President Bush's decision to abandon his campaign pledge to limit carbon dioxide emissions was routed through a key Bush aide who had lobbied for one of the world's largest manufacturers of automobile exhaust systems.
The Bush aide, Nicholas Calio, served as a paid lobbyist and worked extensively from 1996 through 1997 for Tenneco Automotive, based in Lake Forest, Ill., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of automobile exhaust systems. Calio had lobbied on Environmental Protection Agency regulations “regarding ozone and particulate matter.”
A review of lobbying records conducted by The Public i shows that Calio and his partners earned $420,000 for lobbying on behalf of Tenneco Automotive. Calio is Bush’s new legislative affairs director — the White House’s top lobbyist to Congress — and held the same job under Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush. Calio’s top deputy at the White House, Kirsten Ardleigh Chadwick, was also a registered lobbyist for Tenneco and a partner of Calio at his lobby shop.
Until recently, Calio and Chadwick also lobbied for Atlantic Richfield Co., formerly one of the country’s largest oil companies and one with strong ties to the Bush family. BP Amoco bought Atlantic Richfield, known as Arco, last year. BP Amoco is the world’s third-largest integrated oil company and has an interest in the debate over carbon dioxide emissions.
Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless, incombustible gas that is a product of respiration and combustion. It is one of several byproducts generated by automobiles and is believed to be a leading contributor to the so-called “greenhouse effect,” linked to rising temperatures around the planet. During the presidential campaign, Bush promised to enact new emissions standards on carbon dioxide, specifically those from electric power plants.
