EDITORIAL

If you had several thousand dollars to blow, are fond of the wintertime desert climate and are in the gas, coal, electricity, oil or mining business somewhere in the Western U.S., then there's a good chance you were yuckin' it up at the posh Arizona Biltmore last weekend, puttin' on the links and suckin' down margaritas with friendly Republican lawmakers.

The occasion was a fundraiser organized by Jim Sims, a former communications director for Vice President Dick Cheney's controversial Energy Task Force who happens to be the executive director of the Western Business Roundtable, a trade association that represents energy-industry companies across the West. Benefiting from the fundraiser were the campaigns of a handful of GOP lawmakers, who, in exchange, lent their ears to the paying energy executives.

One of those lawmakers was our very own Congressman Darrell Issa, who, like many others in attendance, sits on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

For $3,000, companies could send two representatives to the event, which featured a golf tournament at the Biltmore and a private dinner, both attended by the lawmakers. Not so coincidentally, and very conveniently, these captains of the energy industry could also attend-at the very same ritzy resort hotel-a conference sponsored by the Western Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on national energy and environmental policy.

On the conference agenda was a panel discussion titled “How Should The West Prepare For The Upcoming Rewrite of the Clean Air Act” and a roundtable session called “A Prosperous West in 2010: Building A Top Ten ‘To Do' List For The Congress.”

(People could also participate-free of charge-in an online survey and provide input for the “to do” list. Suggested action items included: reform the Endangered Species Act, reform the Clean Air Act, expand [industry] access to public land, reform the National Environmental Policy Act and enact the federal energy bill. There were also some general business-friendly suggestions as well, plus “fight international terrorism.”)

In addition to the politicians, also on hand were some of the Bush administration's most industry-friendly regulators, including C. Michael Smith, a former Oklahoma oilman who now oversees fossil fuels for the Department of Energy, and Jeff Holmstead, a former chemical-industry lobbyist who's now Bush's point man on revisions to the Clean Air Act in the Environmental Protection Agency. The keynote speaker was Deputy Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles, a former energy-industry lobbyist who's under investigation for allegedly engaging in meetings with former clients after signing an ethics pledge not to.

Yep, it was a real energy-lovin', environmentalist-despisin' Southwestern hootenanny. And, to the credit, we suppose, of the Western Business Roundtable's Jim Sims, there was no effort to hide this thing from the public. It was broadcast on the group's website, and after controversy erupted in some quarters, environmentalists were even invited to register for the conference-and some did.

Nonetheless, the brazen way the Bush administration is going about dismantling environmental protections-to the delight of his friends in industry-is alarming, to say the least. And Congressman Issa is right in the middle of it.

Issa proudly states that he had a major hand in the energy bill that died in the Senate late last year. It was doomed by some of his more absurd provisions, including one that would allow makers of the gasoline additive MTBE to wriggle off the legal hook for fouling drinking water supplies in various regions of the country. The bill also included generous tax breaks for energy companies and would pave the way for increased drilling on public land while exempting companies from provisions of the Clean Water Act. Meanwhile, it gave little more than lip service to expanding the development of alternative energy sources.

Industry leaders argue that conventional energy resources are dwindling amid skyrocketing demand, and they say they need help from the government in the way of financial incentives for new development, increased freedom from landmark environmental laws and unfettered access to public parklands.

Problem is, in the national energy-policy conversation-thanks to Bush stacking his environmental and energy departments with people who had long received paychecks from the industries they're supposed to be regulating-the only voice that's being heard is the one represented by the folks who paid $3,000 to golf and dine in Arizona with all-too compliant politicians.