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Topic: Steven Griles


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In the News (Sun 5 Jul 09)

  
  TPMmuckraker: Steven Griles Archives
Griles' lawyer has asked that Griles be sentenced to community service, well, that he be sentenced to do what he does best, and that is lobby -- though on behalf of supposedly noble causes.
The filing reveals that Griles was romantically involved with Italia Federici (identified as Person A) from 1998 through 2003, and that it was that relationship which led to Jack Abramoff's access to Griles while he was deputy secretary of the Interior.
Griles and his current girlfriend, Sue Ellen Wooldridge, successfully kept their relationship from the department's Inspector General when he was investigating Griles for lobbying for his old clients on the inside -- at the time, Woolrdige, then Norton's deputy chief of staff, had been charged with watching over Griles.
www.tpmmuckraker.com /archives/cats/steven_griles   (2036 words)

  
 Ex-deputy pleads guilty in Abramoff case - Boston.com
Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles on Friday became the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, pleading guilty to obstructing justice by lying to a Senate committee.
Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, leaves the U.S. Federal Court in Washington, Friday, March 23, 2007, after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in a Senate committee's investigation, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal.
Griles pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstruction, admitting in a plea agreement that he lied in testimony before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Nov. 2, 2005, and during an earlier deposition with the panel's investigators on October 20, 2005.
www.boston.com /news/nation/washington/articles/2007/03/23/griles_to_plead_guilty_in_abramoff_probe   (1095 words)

  
  Steven Griles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Steven Griles (born December 13, 1947) was the Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Interior from July 2001 to January 2005.
Griles was formerly a principal with National Environmental Strategies, Inc. (NES), a consulting firm providing advice to companies, trade associations and others with regard to policy, regulatory, environmental and energy issues at the Federal and State government level.
Since leaving office, Griles has joined with two other political veterans (former White House national energy policy director Andrew Lundquist and former House member George Nethercutt) to form the political lobbying firm of Lundquist, Nethercutt and Griles, LLC.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Steven_Griles   (298 words)

  
 Shafted - Salon
Griles, who today is deputy secretary of the interior, served as the No. 2 man at the Office of Surface Mining under President Reagan, and his comment was music to industry ears: Mining companies had been gunning for the office ever since it came into being in 1977.
Griles formally recused himself "from becoming involved in official matters dealing with [his] former employers and clients" when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for Interior's No. 2 post on July 12, 2001.
Griles is a key player in efforts by industry and anti-regulation ideologues to strip away regulatory and enforcement powers from the federal government, according to current and former DOI officials closely familiar with the deputy's career.
dir.salon.com /story/tech/feature/2003/12/11/griles/index.html   (728 words)

  
 TAP: Vol 13, Iss. 16. The West's Griles Virus:. Sasha Polakow-Suransky.   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Griles, who epitomizes the revolving door between government and industry, has alternated between getting rich working for industry and serving at high-level government posts, where he has devised industry-friendly policies to open public lands to drilling and mining.
Griles also lobbied for NES Inc. and his own firm, J. Steven Griles and Associates, during which time he represented the Coalbed Methane Ad Hoc Committee, as well as Western Gas Resources, Devon Energy and Redstone, all major players standing to benefit from drilling in the Powder River Basin.
Griles exemplifies an administration in which high-level appointees move seamlessly from lobbying firms and big corporations into roles where they are charged with regulating the industries from which they came.
www.prospect.org /print/V13/16/polakow-suransky-s.html   (1437 words)

  
 DENlines interview with Rodger Schlickeisen   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Griles is effectively the CEO of the Interior Department and has had a direct hand in decisions that have opened huge tracts of western public lands to development, weakened wetlands protection and undermined the Clean Air Act.
Griles, denying his obvious conflicts of interest, praising his actions that benefit his former clients in the oil and gas and mining industries, and supporting her department's refusal to provide information that should be available to the public.
Griles has indicated that he sold his partners his "client list." I would suggest, first, that it is extremely unlikely that they did not already have that list, and indeed that they did not already know those clients quite well...
www.defenders.org /newsroom/griles03.html   (1078 words)

