It doesn’t seem like there were many surprises in the Energy Department documents obtained by a FOIA request on Monday. This pretty much sums it up:

A first review of the 11,000 pages of documents bolsters the contention of Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups that the Bush administration relied almost exclusively on the advice of executives from utilities and producers of oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy while a White House task force drafted recommendations that would vastly increase energy production.

Of the corporations that met with Abraham, all but a few were large contributors of unregulated soft money to the Republican Party during the 2000 election cycle. A dozen of the companies that had meetings with Abraham contributed $1.2 million to the GOP, mainly for Bush’s election. Ten of the 12 gave more soft money to Republicans than Democrats.

This is fully reflected in the energy policies proposed by the Bush administration. I don’t think the fact that they favor production to the exclusion of conservation is a surprise to anyone.