Cheney Reveals Enron Meeting
Jan. 9, 2002 -- Under pressure from Capitol Hill, Vice President Dick Cheney for the first time has acknowledged he and his aides had a series of meetings with executives of Enron Corp., including CEO Kenneth Lay, a major backer of the Bush campaign.
The meetings were to discuss Bush administration energy policy, and not financial concerns of the now-collapsed energy colossus, Cheney maintained.
In a letter faxed from Cheney's office to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., on Jan. 3, but only released Tuesday, Cheney's office lists a total of six meetings between the vice president or his staff members on the administration's energy task force and Enron representatives.
Four of the meetings, including one between Cheney and Lay, took place before the task force issued a sweeping set of policy recommendations last May 17.
Meetings Predate Massive Bankruptcy
It is the first disclosure of its kind from Cheney, who has been reluctant to release information about the energy task force's activities or to identify the energy-industry executives it met with.
But the letter repeatedly emphasizes that in the meeting between Cheney and Lay, held on April 17, as well as in five other meetings, the participants "did not discuss information concerning the financial position of the Enron Corporation."
Waxman had sent a request to the White House Dec. 4 for details of contacts between Enron and the administration, wondering if the bankrupt energy trader had passed along "information about its precarious financial position" at any of the meetings.
Two days earlier, Enron — a heavyweight contributor to President George W. Bush's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns — filed the biggest bankruptcy petition in U.S. corporate history, concluding a stunning fall from fiscal grace.
In November, Enron revealed its financial position was $1.2 billion worse than its publicly filed financial statements previously indicated. Congressional inquiries into the company's activities — as well as possible wrongdoing by Lay and former Enron president Jeffrey Skilling — began in December and will resume on Jan. 24, after Congress' recess ends.
Battle Over Bush Energy Ties
The airing of the letter represents just the latest round of sparring between the Bush administration and congressional Democrats over the White House's ties to oil and energy companies.
Waxman and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., have been actively trying since last April to obtain the list of meetings held by Cheney and the energy task force. But the Bush administration has been steadfast in its refusal to make the information public, prompting the General Accounting Administration, the government's investigative arm, to threaten a lawsuit to reveal the task force's activities.
Waxman said in response to the Cheney letter that despite the vice president's denial of knowledge about Enron's finances, the information Cheney is now providing does not address significant issues pertaining to the possible influence of energy companies over the administration's policy decisions.
The Cheney letter "fails to reveal important details about these meetings", said Waxman, including "the subjects discussed at the meetings … any requests for changes in federal policies made by Enron executives … copies of any documents presented or discussed … and the names of persons attending the meetings."
And Waxman's letter pointedly notes that a day after meeting with Lay, Cheney publicly commented that his administration would reject price caps on wholesale electricity prices as a solution to the energy crunch California was experiencing — a position shared by Enron and other major energy suppliers and traders.
Close Ties and Overlap
The close ties between the Bush administration and Enron come from a long-standing relationship, and campaign-finance watchdogs generally considered the company to have been Bush's most staunch benefactor.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, Enron has contributed more than $500,000 to Bush's political activities, starting with his gubernatorial campaigns.
As recently as October 16, with a crisis atmosphere swirling around Enron, the company gave $60,000 to the Republican National Committee.
Lay himself worked with the Bush transition team and helped screen candidates for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Bush's most prominent economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, and his point man on trade issues, Robert Zoellick, have both served as Enron advisers.
Lindsay received $50,000 from Enron for his services, while Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, owned Enron stock while the energy task force was conducting its work. Rove sold his shares for $68,000 last June.