  
 Official's Lobbying Ties Decried   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Griles said he wouldn't be involved in any particular matter that impacts his previous clients and employer, and he clearly was involved in discussions about rule-making that have weakened environmental laws and have had positive impacts on his previous clients," said Kristen Sykes, a researcher for Friends of the Earth.
Griles, a mid-level Interior official in the Reagan administration and onetime Virginia coal company vice president, has generated concern among environmentalists and some lawmakers because of his extensive industry ties and his reputation for aggressively pushing to loosen environmental restrictions to open more public land to drilling and mining.
Griles has also been involved in deliberations over clean-air enforcement policy and initiatives, a topic handled primarily by the EPA and the Energy Department According to his calendar, Griles attended at least 16 meetings with other administration officials or industry groups or advocates to discuss air pollution issues.
www.defenders.org /newsroom/griles.html   (1723 words)

  
 Nature And Politics (June 4, 2003)   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Griles, who was then the Bush administration's point man on the financial impacts of air quality rules on the energy industry, lent a sympathetic ear.
Griles was an ownership partner in a DC lobbying firm called National Environmental Strategies, a polluter's lobby founded in 1990 by Marc Himmelstein and Haley Barbour.
Griles used Bushrod as a human shield to deflect Baskin's questions about his sleazy ties to his friends in big oil until he reached his waiting limo, whereupon he relinquished the woman and made his getaway amid a puff of dust and smoke.
eatthestate.org /07-20/NaturePolitics.htm   (1235 words)

  
 Shafted - Salon
Griles personally recommended Jarrett for the directorship of the Office of Surface Mining, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton -- who called Jarrett the "perfect choice" -- forwarded the name to President Bush.
During the Reagan administration Griles was known as a hatchet man, firing or transferring regulators he deemed to be pro-environment, according to former DOI officials.
Mark Pfeifle, press secretary for the Department of the Interior, says that Deputy Secretary Griles has behaved "ethically and professionally," and that the allegations against his boss are unfounded.
dir.salon.com /story/tech/feature/2003/12/11/griles/index1.html   (924 words)

  
 Citizens Coal Council   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Griles began meeting with administration officials and former clients -- on matters of interest to the former clients.
Griles says that whenever he was in doubt about the propriety of a meeting or conversation, he checked with the Interior Department's ethics lawyer.
Griles' behavior cannot possibly square with several agreements he signed to recuse himself from matters that could affect his former lobbying firm and its customers.
www.citizenscoalcouncil.org /news/conflict.htm   (313 words)

  
 Bill Nelson, U.S. Senator from Florida: News Article: Nelson fires latest shot in offshore drilling war   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Steven Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist, is President Bush's choice for the No. 2 spot at the Department of the Interior.
Griles told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week that he did not silence the opposing side and that he met with Fish and Wildlife Service scientists.
Griles was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last month by a vote of 18-4.
www.senate.gov /~billnelson/news/details.cfm?id=244482&   (769 words)

  
 J. Steven Griles - SourceWatch
Griles, "who oversaw the Bush administration's push to open more public land to energy development," announced December 7, 2004, that "he was stepping down," Associated Press writer Matthew Daly reported January 31, 2005.
Griles also sat on the President's senior policy group for the "Clear Skies" initiative (a misleading euphemistic name for a policy that is notorious for easing restrictions on corporate polluters), participating in at least 11 of its meetings.
Griles' superior, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, wrote in response to his resignation, "Yours is the letter I hoped would never come." David Hirsch of the environmental group Friends of the Earth said of Griles' plans to take a private sector job, "That's the whole problem: He never left private life.
www.sourcewatch.org /index.php?title=Steven_Griles   (2797 words)

