On the heels of harsh statements from CREW and Greenpeace, two additional public interest groups have now called on Senator Murkowski to come clean and return $35,000 in campaign contributions from the lobbyists who wrote her Dirty Air Act amendment.

The Alaska Public Interest Research Group wrote the following:

It’s certainly reasonable for elected officials to seek out advice and input from issue experts when crafting legislation. That sort of thing happens all the time, with non-profits, academics, and administration officials alike. But when corporations make big campaign contributions, and then their lobbyists are handed the pen to write legislation that could benefit the corporation’s short term bottom line, it just doesn’t look right.

To get rid of the appearance of these pay-to-play politics, Senator Murkowski could do two things: She could abandon her amendment that would prevent a step forward on climate change. Or she could give back the thirty five grand, along with any other corporate contributions tied to lobbyists seeking to influence crucial energy policy decisions.

In an ideal world, she would do both.

And Public Citizen wrote:

To remove the appearance of corruption, Murkowski should give back the $35,000 and any other contributions she has received from clients of Holmstead and Matella. But if she really wants to show Alaskans that she values representative democracy over pay-to-play politics, then she should become a part of the solution to the underlying problem. She should support an alternative to the current corrosive electoral system and become a co-sponsor of the Fair Elections Now Act. This bill would allow candidates for Congress to run without taking a dime over $100 from individual supporters.

But then again, a fair system with real accountability might make it tougher for polluters to prevail. It might not appeal to Murkowski and her big oil buddies, but it sure sounds like a good idea to us.

Curiously, Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon has repeatedly ignored EnviroKnow’s requests for comment for the past four months. This may have something to do with it.

Piling onto Greenpeace’s efforts, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is denouncing Senator Murkowski’s corruption:

“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.

Melanie Sloan:

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:

20091207 – SmokeScreen Final –

Talking Points Memo reports:

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: