“We will never know whether the $50,000 contributed to Sen. Murkowski’s campaign by two of Jeff Holmstead’s energy clients is the sole reason she allowed him to help craft legislation, but surely, the money helped smooth the way. This is the sort of pay-to-play politics that makes Americans so suspicious of our elected leaders.”
Read CREW’s full blog post on this here.
World leaders, scientists and activists have gathered in Copenhagen this week to discuss global efforts to address the challenges posed by climate change. Hopes are high that these decision-makers will leave the conference with concrete ideas that will encourage substantive debate back in their respective countries.Here in America, however, the public debate could be trumped by the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of the energy industry. These powerful oil, gas and mining companies have hired well-connected lobbyists to try to derail climate change legislation. According to a new CREW report, Smoke Screen: How Bush Insiders Distorted – And Still Influence – America’s Debate Over Climate Change, many of these lobbyists are former Bush administration staffers and political appointees.
Here is the report:
A good government group is calling on the State Department to investigate the role of former ambassador Peter Galbraith in drafting Iraq’s constitution in 2005 while he held a lucrative stake in a Kurdish oil field.The letter from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to the State Dept. Inspector General asks whether State approved Galbraith’s activities, and cites a recent New York Times exposé that built off work of the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv.
The Times reported that Galbraith, advising the Kurds during the 2005 constitutional talks, helped secure “clauses that he maintains will give the Kurds virtually complete control over all new oil finds on their territory.”
Here is the letter:
