It's never surprising to see members of Congress toss softball questions to witnesses they've summoned to Washington to make political points. But even some jaded eyebrows in Washington were raised last week when Rep. Fred Upton tossed a bunch of softball questions to the chairman of a DTE Energy, a company that is one of his largest political donors.
It gets worse: In the month before the hearing, Upton received $12,000 from DTE Energy's staff and PAC contributors included DTE Energy's chairman/CEO, president, executive vice president, senior vice president and attorney. In fact, DTE donated more than $19,000 to Rep. Upton during 2009-2010 and was his 5th largest contributor.
DTE Energy donates to a number of politicians from both political parties, but these donations in the weeks before a hearing on air pollution are notable -- especially since DTE Energy is being sued by the EPA for violating the Clean Air Act for failing to install required pollution controls on its biggest coal-fired power plants(one of the dirtiest in the nation).
Not surprisingly, Upton asked softball questions of DTE's Chairman and CEO, Anthony Earley, Jr. and echoed the dirty energy industry's messaging:
Is it any wonder that Rep. Upton has been repeatedly criticized for promoting special interest's profits over the public health?
You can read the NRDC's testimony on the same topic or this blog post .
You can also watch NRDC's John Walke testimony at the same hearing here: