Enron and the Clinton Administration: Ties that bind

Human Events, Jun 3, 2002 by Morano, Marc

Palmisano's memorandum indicated he had met with several representatives of Clinton's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Energy, the State Department and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Enron also entertained requests on helping the Clinton Administration move its climate change agenda on the domestic front. A Feb. 7, 2000, memo from Jeffrey Keeler, Enron's Director of Environmental Strategies, to various Enron executives recalled another attempt to secure the company's help.

Keeler noted how the proposal could benefit Enron because it "provides $100 million, spread across various agencies [Dept. of Energy], USAID, Commerce Dept. [Export-Import Bank], [U.S. Trade and Development Agency] for collaboration on energy technologies . . ."

Climate change in general and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change specifically were the target of criticism in some quarters of Congress, and Keeler's memo explained one way in which some of the objections to Kyoto could he decreased or eliminated.

"The White House would be interested in our assistance in building support for such `international' support," wrote Keeler, while also cautioning against the use of the word "Kyoto" when referring to climate change initiatives.

"This proposal avoids direct mention of 'Kyoto'-in fact is more in line with the [Alaska Republican Sen. Frank] Murkowski, [Idaho Republican Senator Larry] Craig, [Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck] hagel [sic] approach to climate change-supporting R&D for energy technologies," the Keeler memo stated.

Conversely, Keeler, a strong proponent of climate change initiatives, was not happy with President Bush's decision in 2001 to oppose any new laws that set mandatory reductions on carbon dioxide emission from electric power plants.

In 2001, he told the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council's Amicus Journal, "You can do something meaningful on carbon without collapsing the economy or causing an energy crisis. We believed that before the Bush announcement. We believe it now." Keeler viewed this decision as a broken Bush campaign promise and dubbed it "carbongate."

Courting Clinton and the Environmentalists

While congressional Democrats have tried to fink the now-bankrupt corporation with the Bush Administration and the Republican Party, there is evidence that Enron actually aligned itself with the environmental lobby, which put the company squarely at odds with most of the GOP on climate change issues.

While touting its relationship with militant environmental groups including Greenpeace, Enron worked to strengthen and preserve certain funding programs that helped finance hundreds of billions of dollars in Enron projects around the world during the years Bill Clinton was in the White House, documents show.

In fact in 1997, Enron joined forces with the Clinton Administration to defend OPIC from budget cuts in Congress. The agency had provided Enron with both funding and, in 1996, $200 million in "political risk insurance" for Enron's Dabhol Power plant in India, which had also been funded in large part by OPIC.