Nethercutt joins lobbying firm

Monday, January 31, 2005

By MATTHEW DALY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Former Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., and former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles are joining a lobbying firm headed by a former top White House energy adviser.

Nethercutt gave up his U.S. House seat last year to make an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Patty Murray.

Griles, who oversaw the Bush administration's push to open more public land to energy development, announced last month he was stepping down.

The pair are joining a firm headed by Andrew Lundquist, who led Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in the Bush administration's first term.

The Lundquist Group LLC will be renamed Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles LLC and will remain based in Washington.

In a statement, Nethercutt, who represented the Spokane area for five terms in the U.S. House, said his new job would continue a longtime interest in developing partnerships among the federal government, businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

Griles earned a reputation as a go-to broker in Bush's program to lease out vast oil, gas and coal reserves below federally owned land in the West.

During nearly half his four-year tenure at the Interior Department, Griles was investigated by the department's inspector general. Inspector General Earl Devaney concluded Griles didn't appear to violate ethics rules by arranging meetings between Interior officials and former clients and partners, or in the award of $1.6 million in contracts to a former client. But Devaney described Griles' behavior as an example of "an institutional failure" among Interior officials who potentially eroded public trust.

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.

Lundquist also has been a controversial figure. In January 2001, Cheney named the Energy Department employee to direct a task force that wrote a national energy policy.

Environmental groups criticized the task force for holding secret meetings with the energy industry, but Lundquist has said he also met with conservation and consumer groups. The panel called for expanded oil and gas drilling on public land and rejuvenating nuclear power.

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