submitted,
_________________________
Larry
Klayman, Esq.
DC Bar
No. 334581
JUDICIAL
WATCH, INC.
501
School Street, S.W.
Suite
725
Washington,
DC 20024
(202)
646-5172
Attorneys
for Plaintiff
IN THE UNITED
STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
__________________________________________
)
JUDICIAL WATCH, INC., )
)
Plaintiff, ) Civil Action No.
) 01-1530 (EGS)
v. )
)
NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY )
DEVELOPMENT GROUP )
)
Defendant. )
__________________________________________)
[PROPOSED]
ORDER
Upon
consideration of Plaintiff’s Opposition to the Federal Defendants’ Motion for
Extension of Time to
Respond to the Amended Complaint and the entire record herein, it is hereby
ORDERED
that:
1. Defendants’ Motion is DENIED.
2. The parties shall adhere to the briefing
schedule set by this court at the hearing of
February 12, 2002.
SO ORDERED: ___________________________
Hon.
Emmet G. Sullivan
United
States District Judge
Date:
Copies to:
Larry Klayman, Esq.
JUDICIAL WATCH, INC.
501 School Street, SW
Suite 725
Washington, DC 20024
David Buchholz, Esq.
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Division, Federal
Programs Branch
P.O. Box 883
Washington, DC 20044
CERTIFICATE
OF SERVICE
I hereby certify
that on February 27, 2002 a true and correct copy of the foregoing PLAINTIFF’S
OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO RESPOND TO AMENDED
COMPLAINT was served by facsimile and first class mail, postage prepaid, on the
following:
Attorneys for Defendants:
David Buchholz, Esq.
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Division, Federal
Programs Branch
P.O. Box 883
Washington, DC 20044
_________________________
Jason Aldrich
EXHIBIT
1
The Washington Post
February 27, 2002,
Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1301 words
HEADLINE: Oil Executives Lobbied on Drilling; Two Went to Cheney Task Force to Push for Gulf of Mexico Sale
BYLINE: Eric Pianin and Dan Morgan, Washington Post Staff Writers
Shortly after Vice President Cheney launched a task force on energy policy last year, he met with two top executives from the oil and gas industry. The men from Shell Oil Co. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. pressed the new administration to stick to a long-standing plan to open a huge tract in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas exploration.
The executives' hour-long meeting with Cheney on Feb. 8, 2001, offers a rare glimpse into a process that has become draped in questions and controversy. The General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm, has sued Cheney to obtain details of his task force's meetings, hoping to learn more about efforts by energy executives and others to shape White House policy.
Relatively few details are known about those meetings because the White House is fighting the GAO's effort to have their contents revealed. But the February meeting shows how at least two politically connected energy executives tried to use Cheney and behind-closed-doors access to his task force to steer policy the way it would best serve their interests. The two men had reason to be concerned that theirs was an uphill fight. The president's brother -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) -- had recently written a letter urging that the plan be scrapped, arguing it would threaten his state's coastline and tourism.
As it turned out, the executives found a receptive audience in Cheney. Like them, the new president and vice president were oilmen. Cheney recently had stepped down as chairman of Halliburton Co., a Dallas-based oil services company with extensive operations in the Gulf. Halliburton had done business with Anadarko since 1959. Cheney's wife, Lynne, had been a director and significant stockholder of an energy company that had merged with Anadarko.
Moreover, the two White House visitors -- Anadarko Chairman Robert J. Allison Jr. and Shell Chairman Steven L. Miller -- had generously backed George W. Bush's presidential campaign. Allison gave $ 150,000 to the Republican Party; Miller gave $ 10,500 to the party and $ 1,000 to Bush's presidential campaign.
The two ultimately got much -- though not all -- of what they wanted. In July, the administration said it would allow drilling in a 1.5 million-acre sector of the Gulf's outer continental shelf, rich in natural gas and oil. The area, though one-fourth the size approved by the Clinton administration, still contained nearly half the available resources, Interior Department officials said.
In a December auction, Anadarko and Shell won the right to develop several prime sites.
