Business Coalition for Clean Air

public cit

philip r Sharp is a former Dem. Rep. from Indiana who served from 1975-95 on the Energy & Commerce Cmte. Sharp now serves as a "Senior Advisor" to the DC lobbying firm Lexecon (described above) and as a "Senior Policy Advisor" to the DC lobbying firm Van Ness Feldman. The Van Ness web site claims that Sharp "wrote and developed" the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which ushered in state deregulation in California and other states. Sharp serves on the board of directors of the Energy Foundation, which is one of the 5 supporters of the Commission. Van Ness Feldman took in more than $3.1 million since 2001 from energy companies and anti-environmental groups, including the following clients: Carl E. Berg, head of the Mission West Properties real estate empire, paid Van Ness $80,000 to lobby on energy and tax policies. Transcanada Pipelines and Duke, through their Foothills Pipelines subsidiary, paid $420,000 to lobby for an Alaskan natural gas pipeline. Business Coalition for Clean Air paid Van Ness $40,000 to lobby against clean air regulations.

Members include: ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Dow, Dynegy, Entergy, Lyondell-Citgo Refining, Reliant and Shell. Arctic Slope Regional Corp and its subsidiary Petro Star paid to lobby for Alaskan oil development and securing DoD fuel contracts. AEP, the country's largest utility and biggest polluter, paid Van Ness $20,000 to lobby against clean air rules. Hawaiian Electric paid $70,000 to Van Ness to lobby on energy policy. The Coal Utilization Research Council paid $300,000 to lobby for coal subsidies. Members include AEP, Cinergy, Southern Co, Peabody Energy. Vancouver-based Methanex paid Van Ness $110,000 on subsidies for methanol, MTBE and other alternative fuels. The American Chemistry Council paid $520,000 to lobby Congress. The Council's membership is a who's who of corporate chemical companies. Toyota paid Van Ness $30,000 since 2002 to lobby on the energy bill. The Nat'l Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition & the National Wetlands Coalition, two anti-environmental groups, paid $220,000 since 2002