Brookings Energy Security Initiative and David Goldwyn

September 10, 2014
PositionPosition, OwnershipPositionTransaction, LobbyingLobbyingPrincipal Campaign CommitteeSecretary of StateFamilyPositionDonation, FamilyPositionTransactionPosition2013 Donation: $250,000–$499,9992013 Donation: $100,000–$249,999LobbyistDeputy DirectorPosition, OwnershipPosition, MembershipMembershipMembershipMembershipMembershipPositionPositionCEOMembershipFounderSpecial envoy for international energy affairsPositionPositionPositionPositionPosition, DonationProfessionalSocialDirector, Energy Security InitiativeNonresident senior fellowAdvisory group on US-Arctic policyMembershipMembershipMembershipCo-authored book on energy policyExecutiveAuthorContributor Unveiled State Dept.'s Global Shale Gas Initiative, April 2010Director, 2005-2009FunderFunderESI reportSecretary of Statesigned a $10 billion shale gas production-sharing agreementUkraine's largest private natural gas producerOwns drilling rights to 11.4 million acres of land and seafloorState-owned oil companyPartnered Russian oilfields for more than a decadeTestified on importance of Keystone XL pipelinePresident and CEOCoached on Keystone XL messaging20% stakeExxonMobilChevronCorporationHess CorporationOccidentalPetroleumAnadarko PetroleumCorporationLee R RaymondJohn B HessRay R IraniHouse ForeignAffairs CommitteeJoe BidenHillary ClintonJohn KerryDepartment ofStateRichard KinderHillary Clintonfor PresidentBrookingsInstitutionShell Oil CompanyHunter BidenNational PetroleumCouncilUnited StatesEnergy AssociationBP plcRosemont SoleburyCapital ManagementChristopher HeinzDevon ArcherLamar McKayPaul ElliottTransCanadaCorporationDavid L GoldwynKinder Morgan,Inc.Scott Allen MoorePhilip J CarrollGoldwyn GlobalStrategies, LLCJan KalickiBurisma HoldingsRosemont SenecaPartnersCharles EbingerCrude oil exportsreportUS-Libya BusinessAssociationUkraineRussiaOAO RosneftHal KvislePutin called Exxon “an old and reliable partner”Arranged meeting between Kvisle and Goldwyn

The Brookings Institution's Energy Security Initiative recently released a report advocating lifting the U.S. Export ban on crude oil. Brookings is one of several think tanks that came under fire recently for producing funder-friendly research that it bills as independent and scholarly. 

This map shows some of the Brookings Institution's connections to the energy industry and focuses on David Goldwyn, a Brookings nonresident senior fellow, who is thanked at the beginning of the oil exports report. Goldwyn was recently profiled in a Mother Jones article on the State Department's role in pushing fracking under Hillary Clinton's leadership.

On Goldwyn's history in the oil and gas industry: 

Goldwyn had a long history of promoting drilling overseas—both as a Department of Energy official under Bill Clinton and as a representative of the oil industry. From 2005 to 2009 he directed the US-Libya Business Association, an organization funded primarily by US oil companies—including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Marathon—clamoring to tap Libya's abundant supply.
On Goldwyn's move from his role as Special Envoy at the State Department to the private sector:

Around the time of his departure, WikiLeaks released a slew of diplomatic cables, including one describing a 2009 meeting during which Goldwyn and Canadian officials discussed development of the Alberta oil sands—a project benefiting some of the same firms behind the US-Libya Business Association. The cable said that Goldwyn had coached his Canadian counterparts on improving "oil sands messaging" and helped alleviate their concerns about getting oil sands crude to US markets. This embarrassed the State Department, which is reviewing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal to transport crude oil from Canada and is under fire from environmentalists.

After leaving State, Goldwyn took a job with Sutherland, a law and lobbying firm that touts his "deep understanding" of pipeline issues, and launched his own company, Goldwyn Global Strategies.

In 2011 The Guardian reported that during his tenure at the State Department, Goldwyn met with the president and CEO of Transcanada Pipeline to coach him on how to best present the Keystone XL pipeline project. 

The documents show that in May 2010 Elliott had arranged for Hal Kvisle, president and CEO of TransCanada Corporation at the time, to meet with David Goldwyn, head of international energy affairs for the State Department.

"Our meeting with David Goldwyn and Michael Sullivan (another State Department official) was very productive," Elliott wrote to Toiv, his acquaintance from Clinton's campaign days. "David provided us with insight on what he'd like to see by way of on-the-record comment during this public comment period of this Keystone KXL draft environmental impact statement. We are working with our stakeholders, shippers and vendors to deliver on the insight David shared with us and to do so by the June 15 deadline."

TransCanada was quick to act on the coaching it got from Goldwyn. Three days later Elliott sent Goldwyn the text of a letter written by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer in support of pipeline approval. Similar letters followed in the months ahead.

Exxon's relationship with Russia's state-owned OAO Rosneft was detailed in a recent Bloomberg article.