In the latest disheartening news about the energy task force, documents released Monday night by the Energy Department show that an executive order on energy policy released by President Bush last May was copied nearly verbatim from the energy policy proposed to the administration by oil lobbyists. On March 20, representatives from the American Petroleum Institute sent the Energy Department an email containing “a suggested executive order” requiring agencies to examine whether environmental regulations would lead to “inordinate complications in energy production and supply.” As the May 19 order shows, their wish was Bush’s command. Sharon Buccino, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (which identified the similarity between the memo and the order), said, “The oil companies seem to be putting words in our president’s mouth.”
