For Immediate Release
June 3, 2003

Contact:
Kristen Sykes, (202) 783-7400 Ext. 100

ENVIRONMENTAL, ETHICS GROUPS CALL FOR SPECIAL COUNSEL TO CONDUCT CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OF DEPUTY INTERIOR SECRETARY'S CONDUCT

Lawsuit Filed to Obtain Information about Payments from Previous Employer and Meetings with Former Mining, Oil and Gas Industry Clients

Washington, DC – A group of prominent national environmental and government ethics organizations today called for appointment of a special counsel to conduct a criminal investigation of Deputy Secretary of Interior J. Steven Griles. In a separate but related action, three of the organizations filed suit today in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, to compel the government to surrender records concerning yearly payments totaling $1.1 million that Griles is receiving from his former employer, an oil and gas industry lobbying firm.

A longtime lobbyist for the energy industry, Griles has met regularly with clients of his former employer, National Environmental Strategies (NES), during his tenure at Interior while receiving $284,000 per year from NES as part of a $1.1 million payout for his "client base." Griles has played a key role in decisions affecting the Clean Air Act, oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf, coal bed methane development in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, and wetland permit rules. While a lobbyist, Griles represented oil, gas and coal clients with interests in these same issues.

Melanie Sloan, an attorney and executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), one of the petitioning organizations, asserted that “a grand jury needs to investigate whether the payments Griles is receiving from NES violate government ethics laws; whether Griles has unlawfully used his public office to provide preferential treatment to his former clients; and whether Griles made false statements to Congress at his nomination hearing.” Supporting the call for an independent grand jury, Republican Whitney North Seymour, Jr., a former Independent Counsel and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said such an investigation "is the only way the public can trust the outcome of an inquiry into the conduct" of Griles. "The energy industry's huge political contributions, combined with the direct payments to Mr. Griles, make such an investigation imperative."

In the lawsuit filed today by Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Earth and the Endangered Species Coalition, the groups demanded that the Department of the Interior turn over all records on the $1.1 million in payments Griles is receiving from the oil, gas and mining lobbying firm. They are requesting all records pertaining to the financial interests of Mr. Griles that relate to possible conflicts of interest. They particularly seek a copy of the financial agreement by which Mr. Griles claims to have sold his “client list” to his former colleagues in his lobbying ventures. It is in return for this sale that Mr. Griles is being paid at least $1.1 million by members of the oil and gas industry. The government has refused to turn over more than 300 pages of documents requested in September under the Freedom of Information Act.

“How can this administration claim it is striving for 'the highest standards of integrity' when it refuses even to acknowledge the existence of a so-called 'sales agreement' by which the Deputy Secretary of the Interior is receiving more than a million dollars from the very industries he's supposed to be regulating?" noted Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

"Griles took an oath to serve the American people," said Kristen Sykes, who monitors the Interior Department for Friends of the Earth (FOE), "but his actions demonstrate he is really working for the oil, gas and mining industries.” Sykes' year-long research into Griles' practices at Interior are a major factor in triggering today's lawsuit and call for a special counsel.Besides Defenders of Wildlife, FOE and CREW, other organizations calling for the Griles investigation include Public Campaign, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S.PIRG), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Sierra Club.

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