Republican North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley has an extensive resume, bouncing between the public and private sectors. Despite spending more than a decade lobbying for oil and natural gas companies, Whatley’s U.S. Senate campaign website mainly showcases a career in public service.
Whatley’s campaign website had previously mentioned he was “serving as a senior official in the George W. Bush Administration at the Department of Energy “, but this past June, the information was quietly removed.
In a forum with 2019-2020 State Chairman candidates, Whatley described his role at the Department of Energy as being the “lead day-to-day negotiator” for President Bush’s signature energy legislation.
The energy legislation was a wishlist bill for the notorious company, Enron. According to The Center for Public Integrity, Enron was the largest donor to President George W. Bush over the course of his political career – spending millions of dollars.
During the Bush administration, Enron used political and financial leverage to lobby against federal price caps and push for energy deregulation. The policies put forth by the administration helped open the door for Enron to continue its power trading scheme.
The national energy policy also helped deregulate electricity markets, the same policy that Enron’s market manipulation scheme depended on and that would allow them to expand across the country.
Enron eventually expanded into North Carolina and would lobby for the state to deregulate its energy market so they could implement the same scheme that ripped off taxpayers.
Enron’s lobbyists were even employed by the same firm Michael Whatley worked at.
Whatley’s deep entanglement with big oil and energy companies is no secret. However, the Whatley campaign has attempted to clean up his image for the Senate race.
This isn’t the first time information has been removed from the Republican candidate’s website. In August, Spectrum News reported the removal of Whatley’s career as a lobbyist from his public bio.
Spectrum News reviewed Whatley’s 12 years of lobbying disclosure reports, which show Whatley and other lobbyists receiving over $3 million for their work, with more than $1 million coming from energy-related clients.
