Judge Orders Cheney Panel’s Files Released

WASHINGTON —  A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to release documents that could shed light on secret meetings between Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force and industry officials, saying the records were in “extraordinary public interest.”

The ruling, issued Feb. 21 and made public Wednesday, requires the government to make available thousands of pages related to meetings held last year as President Bush was developing his national energy plan.

Numerous lawmakers, including Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), suspect that the meetings may reveal that industry leaders, including officials of the now-bankrupt Enron Corp., had significant input into shaping the policy.

Energy Department officials said Wednesday that they would comply with the judge’s ruling.

“We’ve always said we would comply and have worked diligently to do so,” said Energy Department spokeswoman Jill Schroeder.

A White House spokesman declined comment, referring reporters to the Energy Department statement.

The lawsuit was filed in December by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization. It seeks much of the same information as a landmark suit filed last week against Cheney himself by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Despite pleas from some Republicans, Cheney has steadfastly refused to release the records, saying that the president has the right to keep the information private and warning that disclosure might hinder the president’s ability to gather unvarnished opinions.

Administration officials said last week that if necessary they would invoke “executive privilege” to maintain the confidentiality of Cheney’s records.

Presidents dating back to George Washington have employed this doctrine to withhold information from Congress or the judiciary. By targeting the Energy Department rather than the vice president, the council skirted this issue.

The council’s Freedom of Information Act request applies only to records involving Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham or other department staff members. But since the department played a large role in the task force, it is expected that the documents will be similar to those sought under the GAO suit.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the department to release the records in two batches, on March 25 and April 10.

Noting that the council first requested the documents in April 2001, Kessler chastised the department for its “woefully tardy” response.

“In addition to having no legal or practical justification for working at a glacial pace on [the council’s request] until the suit was filed in December, the material which [the council] seeks is of extraordinary public interest,” she wrote, noting that Congress is expected to take up sweeping energy legislation as early as this week.

“It’s a devastating defeat for the administration and another sign that their position is weak and they’re not going to prevail,” said Phil Schiliro, Waxman’s chief of staff.

The continuing White House refusal to release details of its energy task force’s inner workings has caused deep consternation among Republicans, who fear the political fallout from the perception that Cheney has something to hide.

The lawsuits have also put a bright spotlight on the administration’s close ties to Texas energy executives; both Bush and Cheney have backgrounds in the energy business. And the standoff over the release of information has become even more sensitive for the Bush administration in recent months because of the collapse of Houston-based Enron, one of the nation’s largest energy companies and a major supporter of Bush’s presidential campaign.

The White House has acknowledged that Cheney or members of the task force met six times last year with representatives of Enron, but it has refused to release other details.

Previously, the Energy department had informed the court that it would release the records between March 15 and May 15. Schroeder, the department spokeswoman, said the release was delayed because the department had to sort through more than 7,000 pages of documents.

Attorneys for the council accused the department of “stonewalling.”

“We ran out of patience and the judge ran out of patience,” said Sharon Buccino, senior attorney at the council. She said she expects the records to include the names of participants at task force meetings, dates and topics discussed.

Buccino predicted that the records will reveal heavy lobbying by energy industry interests.

“It’s a policy that benefits Enron and other energy companies while doing nothing to promote true energy independence,” Buccino said, referring to Bush’s May 2001 energy plan.

A spokesman for the GAO could not be reached.

But Buccino said the GAO suit remains important because it may uncover additional meetings that did not include Energy Department officials.

In Washington today, another federal judge will hear arguments in a similar lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a watchdog legal group that is seeking the same records from Cheney.

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Times staff writer Edwin Chen contributed to this report.