

Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance with Attorneys General - mjfern
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html

======
anigbrowl
Good grief, Charlie Brown. Cutting-and-pasting documents written by lobbyists
onto official notepaper with only the tiniest of editorial figleaves (eg'
substituting the phrase 'those questions' for 'my questioning') seems like a
case of honest services fraud to me. Being from Europe and being used to
publicly financed elections in a parliamentary system, the amount of money
sloshing around US politics looks like the political equivalent of crystal
meth, with a correspondingly unhealthy effect on the body politic - and it's a
huge problem in both parties, because it delegitimizes policies I agree with
as much as ones that I don't.

I'm not familiar with how the constitutional federalism rules play out in
regards to the behavior of public officials in the states. It seems to me that
it would be tremendously difficult for someone in Oklahoma who opposed this
policy to sue the attorney-General over it, for example. The collective suits
of the Federal government by multiple states that have proliferated in recent
years are also hard to assess legally. Can any of our resident lawyers offer
an opinion on this, even a shallow one?

~~~
gumby
> I'm not familiar with how the constitutional federalism rules play out in
> regards to the behavior of public officials in the states.

That's an interesting question. The constitution says, "The United States
shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government"
(not Republican party -- there are no parties in the US constitution). I think
most people have taken that to mean no monarchies.

But consent of the governed also rules out corporatist states. However since
state attorneys general are either elected directly or appointed by elected
officials it may be considered (by transitivity at the very least) that these
As-G in fact have the consent of the people to act against their interests.

------
mjfern
Why is this story being flagged off the home page? And before you say it's
because the story is unrelated to hacking, please have a look at the other top
stories on the home page...

#5 "Confessions of a mortician"

#9 "The Divine Comedy"

#10 "The Return of Africa’s Strongmen"

#12 "America’s Toughest, Ugliest Warplane Is Going Back into Battle"

#18 "Khoisan have been the largest population throughout most of modern-human
history"

------
websitescenes
Not at all surprising. It is common knowledge that energy companies utilize
the government to pass protectionary measures that hinder progress and keep us
married to outdated technology. Oil is not that efficient and obviously bad
for the environment but it is so heavily subsidized by the government through
lobbyists and campaign funding that it is hard for any new, cleaner energy to
gain traction.

------
gumby
Sounds like a win-win! Why waste taxpayer dollars making policy or decisions
when the private sector is happy to do it for free?

------
brohoolio
This is corruption.