  
 WJLA - Steven Griles to Testify in Lobbyist Probe   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
WJLA - Steven Griles to Testify in Lobbyist Probe
Steven Griles, himself a former lobbyist who resigned last December as deputy interior secretary, and leaders of a Louisiana tribe that paid lobbyist Jack Abramoff and an associate $32 million were to testify Wednesday before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Griles is the most senior Bush administration official drawn into an investigation by the Senate committee's chairman, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on what Abramoff and associate Mike Scanlon did to earn the $80 million they were paid by six Indian tribes.
www.wjla.com /headlines/1105/274030.html   (566 words)

  
 8/12/2004 -- Interior Department's Steven Griles Resigns
Griles, the department's deputy secretary, said he plans to leave office by the end of January and return to private business.
Griles continued to receive $284,000 a year, in addition to his Interior salary, as part of a four-year severance package from his former lobbying and consulting firm.
Griles expressed pride in encouraging energy development, such as in the Rocky Mountains and other Western areas, and improved cooperation between the government and private conservation efforts.
www.climateark.org /articles/reader.asp?linkid=37125   (669 words)

  
 In These Times | James Watt of the 21st Century
Steven Griles has taken his skills as a corporate shill for the energy industry to the Interior Department.
Griles is a former employee of the oil and gas lobbying firm National Environmental Strategies, which is currently paying him $284,000 a year as part of a $1.1 million buyout of his client base.
During the Reagan administration, Griles served in the Interior Department where he was involved in a shady deal to sell the mineral rights to 17,000 acres of federal land to a private company for $42,000.
www.inthesetimes.com /comments.php?id=343_0_8_0_M   (574 words)

  
 AlterNet: Son of James Watt
Griles -- referred to as the chief operating officer of the department by President Bush -- meets frequently with White House officials.
Griles is a "former" oil and gas lobbyist who still receives $284,000.00 a year from his old firm, National Environmental Strategies.
Griles is up to his old tricks again, and environmentalists and Democrats aren't the only groups he has angered.
www.alternet.org /story.html?StoryID=16647   (793 words)

  
 The Denver Post | Interior's Weak Ethics
Far from resolving controversies concerning Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, the report questions the department's overall commitment to ethical conduct and fairness.
Griles promised to recuse himself from decisions affecting his former firm or clients.
Even if Griles carried water for his former business associates or clients, he may not have broken Interior's lamentably weak ethics policy - and that sorry situation is the real scandal.
www.truthout.org /cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/7/3936/printer   (506 words)

  
 Norton Announces Nomination of J. Steven Griles to Serve as Deputy Secretary of the Interior   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Steven Griles to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Interior.
Griles was the Assistant Secretary for Lands and Minerals Management from 1984 to 1989, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Water from 1983 to 1984 and Deputy Director of the Office of Surface Mining from 1981 to 1983.
Griles, a native Virginian, received his B.A. in Psychology and Economics from the University of Richmond in 1970 and conducted graduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
www.doi.gov /news/010308a.html   (291 words)

  
 NATHPO - News
Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, a former lobbyist for the coal-bed methane industry, intervened in a recent dispute over a massive coal-bed methane project even though he had signed an agreement recusing himself from issues involving his former clients.
Griles has been a favorite target of liberal activists who decry the large number of Bush administration officials with ties to industries they oversee.
Griles contended that the EPA had failed to respond to Interior's requests for information and urged Fisher to "consider the best means of addressing EPA's concerns together" instead of releasing McGraw's letter.
www.nathpo.org /News/Legal/News-Legal_Issues4.html   (713 words)

  
 Catholic-Pages.com | Discussion Forum - Stewardship of the Earth   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
Griles' served as a single-minded advocate for oil, mining, coal and gas interests and his tenure at Interior was marred by significant ethics violations.
Griles sold his lobbying firm and signed an ethics agreement pledging that while at Interior he would not be involved in "any particular matter involving specific parties in which any of my former clients is or represents a party."
While Griles was a federal employee, he was guaranteed a second salary of $284,000 per year from NES as part of a $1.1 million payout for his client base.
www.catholic-pages.com /forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3635   (4195 words)

