Cheney Confounded Over Energy Secrets

Environmentalists claimed a significant victory over the Bush administration yesterday after a federal judge ordered the release of documents on secret contacts between a government taskforce on energy policy and industry officials.

The judge, Gladys Kessler, ruled that the release of the 7,500 pages of potentially embarrassing documents was in the "extraordinary public interest" - overriding the ruling of Vice President Dick Cheney, who led the taskforce, that disclosure would infringe on "executive privilege". She told the energy department to hand over the files by March 25.

The ruling in the US district court in Washington represented a victory for the Natural Resources Defence Council, an environmental pressure group which had gone to court to demand the documents' release.

The NRDC had first requested the documents from the energy department under the Freedom of Information Act, but had not received a response. Judge Kessler ruled that "there can be little question that the department of energy has been woefully tardy" in its treatment of the request.

The auditing arm of Congress, the general accounting office (GAO), is pursuing a parallel lawsuit to force Mr Cheney to release details of which companies his taskforce had consulted before drawing up a comprehensive energy plan.

That plan is currently being considered in the Senate, where Democrat majority leaders have taken a stand against it, denouncing it as soft on the nation's worst polluters. Democrats and environmentalists have accused the Bush White House of allowing the energy industry - including the disgraced and now bankrupt Enron corporation - disproportionate influence over the drafting of policy, as a reward for substantial campaign contributions to Republican candidates in the 2000 elections.

Energy departments said they would hand over the papers. "We've always said we would comply and have worked diligently to do so," a spokeswoman said.

The ruling only affects meetings and correspondence involving energy department employees who were seconded to the Cheney taskforce in the first few months of the year. The parallel GAO case covers all administration officials, including those from the White House.

An NRDC lawyer, Sharon Buccino, told the Washington Post: "Justice is finally served - This is going to expose the Bush energy plan for what it is: payback for polluters."