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Dear Ryan,
Thank you for sharing. Actually, we saw this piece earlier and wanted to
have a discussion in this regard.
Best,
Vadim


2014-06-30 16:28 GMT+03:00 Toohey, Ryan <Ryan.Toohey@fticonsulting.com>:

> All, please see below a piece that mentions Hunter’s appointment as part
> of a broader trend, mostly within the context of relatives of eleceds
> engaged to lobby for the energy industry. This was a freelanced piece
> picked up in a number of web-based outlets including Salon, but nothing
> with significant reach.
>
>
>
> SUNDAY, JUN 29, 2014 08:00 AM EDT
>
> Natural gas industry hires family members of leading politicians
>
> What's worse: In many cases, these politicians hold sway over decisions
> critical to leading gas companies
>
> LEE FANG, REPUBLIC REPORT
>
>
>
> Natural gas industry hires family members of leading politicians
>
>
>
> In May of last year, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, now considered the
> favorite to win West Virginia’s open Senate seat, stood on a small platform
> in Charleston, behind a row of tiny trophies in the shape of drilling rigs.
> She was there to congratulate the Energy Corporation of America, a major
> gas exploration and distribution company, on its plans to open a new
> building in the state capital. The company needed new space to accommodate
> over a hundred new employees in coming years. “I am honored to attend the
> groundbreaking celebration of the ECA’s new eastern headquarters,” Capito
> told the crowd, according to an ECA press release. “This privately held
> company has brought economic growth to West Virginia.”
>
>
>
> Though there’s no record of her having acknowledged it publicly, among
> those hired by the growing firm is her own son, Arch Moore Capito, who was
> retained as in-house counsel by ECA after his graduation from Washington &
> Lee University’s law school in 2011.
>
>
>
> The hiring of Arch, named after Capito’s father, the late West Virginia
> governor Arch Moore, highlights a growing trend. Major players in the gas
> industry, which faces major regulatory hurdles relating to its extraction
> and distribution infrastructure, exports, and environmental issues, have
> taken to hiring the relatives of powerful politicians.
>
>
>
> In May, Hunter Biden, the son of the vice president, made headlines when
> he joined the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas producer. Last
> year, Marty Durbin, the nephew of Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), was named
> president of America’s Natural Gas Alliance, the primary trade group
> representing fracking companies. Also last year, EQT Corporation—one of the
> largest natural gas producers in Appalachia—registered Robert Shuster, the
> brother of Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA)—as a lobbyist.
>
>
>
> Other lawmakers have enjoyed largely unreported family ties to the
> industry for several years. In 2010, Teddy Carter, the son of Rep. John
> Carter (R-TX), became a lobbyist for a Texas trade group that represents
> independent drilling companies involved in fracking as well as traditional
> oil and gas extraction. Last year, Teddy Carter worked to influence Texas
> rules governing how water wells are used to supply fracking projects.
>
>
>
>
>
> In some cases, politicians with family ties to the gas industry hold sway
> over decisions critical to the industry. Rep. Shuster, for instance, is
> chairman of the House Transportation Committee, which oversees pipeline
> safety regulations. Registration forms show Shuster’s brother was retained
> to work on “issues related to the regulation of shale gas production and
> pipeline safety initiatives” on behalf of EQT.
>
>
>
> Capito is a member of the same congressional committee. As a member of the
> GOP’s House Energy Action Team, which is largely dedicated to promoting
> increased fossil fuel development, including fracking, she has been an
> outspoken advocate for expanded natural gas drilling. And back in 2007,
> before her son was retained by ECA, she read a statement of praise for ECA
> into the congressional record.
>
>
>
> The League of Conservation Voters lists a number of votes in which Capito
> has sided with the fracking industry. Last year, she voted for a bill that
> would, in the name of states’ rights, prohibit the federal government from
> regulating fracking if a state has even minimal regulations or guidance of
> its own in place. And she voted against an amendment to the bill that would
> haveallowed the Department of the Interior to limit methane emissions from
> oil and gas drilling on public lands. The amendment was defeated, and the
> bill — known as the Protecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy
> Security Act — passed in the House by a wide margin and awaits Senate
> action.
>
>
>
> “It’s easier and less expensive [for corporations] to attempt to pursue
> favorable regulation at the state level,” says Mitch Jones, director of the
> Common Resources Program at Food & Water Watch, which opposed the bill.
> “The level of expertise is often lower at the state level than the federal
> level and the money industry brings to bear is often much more influential.”
>
>
>
> FirstEnergy Corp, an electrical company that relies heavily on natural
> gas, is one of the top five donors to her campaign committee, with $32,650
> in donations from its employees. And employees of ECA and its subsidiaries,
> including chief executive John Mork, now rank among Moore Capito’s largest
> individual donors, with nearly $60,000 in contributions.
>
>
>
> Capito did not respond to a request for comment.
>
>
>
> “ECA’s relationship with Congresswoman Capito is cordial and respectful,
> although our contact with her office has been fairly limited in nature,”
> says Jennifer Vieweg, a spokesperson for ECA. “And, while John and Julie
> Mork are personal friends with Charlie and Shelley Moore Capito, this
> relationship has existed since the mid-1980s and long before she entered
> politics.”
>
>
>
> ECA, a rapidly growing company that recently inked a $90 million
> partnership with Chinese state-owned Shenhua Energy Co. to drill the
> Marcellus Shale in southwestern Pennsylvania, has had its share of
> regulatory violations. In Pennsylvania, the state environmental regulator
> has cited the company for at least 23 violations since 2008 related to
> discharging pollutants into public lands and water.
>
>
>
> “Despite the abundance of natural gas and all of the good that comes with
> responsible development of this resource,” wrote James Flavin, an ECA
> business operations manager in a trade publication, “unnecessary regulatory
> and environmental burdens could restrict the industry’s ability to provide
> low-cost, clean energy for the State of West Virginia and the nation.”
>
>
>
> “The fact that her son is on ECA’s payroll ought to require her to recuse
> herself from voting on bills to benefit the company which enriches her
> close family members,” says Lisa Graves, president of the Center for Media
> and Democracy, a liberal watchdog group. “It’s certainly a conflict of
> interest.”
>
>
>
> Durbin, Biden, and other Democrats have increasingly aligned with the
> natural gas lobby as both a geopolitical weapon against Russia and a
> so-called “bridge fuel” to wean the economy off of more high-carbon fossil
> fuels, such as coal and oil. In March, Durbin expressed support for
> fast-trackingliquefied natural gas exports—a key lobbying priority of the
> trade group where his nephew works, America’s Natural Gas Alliance—in
> response to the crisis in Ukraine, though he has since raised concerns
> about its impact on domestic natural gas prices. For his part, Biden
> traveled to Ukraine this April to announce a $50 million aid package that
> included technical support for increasing the country’s natural gas
> production—an investment that could bolster profits at Burisma Holdings,
> where his son is a director.
>
>
>
> Lee Fang is an investigative journalist in the Bay Area.
>
>
>
> *Ryan F Toohey*
>
> +1.212.850.5678 T | +1.917.280.2198 M
>
> *ryan.toohey@fticonsulting.com <ryan.toohey@fticonsulting.com>*
>
>
>
>
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