| Show liJ r The Herald Journal' Logan Utah Wednesday March 27 2002 — A71 n Newly released documents show Energy secretary n got earful from industry met no environmentalists WASHINGTON (AP) — Energy least eight private meetings with industry leaden including many staunch GOP political contributors but none with environmentalists as the administration crafted its energy plan newly released documents show' The meetings between Abraham and the energy industry executives were disclosed in thousands of papers related to agency participation in Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in early 2001 The White House on Tuesday defended Abraham and the meetings “News flash: it's no surprise to anybody that the secretary of energy d groups”-Whitmeets with House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters Of tire three dozen individuals and groups that met with Abrahan a half dozen of them accounted for nearly $33 million in political contributions to Republicans since 1999 almost three time what they gave Democrats according to the Center or Responsive Politics Critics of the administration’s energy policies have argued that industry had an open door to administration policy makers while those advocating conservation energy efficiency improvements and energy-relate- top-lev- el and renewable fuels program Abraham said in S statement that the 1 1000 pages of documents — everything from daily schedules to i i congressional testimony — “will further confirm’ that the administration sought out a wide rahge of views including that of environment I! si 2 talists " '5 til But tlie papers released late Monday by DOE document no meetings with advocates of energy efficiency or renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power The department took pains to note that the documents also catalogue 23 requests that were denied for meetings mostly with industry representatives to discuss the energy plan Among those turned down were AP photo Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skillings of Enron Corp Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman meets reporters hi Washington on While documents included reams Tuesday to dtocuss the release of documents related to Vice President Dick of energy policy statements includCheney's energy taskforce Klayman said of the nearly 5000 documents obtained some from environmental groups ing were internal communications most of the heavily redacted by Judicial Watch such as the Wilderness Society it often with only the names of the sender and recipient and a subject heading was the industry executives who had the access to Abraham a key memrenewable energy sources were given bined" he said ' ber of Cheney’s task force But the White House has refused largely lip service In all three dozen energy executo provide a list ofpeople who met Fleischer suggested that environtives and lobbyists participated in mentalists and those advocating directly with the Cheney taskforce in the months prior to its release of energy conservation or renewable eight meetihgs with Abraham from its energy report last May Abrato late April 2001 The fuels had other averiues of access ' ham's department in addition to “Others in the government routinely Cheney energy report was released in May dealing with traditional fuels also regularly meet with other (outside) oversees energy efficiency standards He met with a top executive of the officials and all of that gets com A 1 top-lev- el mid-Februa- ry American Coal Co officials of the Independent Petroleum Association of America the chairman of UtiliCorp a major power company to discuss electricity deregulation and with a half dozen utility executives and other oil and gas industry lead-er- s A “drop-by-" session to “discuss nuclear energy’s role” in the Bush energy plan lasted 30 minutes on March 20 and included thef head of the Nuclear Energy Institute chairman of Westinghouse and the chief executives of a half dozen major nuclear power utilities Industry’s access was shown in other papers among the 3000 Energy Department documents and 4000 documents also released Mpnday by the Environmental Protection Agency In one io Joe Kelliher the DOE’s point man on the Cheney task force an official of Southern Company the Atlanta-base- d power con- glomerate offers reasons why the administration should revamp a clean air regulation known as “New Source Review” which is at the heart of a series of ongoing lawsuits against Southern and several other ail utilities “I hope this is helpful” the utility See ENERGY on All Former deputy kills 4 children himself MERCED Calif (AP) —A retired sheriff’s deputy shot and killed his daughter arid his three stepchildren Tuesday while his was out for a walk then committed suicide with the body of one of the youngsters in his arms John Hogan 49 had apparently entered the house after had set out pn her his morning walk authorities said The motive was unclear Merced County sheriff’s Cmdr Mark Pazin said “Nobody could ever foresee something like this’’ Pazin said “I can’t put it into Words It’s horrifying” Hogan was found dead in the bed in the masterbed-roofoe body of Michelle Hogan in his arms Christine McFadden returned from her walk shortly after 7 aon and found her daughter dead in the hallway outside her bedroom said sheriff’s Sgt Tom McFadden went to a neighbor’s house in the well-to-neighborhood to call police then returned home with deputies and found die force other children and Hogan in separate bedrooms all shot to death “It looks like they had been sleeping” Cavallero said of tiie children McFadden told authorities ha husband was not in tiie house when she left at 6 ajn Their divorce was finalized lastyehr i “My husband has a very bad temper and when he gets angry he explodes” McFad--de- n wrote in an application for a restraining order in June 1998 three months after filingfor divorce Hagan served as a deputy from 1983 to 1993 before retiring for undisclosed med- -: ical reasons the sheriff’s ’department said The three older children were identified as Melanie Willis 17 Stanley Willis 15 and Stuart Willis 14 Melanie a junior was a student ranked sec- -' straight-ex-wi- fe ex-wi- fe m Cav-alle- ro do : - - A and was on the ballot " Fridayto become senior class vice president Stanley was on ( the baseball tram “They were very positive and engaging kids said GoIden Yalley principal Ralf Swenson Students at the school scrib bled messages about their grief on a huge banner and counselors were brought in to discuss the killings Prindpal BrendaFeefaan showed reporters a 1998 pieV tore of Melanie with braces on her teeth knd her brown hair in curls t : : : A"’ J' v hi Logan r -- v )V tf Cactw VaSay SWL In 'm- - WfafatoomyowDnanh ! 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