Steven Griles
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James Steven Griles (born December 13, 1947) was the Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Interior from July 2001 to January 2005. He was also a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior during the Reagan Administration. Born in Clover, Virginia, Griles earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Richmond in 1970.
Griles was formerly a principal with National Environmental Strategies, Inc. (NES), a consulting firm providing advice to companies, trade associations and others with regard to policy, regulatory, environmental and energy issues at the Federal and State government level. Prior to joining NES, Steve was Senior Vice President for Public, Environmental and Marketing Activities for the United Company. Located in Bristol, Virginia, the United Company was a diversified natural resources company with select diversification in non-energy areas, with operations in coal, oil and gas, cogeneration, gold mining, manufacturing, real estate, hotels, and golf operations with both domestic and foreign interests.
Upon taking the job of Deputy Secretary, Griles was allowed to receive payments totaling more than $1 million from 2001 to 2005 as part of a buyout by NES while collecting his $150,000 annual federal salary. This was allowed only under conditions approved by the Office of Government Ethics and the Senate, and Griles signed a written agreement stating he would recuse himself from "any particular matter involving specific parties in which any of [his] former clients is or represents a party."
However, a Freedom of Information Act request in September 2002 turned up evidence that Griles had met with former clients in the fossil fuel industries, despite the agreement. Griles resigned after an 18-month investigation by the Department's Inspector General concluded that Griles indeed had contact with former NES clients in violation of the agreement, although the report did not accuse Griles of violating any laws or federal ethics rules.
David Hirsch, a director for Friends of the Earth, said of Griles: "he spent four years working for his former clients at the Department of Interior. It didn't seem to matter how many problems came out, he just kept going. He's the Energizer Bunny of conflict of interest." [1]
Griles was also asked to testify before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in the investigation of the Abramoff scandal. Abramoff's private emails indicated that Griles had pledged to use his authority to block a casino which Abramoff was lobbying against. Abramoff also indicated that he was interested in hiring Griles. [2]
Since leaving office, Griles has joined with two other political veterans (former White House national energy policy director Andrew Lundquist and former House member George Nethercutt) to form the political lobbying firm of Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles, LLC.