  
 Steven Griles: biography and encyclopedia article   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-17)
James Steven Griles (born December 13, EHandler: no quick summary.
Griles was formerly a principal with National Environmental Strategies, EHandler: no quick summary.
(Griles has joined with two other political veterans (former White House national energy policy director Andrew Lundquist and former House[Click link for more facts about this topic] member George Nethercutt[For more, click on this link]) to form the political lobbying firm of Lundquist, EHandler: no quick summary.
www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/s/st/steven_griles.htm   (758 words)

  
 Friends of the Earth
"Steven Griles is the Mike Tyson of the coal and oil industry operatives," said Friends of the Earth president Brent Blackwelder.
Griles served in the Reagan Administration Interior Department as Assistant Secretary of Interior for Land and Minerals Management (1985-89), Deputy Assistant Secretary (1983-85), and as Deputy Director of the Office of Surface Mining (1981-83).
Most notably, in 1989 it surfaced that Griles was the central figure in a Reagan Administration effort to downplay the risk of oil spills associated with proposed drilling off the California coast.
www.commondreams.org /news2001/0516-01.htm   (716 words)

  
 Friends of the Earth - Campaigns
According to DOI Ethics office officials, Griles sold J. Steven Griles and Associates to National Environmental Strategies, (we have not confirmed the dollar amount but this information should be accessible, according to Arthur Bennett DOI Ethics Specialist and training coordinator).
Because the sale of J. Steven Griles and Associates was for a substantial amount of money, the DOI ethics office and the White House worked out a deal where Griles would receive money for the sale of J. Steven Griles and Associates in multiple payments over the next couple of years.
Steven Griles was appointed to be the Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior on July 17, 2001.
www.foe.org /camps/eco/interior/grilescase1.html   (2680 words)

  
 Nominee for No. 2 Spot at Interior Stirs Opposition
Steven Griles' nomination is expected to be taken up soon by the Senate.
Griles now says he did his best to safeguard the public's interest in the deal, which allowed the public to retain ownership of gas- and oil-drilling rights on the property.
Griles says that he has never lobbied on behalf of the "hard-rock" miners and that as a federal coal mine regulator in the Reagan administration he cracked down on repeat violators.
www.commondreams.org /headlines01/0620-03.htm   (1010 words)

  
 George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Because of the Bush Administration's close connections with numerous energy companies, many of Bush's Cabinet members have come under immense scrutiny from environmental groups, in particular Steven Griles, the deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior.
National Environmental Strategies (NES), the oil and gas lobbying firm Griles worked for, is currently paying him $284,000 a year as part of a $1.1 million payout for his client base.
As deputy secretary of the Interior, Griles is charged with overseeing and revamping environmental regulations that affect the profits of his former clients and NES’s current clients.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/George_W._Bush_presidential_campaign,_2000   (926 words)

  
 Interior Department's No. 2 Resigns After Controversial Tenure (washingtonpost.com)
Steven Griles, the former timber and energy lobbyist who managed the country's vast mineral and land holdings as the Interior Department's No. 2 official, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector.
Griles, a vocal advocate for drilling and logging on public lands as Interior's deputy secretary, won praise from industry but came under intense scrutiny for maintaining close ties to his former lobbying firm and its clients.
For his part, Griles said he was proudest that he had started a dialogue between conservation groups and energy executives that had prompted the Bureau of Land Management to adopt more environmentally sensitive management practices and had inspired Interior officials to put part of Montana's Western Front off-limits to oil and gas development.
www.washingtonpost.com /wp-dyn/articles/A45180-2004Dec7.html   (597 words)

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