Cream Team
The Bush administration could well be termed the industry's dream team. Here's a sample of the right connections:
DON EVANS. Commerce secretary. Spent 25 years at an oil and gas company.
SPENCER ABRAHAM. Energy secretary. Received more money (US $700,000) from the automotive industry last year than any other Senate candidate.
ANDREW CARD. White House chief of staff. Was chief lobbyist for General Motors and CEO of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association.
KARL ROVE. Bush's senior political advisor. Owned stock in Enron, BP Amoco and Royal Dutch Shell.
LAWRENCE LINDSEY, Bush's economic advisor, earned $50,000 last year as a consultant to Enron on natural gas issues.
CLAY JOHNSON. Director of presidential personnel. Holds substantial stock in El Paso Energy Partners, a Houston oil and natural gas company.
LEWIS LIBBY. Vice President Cheney's chief of staff. Held energy stock till recently including holdings in Enron, Exxon-Mobil and Texaco.
GALE NORTON. Interior secretary. Received nearly $800,000 from energy industries during her 1996 run for the Senate.
CAM TOOHEY. Interior special assistant for Alaska. Previously worked for Arctic Power, which lobbied for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
PAUL O'NEILL. Treasury secretary. Was chairman of the aluminum giant Alcoa for 13 years. Promised to sell his extensive stock holdings in his former company (worth more than $100 million) to avoid conflicts of interest. When he finally sold it in late June, Alcoa's stock had risen 30 per cent, in part because of the administration's energy policies.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE. National security advisor. Served for a decade on the board of Chevron. Chevron named an oil tanker after her.
VICKY BAILEY. Assistant energy secretary for international affairs and domestic policy. Was president of PSI, a subsidiary of Cinergy Gas.
FRANCIS BLAKE. Deputy energy secretary. Was a senior vice president at General Electric, which contributed more than US $100,000 to the Bush presidential campaign and his inaugural committee.
SAMUEL BODMAN. Deputy commerce secretary. Was CEO of Cabot, a Texas chemical company cited as the fourth-largest source of toxic emissions in the state.
KATHLEEN COOPER. Undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs. Was chief economist and manager of economics at Exxon-Mobil.
DEBORAH DANIELS. Assistant attorney general. Was registered in Indiana as a lobbyist for Cinergy.
Source: Natural Resources Defense Council