What's It Going To Take?
Griles Has GOT to Go

In mid-May, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported that the Department of the Interior’s inspector general is investigating the conduct of Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, a former coal industry lobbyist.

The Post reported that in 2002, Griles "met at least three times with officials of the National Mining Association while the industry group, a former client, (that) was lobbying the administration to loosen standards for mountaintop mining (sic) operations … Griles also took part in a meeting with a dozen executives of another former client, the Edison Electric Institute, to discuss the administration’s plans to relax clean-air enforcement actions against aging coal-fired plants."

Sen. Joseph Lieberman asked the inspector general to investigate Griles. Leiberman wrote that there were "numerous troubling questions about whether the deputy secretary has successfully avoided conflicts of interests, or the appearance of conflicts."