Corporate Think Tank Dives into Water Policy

By Diane Farsetta, PR Watch. Posted April 30, 2009.

Hunton & Williams' lobbying clients include the oil giant ConocoPhillips, the electric industry's Edison Electric Institute, infamous polluter Koch Industries and the powerful National Association of Manufacturers lobby group. Also on the list is "Americans for Affordable Climate Policy," a front group formed by coal interests to ensure that any cap-and-trade system gives free emissions credits to industry. Hunton & Williams' non-lobbying clients include Altria (formerly known as Philip Morris), military contractor General Dynamics, drugmaker Pfizer and Texas energy company Luminant (formerly known as TXU).

On water issues, Hunton & Williams lobbies for the Waters Advocacy Coalition, another industry front group whose members include the National Mining Association, the anti-regulatory and industry-funded Western Business Roundtable, the pesticide industry group CropLife America and the American Forest & Paper Association, which represents the "forest products industry."

WPI's director is Kathy Robb, a Hunton & Williams partner focused on resources, regulatory and environmental law. In a 2005 filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, Robb argued that hydroelectric dam operators shouldn't be regulated under the Clean Water Act. In 2005 and 2006, Robb filed briefs on behalf of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which operates the Central Arizona Project. The briefs supported a canal lining project that environmentalists and local groups feared would dry up wetlands and harm rural communities. Robb's clients include "developers, electric utilities, investors, chemical manufacturers, and paper mills," according to Hunton & Williams' website.

See more stories tagged with: water, dams, water pollution

Diane Farsetta is senior researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy.

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