It was revealed the oil industry had numerous secret meetings in 2001 with Vice President Cheney to help create a national energy policy that would apply to big oil. (See Washington Post) The Bush white house and the oil industry immediately denied the oil industry was allowed to draft national energy policy. The vice president refused to produce documents relating to the development of the energy policy in an attempt to cover it up but, documents surfaced which proved it had happened and they had lied. It turned out Mr. Cheney let officials from Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Shell Oil, and BP America help develop the national energy policy which directly impacted the oil industry. Proof that there had been a secret conspiracy to let big oil write their own set of laws and policy and that the Bush/Cheney administration lied only acted as further evidence this administration has long been in bed with the oil industry and big business. Big business and the Bush administration have long consipired together to deny global warming and other environmental threats to the planet. (See 12/19/06)

As part of the ongoing Bush administration undermining of regulations on industry, we have had the numerous instances in which Mr. Bush has nominated people to important regulatory posts to serve as a watch dog over timber, oil, environment and FDA who were totally in the pocket of the industry which the agency was intended to regulate. (See 4/1/07) The administration did all it could to put a lap dog instead of a watch dog in charge of regulatory agencies.

Now, the Seattle PI reveals that the Bush administration U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service let Weyerhauser edit a letter the federal agency had been pressured to send to the timber giant to chastise them for not taking promised action to protect spotted owls. In fact, the paper reports an internal Weyerhauser memo prepared for a meeting the agency over the issue revealed the company’s goal was "to do as little as possible to get environmentalist off it’s back while still cutting as much timber as possible." The documents surfaced during a lawsuit before federal district judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle to force Weyerhauser to establish a special emphasis area for the spotted owl as it was obligated to do, but never bothered to do. When pressure was put on the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to pressure Warehouser to do what they were obligated to do, the federal agency instead drafted a proposed letter to be sent to the timber giant but, then sent the draft to company executives for them to edit and revise before mailing the final letter. Another example of a Bush regulatory agency in bed with the industry it is supposed to regulate. Another example of a failure of a Bush regulatory agency to do its job. Another example that this administration has always been in bed with big business whose interests come before that of the American people.