Kuhn, T

=http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/247384-utilities-lobby-top-obama-officials-on-climate-rule 07/09/15 12:48 PM EDT<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded">Lobbyists representing major electric utilities met with top Obama administration officials this week, urging them to roll back provisions of the upcoming climate rule for power plants.While recent weeks have seen dozens of lobbyists opposing and supporting the regulation <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/247158-businesses-flock-to-white-house-in-bid-to-shape-power-plant-regs" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">meet</a>with the White House, the two utility meetings were unique in the number of high-ranking Obama administration officials attending.<div id="dfp-ad-mosad_1-wrapper" class="dfp-tag-wrapper wrapper" style="position: relative;" />Top Obama adviser <a class="rollover-people-link" href="http://thehill.com/person/brian-deese" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Brian Deese</a> attended the meetings on Monday and Wednesday, as did Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air pollution chief <a class="rollover-people-link" href="http://thehill.com/person/janet-mccabe" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Janet McCabe</a>, top OMB regulatory director <a class="rollover-people-link" href="http://thehill.com/person/howard-shelanski" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Howard Shelanski</a> and others, according to records from the White House Office of Management and Budget.The Monday meeting included leaders from some of the nation’s largest power companies opposing provisions of the carbon limits, including American Electric Power Co., Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Duke Energy Corp. and DTE Energy, along with Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, the main lobby for investor-owned utilities.On Wednesday, executives from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Exelon Corp., National Grid and other companies had their own White House meeting with similar officials.The Edison Electric Institute said it used the Monday meeting to reiterate the concerns it has already registered to the EPA on its rule, which it plans to issue in August.<div class="connatix" cnx-creative-type="ExternalLink" style="border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); border-top: 3px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); clear: both; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 7px 20px 23px;"><h5 style="line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 22px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;">“This meeting was part of our ongoing outreach efforts on the Clean Power Plan,” Quin Shea, vice president for environment at the group, said in a statement. “EEI’s comments submitted to EPA in December outline several areas of industry concern with the guidelines as they have been proposed, and provide suggestions to address those concerns.”</h5></div>Those formal comments warned that the EPA is seeking “dramatic changes” in the way electricity is produced, transmitted and consumed, and asked for more flexibility in important parts of the rule.The OMB is obligated to meet with any interested stakeholders about rules it is reviewing from federal agencies. </div></div></div><div class="article-tags" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 20px 0px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><label style="display: inline-block; float: left; margin-right: 5px; text-transform: uppercase;">TAGS:</label><a href="http://thehill.com/person/brian-deese" title="Brian Deese" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Brian Deese</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/person/janet-mccabe" title="Janet McCabe" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Janet McCabe</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/person/howard-shelanski" title="Howard Shelanski" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Howard Shelanski</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/social-tags/environmental-protection-agency" title="Environmental Protection Agency" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Environmental Protection Agency</a>,<a href="http://thehill.com/social-tags/climate-rule" title="climate rule" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">climate rule</a></div>=
So Co $1.6 m 99-02 met 7x, hired haley barbour and current rnc Marc Racicot SIC to

lobby esp on co2, NSR rule key, req gpa plants to install control when upgrade or

expand 106  prosecuted by BC (8 of 51); dpet Just forced to drop suits EPA cheif

enforcement officer quit 106 "if you have a good lobbyist, you can just buy your

way out of trouble" 106

joined by edison's Tom Kuhn, b pioneer college roomate

edison $600k to gop 99-02 and its members almost $20 mil since 98  106 rfk

rep rec'd exempt old power plants from CAA; barbour raised $250K at may 21 gala,

$150k from So co.107

bundling:

"Those industries apparently were eager to get credit with the campaign for their contributions. Documents disclosed in the campaign-finance case included a memo from <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tom_Kuhn&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Tom Kuhn (page does not exist)">Tom Kuhn</a>, president of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Edison_Electric_Institute" title="Edison Electric Institute">Edison Electric Institute</a>, a trade group for electric utilities. ... In it, he reminded industry colleagues of the importance of including his tracking number, 1178, on their checks to the Bush campaign, to 'ensure that our industry is credited, and that your progress is listed among the other business/industry sectors.'

"The watchdog group <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Common_Cause" title="Common Cause">Common Cause</a> has identified 14 Pioneers from 2000 whose business interests benefited from Bush administration decisions, primarily through the easing of federal regulations. Those fundraisers 'prospered in their investment in the 2000 campaign,' charged the group, which supports reform of the public finance system for presidential campaigns. Bush's ability to raise large amounts has allowed him to opt out of that system for the primaries.

"In a deposition for the court case, Sen. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Russ_Feingold" title="Russ Feingold">Russ Feingold</a>, D-Wis., who sponsored the campaign-finance law, expressed concern that bundling might be the next loophole in the law he helped write. It 'could conceivably begin to recreate something that would begin to look like' the old system in which the parties could collect unlimited donations from a person or group, he said."

"Although Bush has raised bundling to a new level, he's not the only one to practice it. Many Democratic candidates for president are seeking to emulate Bush's model.

"'Every fundraising event I have had has yielded other people who will do fundraising events, and that's what you seek to do,' Rep. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_Gephardt" title="Richard Gephardt">Richard Gephardt</a>), D-Mo., says. 'It's like a giant Tupperware party.'

"Part of the challenge is to convert big-money donors into big-money raisers, and it's not always a sure bet. 'There's not always a correlation between somebody who can write you a $50,000 check and someone who can raise 25 $2,000 checks,' Gephardt says. 'That's a very different human skill.'

"Other Democrats also are working hard at bundling donations.

<h3>Republican lobbyists sponsored fundraiser for "Independent" Senate race</h3>

President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/George_W._Bush" title="George W. Bush" class="mw-redirect">George W. Bush</a> "moved a step closer to Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman's re-election bid in Connecticut as an independent candidate when <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tom_Kuhn&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Tom Kuhn (page does not exist)">Tom Kuhn</a>, the president's college roommate and close friend, co-sponsored a Lieberman fund-raising luncheon ... in downtown Washington," <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Novak" title="Robert Novak">Robert Novak</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/78015,CST-EDT-novak01.article">reported</a> in the October 1, 2006, Chicago Sun-Times. "Also among the Lieberman event's sponsors was <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Shelby&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Rick Shelby (page does not exist)">Rick Shelby</a>, a longtime Republican operative who is executive vice president of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Gas_Association" title="American Gas Association">American Gas Association</a>.

"The luncheon's sponsors pressed fellow Republican lobbyists to pay a minimum of $1,000 a ticket." <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/78015,CST-EDT-novak01.article">[12]</a>

<h3>Wife works as lobbyist</h3>

In March 2005, Lieberman’s wife, Hadassah, joined the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Hill_%26_Knowlton" title="Hill & Knowlton">Hill & Knowlton</a> lobbying firm. She stated as her reason: “I have had a life-long commitment to helping people gain better health care…I am excited about the opportunity to work with the talented team at Hill & Knowlton to counsel a terrific stable of clients toward that same goal.” She has been criticized for joining the firm, for it has spent a considerable amount of time as a defendant in tobacco class-action lawsuits for its role in distributing propaganda disputing the health risks of smoking.

In addition, one of the firm’s major clients is <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/GlaxoSmithKline" title="GlaxoSmithKline">GlaxoSmithKline</a>, the British pharmaceutical company. In April 2005, Lieberman introduced a bill that would award new government “incentives” to companies like GSK to produce more vaccines—notably patent extensions on existing products. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.observer.com/20060717/20060717_Joe_Conason_politics_joeconason-2.asp">[13]</a>