DOE Ordered to Hand Over Energy Policy Papers.

Oil Daily, The, March, 2002

DOE Ordered to Hand Over Energy Policy Papers

In a victory for environmental groups seeking to determine industry executives' influence over the Bush administration, the Department of Energy (DOE) will release documents relating to the development of the White House energy plan after being ordered to do so by a district court.

Judge Gladys Kessler of the US District Court in Washington, D.C., said the federal agency was "woefully tardy" in releasing the papers, and ordered it to turn over 7,500 pages of documents by Mar. 25 to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which sued the government for the papers in December.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and DOE spokeswoman Jill Schroeder said the department would comply with Kessler's order,...