How Former Very Influential Revolving-Door Senators Give Corporate Propaganda Extraordinary Clout

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The majority of BPC's funding comes from "philanthropies" and its energy work is supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewett Foundation and Climate Works Foundation, Rosemarie Calabro Tully, spokeswoman for the think tank's energy project, told me. "Foundation funding is generally provided to support a specific project, while corporate funding is directed to support BPC's general operations," she said.

Last February, the BPC issued a report, “ America’s Energy Resurgence: Sustaining Success, Confronting Challenges,” which included over fifty policy recommendations. The chief outside consultant on the report was William Klinefelter, a lobbyist whose major clients include ExxonMobil.

So it’s hardly a surprise that the report paid lip service to alternative energy but heavily promoted the fossil fuel industry. For example, in terms of oil and gas, it called on Congress to “expand access to oil and gas exploration and production in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico,” and said the Interior Department “should accelerate the timetable for leasing areas off the coasts of the Mid-and South Atlantic states.” In other words, full speed ahead for offshore drilling.

A Wall Street Journal story on the piece quoted Lott – his status as a former Senator and affiliation with the BPC were noted, but not his work as an energy lobbyist – as saying, “I would say to the leaders, Reid and McConnell, if you’re looking for something that historically has been bipartisan, something where you could come together and do good for the country, energy is it.” It said that Lott had recalled the “good old days of bipartisan cooperation,” and that energy would be “a good place” for Congress to start that again. Other BPC personnel testified on the Hill and promoted the report's industry-friendly recommendations.

Meanwhile, the BPC’s Energy Project is holding a series of events to discuss its positions on energy. The affairs are hosted by BPC Senior Fellow and former Republican Senator Pete Domenici (who in 2006 was voted “Worst in the Senate” by Republicans for Environmental Protection due to his efforts to promote oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and David Goldwyn (who served at the Energy Department under Bill Clinton, then ran a consulting firm that provided “political and business intelligence” to oil companies, then became the State Department’s Coordinator for International Energy Affairs under Obama, and now has returned to the private sector as an energy consultant).

Speakers and panelists at the BPC's first event on June 12, 2013 included a number of energy industry analysts (for example, Edward Morse, Global Head of Commodities Research at Citibank) and former Louisana Senator Bennett Johnston. He has lobbied for energy interests ever since retiring and has also been a Chevron board member and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, a clearinghouse for climate change denial.

The keynote speaker was Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, one of the most pro-energy industry members of Congress. “We…know that this is an issue on which we must take the long view, recognizing that it will play out across decades,” she said, according to a transcript of her remarks. “We will need the best and brightest working on this question, and I see many of you gathered here today. I’m glad to join you – and glad to be part of this conversation – because we really must approach it in a balanced and bipartisan manner.”

And even more importantly to the BPC, in a manner that helps out its donors and the staff’s lobbying clients.