The Anadarko-Shell episode suggests that Cheney's energy task force -- whose work resulted in the national energy policy released in May -- was subject to complex and competing forces. The sharp scaling back of the gulf drilling area, for example, represented a compromise between the wishes of Jeb Bush and his allies and those of Anadarko, Shell and others pushing greater oil and gas exploration.
When the July compromise was reached, Jeb Bush hailed it as reflecting "significant progress in Florida's fight to protect our coastline."
Anadarko spokeswoman Teresa Wong said, "We applauded them for going forward with the [reduced] size, but we were disappointed it was cut back."
Precisely how such compromises were reached is unclear. The White House says disclosing the task force's actions would inhibit its ability to solicit confidential advice and conduct internal deliberations.
"There were all manner of people and groups that came in and were briefed and shared their suggestions," Cheney aide Mary Matalin said. "But the deliberative process and decision-making process took place among the Cabinet-level group and only that group and their staffs."
But even some GOP lobbyists say they are baffled by the administration's stance. "It may be a fine intellectual argument, but it's not a good road for Republicans to go down right now, what with the Enron thing," a former GOP House aide said.
Aides to Cheney have said he met with only a few of the interest groups seeking input. In addition to Allison and Miller, the list includes then-Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth L. Lay; Haley Barbour, a utilities industry lobbyist and former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and officials of the Edison Electric Institute, a utilities trade association.
Andrew Lundquist, the task force's executive director, and Cheney deputy Karen Knudsen met with half of the 400 or so groups that requested access. Aides cited meetings with 118 energy industry or corporate groups, 40 renewable-energy providers, 22 unions, 13 environmental groups, five academics, 63 governmental groups, six energy efficiency proponents and a consumer group.
Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, has said that a meeting between Cheney and his board focused on the need for more coal, gas, nuclear and hydroelectric generation. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham attended several task force meetings, including one with Teamsters President James Hoffa and one in California with Gov. Gray Davis (D).
Complicating any assessment of the meetings' influence is the fact that many industry priorities coincided with the views of the market-oriented Bush administration.
The controversy over drilling in the Gulf of Mexico was rooted in a Clinton-era plan to auction off rights to a 5.9 million-acre section of the outer continental shelf south of Alabama known as Lease Sale Area 181. Under a moratorium established by President George H.W. Bush and extended by President Bill Clinton in 1998, new drilling in the gulf is largely restricted until 2012, except for Lease Sale Area 181 and another section off Florida called the Destin Dome.
But three days after President Bush's Jan. 20, 2001, inauguration, Jeb Bush wrote the Interior Department urging cancellation of Lease Sale 181 "to protect sensitive natural resources" and tourism along Florida's west coast.
Houston-based Anadarko had merged in 2000 with Union Pacific Resources. Lynne Cheney was a Union Pacific director until the merger. From the merger, she received Anadarko stock worth $ 250,000 to $ 500,000, which she sold before her husband took office.
The merger gave Anadarko access to gas and oil fields on more than 7 million acres of land in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. Allison urged the administration to open still more government property to exploration. He also called on it to stick with the plans for Lease Sale 181 in December.
Anadarko's Wong said last week that there was nothing new in Allison's message, as he had long advocated expanding mineral exploration on government land. "We didn't go marching up there just to talk about 181," Wong said.
Anadarko, she noted, had already spent more than a year studying the area and had invested $ 34 million in acquiring seismic data. Vice President Cheney expressed concern but said the Interior Department must settle the matter.
The energy task force's final report did not directly address the Gulf drilling controversy, but it did call for Interior to approve offshore oil and gas leases "on predictable schedules." Cheney made clear at a May meeting with members of Florida's congressional delegation that the administration would not agree to a ban on new offshore drilling in the Gulf.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said Cheney "spoke as if he knew this issue backwards and forwards" and sounded out the lawmakers on possible compromises, including a reconfiguration of the drilling area that would keep it at least 100 miles from Florida shores.
Nelson and some environmental groups saw the eventual compromise as a cave-in to industry interests. Nelson called it "the proverbial camel's nose under the tent."
LOAD-DATE: February 27, 2002