Wind and solar energy firm NextEra aggressively pulled strings to gain federal support for its projects, working a revolving door by dangling high-profile private-sector jobs before regulators, cultivating personal relationships with top Interior Department officials, and stonewalling internal investigators.
NextEra was seeking to build windmills where endangered birds could be killed and where Native American artifacts were found. Interior officials had environmental concerns and NextEra itself had doubts that the project would actually succeed.
But the company labored mightily to form a relationship with Steve Black, a top aide to then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Black placed its McCoy project on a list of “job-creating” alternative energy initiatives heralded by President Obama, according to a new final report by Interior’s inspector general.
Top people connected to the energy firm, which cultivates a wholesome image in contrast to that of oil and gas companies, refused to cooperate with investigators.
Black was working closely with an energy aide to the California governor named Manal Yamout when NextEra’s top lobbyist began attempting to convince Yamout to take a job for the company, noting as a qualification that she was “very tight with” Black.
She accepted the job, and Yamout and Black’s relationship blossomed into a romantic one as he continued to work on NextEra issues for the federal government.
A NextGen vice president wrote that Yamout was the “best person internally to use” for political maneuvering, adding: “Let’s talk instead of writing.”
He also bragged about his own relationship with Black, noting that he dined with Black regularly, and hired yet another lobbyist who had a long relationship with Black and who he said could “make a phone call with complete discretion” and get events to happen in NextEra’s favor.
That lobbyist had “the Colorado mafia/DC/DOI stroke that you/we may need either right away or right around the corner,” he wrote.
Salazar was a U.S. senator from Colorado before becoming Interior secretary, and Black had been one of his Senate aides.
Despite problems, the NextEra project wound up on the White House list.
“The supervisory project manager for [the Bureau of Land Management’s] California Desert District Office said he did not think McCoy was ready for the White House list. BLM’s California State deputy director also said that he was ‘shocked’ to see McCoy on the White House list and that it had not been discussed at BLM. He said he knew his office could not meet the White House’s project timetable,” the IG report said.
Black acknowledged getting the project on the list, but said that “there is no connection whatsoever between my relationship with [Yamout] and my recommendation to include the McCoy project on the [White House] list.”
NextEra’s chairman, Lewis Hay III, was serving on the White House Jobs Council at the time.
Hay was able to get calls with Salazar even though officials said most companies with business before the government would have been denied meetings at that level.
Even while the White House intended to promote McCoy as a project sure to create jobs, NextEra had its own doubts.
“The VP of government affairs stated that NextEra decided it did not want to be on the White House list because it did not want the added pressure of following through on the project,” the report said.
In January 2013, a NextEra official nominated Black for the job of CEO of the American Wind Energy Association — a position that pays $600,000 a year. Black said he would like him to submit the nomination as long as it remained “confidential.”
That same month, “the executive director of the California Wind Energy Association (a partner of AWEA) emailed Black that the wind industry was concerned that wind had been excluded from vast areas in the draft Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan,” the IG wrote.
“Federal employees are prohibited from participating ‘personally and substantially in any particular matter’ that would directly affect the financial interest of a prospective employer. If an employee is actually negotiating with a potential employer, this becomes a criminal, versus an administrative, violation,” the IG wrote.
Days later, “Black directed the State/Federal DRECP team to find more areas in the plan for wind development,” even though colleagues said “doing so would be difficult in the desert because the eagles and condors that lived there were ‘not real compatible with giant spinning blades.'”
Indeed, the situation was brought to top Interior officials’ attention after an eagle was killed by a NextGen turbine, which can trigger criminal penalties.
Black “resisted recusal” from NextEra issues for six months while he was dating Yarmouth.
“Before Black recused himself from NextEra, he was involved in permitting issues for two NextEra projects with millions of dollars of renewable energy tax credits at stake,” the IG wrote.
“After his recusal, Black accepted items of value, totaling $1,183, from NextEra. These items included hotel rooms and dinners during trips with Yamout while she was conducting NextEra business. After our first interview of Black, he reimbursed NextEra for the expenses.”
The IG wrote that “we found an email, however, indicating that Black might have been involved in issues pertaining to NextEra” even after the recusal.
“We attempted to interview Black’s deputy, now a California Energy Commissioner, on numerous occasions. She initially agreed to talk with us, and agents flew to California to interview her. She cancelled her interview the day it was to occur, however, and we received no response to further interview requests.”
Yarmouth and NextEra’s top lobbyist also refused follow-up interview with the IG.
Black resigned in May 2013, a year after the recusal, and is now a lawyer specializing in energy and environmental issues.
Salazar told the IG that Black “did a great job” as his senior counselor and was a hard worker and true performer, but he may have “rubbed some people the wrong way.”
