WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- President Bush went to a labor roundtable meeting at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Thursday to try to breathe new legislative life into his energy plan as questions arose over whether Enron Corp. executives had undue influence on its preparation last spring.
"All of us know that the energy bill that's stuck in the Senate, that can't get voted on in the Senate, will be good for America," the president told the assembled labor leaders.
"This energy bill we're working on is a jobs bill," he added, referring, among other provisions, to the proposal to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "When we explore for power, U.S. power, U.S. energy in ANWR, we're not only helping us become less dependent on foreign sources of oil, we're creating jobs for American workers."
Bush chose a meeting with Teamsters to push his plan because support from them and several other labor unions helped garner Democratic support which won a House of Representatives vote on energy last August by 240 to 189. The House energy bill includes drilling in ANWR and other elements of the Bush plan.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the House bill had "$34 billion in tax giveaways to the profitable energy companies that helped write the plan."
Senate Democrats have placed their own energy bill (S-1766) on the calendar, which excludes drilling in ANWR and numerous tax provisions of the House bill. The Senate is expected to take it up before the president's day recess at the end of February.
Earlier this week Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., provided a foretaste of the kind of criticism likely to come from senate Democrats when he charged there are "at least 17 policies in the White House energy plan that were advocated by Enron or that benefited Enron."
In a report prepared by his staff, Waxman said that the six separate meetings that Vice President Dick Cheney or the energy policy staff had with Enron executives between Feb. 22 and Oct. 10 last year "creates the unfortunate appearance that a large contributor received special access and obtained extraordinarily favorable results in the White House energy plan."
Enron contributed $623,000 to Bush's campaigns since 1993, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington think tank, and the president has said that Kenneth Lay its chairman is a friend and supporter as he was of Bush's father.
Arthur Andersen LLP, which until Thursday was Enron's auditor, contributed $146,000 to Bush between 1999 and 2001 through its Political Action Committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, another Washington watchdog group.
Enron and Arthur Andersen have also donated to the political campaigns or retained several major figures in the Bush administration.
Attorney General John Ashcroft received a $25,000 contribution from Enron. Securities and Exchange Committee Chairman Harvey Pitt represented Andersen and the main accounting lobby group when he was in private practice.
Bush's economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, received a $50,000 consultancy contract from Enron before he entered government. Karl Rove, Bush's political adviser held a large amount of Enron stock until last spring.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed Waxman's report as election year manipulations and claimed that one instance of alleged favoritism in Waxman's report referred to a measure that had been adopted by a bipartisan vote of House members. Fleischer has maintained that Enron has received no favoritism from the Bush administration.
Nevertheless, the collapse of Enron, the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history, may still raise issues that could impact on the Senate's debate of the energy bill next month. When Enron went under, thousands of workers lost their savings on Enron stock in company retirement plans while senior executives sold $29 million worth of stock before the collapse.
Bill Wicker, spokesman for Bingaman's Energy Committee, said the committee will conduct hearings on Enron's collapse on Jan. 29 that will deal with competitiveness and Enron's role in the national electrical energy market. Enron was accused last year of profiteering during the California energy crisis, a charge the company denied.
There are a total of 10 congressional investigations into various aspects of the Enron collapse as well as Justice Department, SEC and Labor Department inquiries.
Wicker said that if issues were raised in those hearings that require a change in the bill, it might be delayed getting to the floor of the Senate. "Right now we don't know what we don't know," he said.
Even without the Enron questions, Wicker said the debate on the Senate bill is expected to be lively. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and John Kerry, D-Mass., have threatened to filibuster to keep Republicans from adding an amendment that would allow the administration to explore and drill for oil in the Alaska refuge and Democrats will have to fight keep out some tax breaks wanted by Republicans.
If the Senate does pass a bill without ANWR drilling and tax measures, the battle would end up in a conference committee.
