Responsible Resources

Responsible Resources is a 501(c)(3) non-profit group that was registered in 2007 with the Internal Revenue Service.

On February 26, 2008, Alex Kaplun of Greenwire reported that former staffers of former Republican Representative Richard Pombo and ex-House Committee on Natural Resources aides Brian Kennedy, Lisa Wallace, Dan Kish and Rob Gordon had launched Responsible Resources with an ad campaign asserting that taxes on energy companies are a threat to affordable and reliable energy.

The House had just passed a bill that would repeal a manufacturing tax credit to large, integrated oil companies and other credits targeted at the oil industry and redirect the money to continue tax credits for the  development of renewable energy resources like wind and solar power, as well as energy efficiency, which were slated to end this year.

Kennedy had most recently served as a spokesman to House Minority Leader John Boehner (Republican of Ohio). He would not disclose the group's budget, but said it would not take corporate donations. Kennedy described the group as "an educational resource principally for members of Congress and their aides with the ultimate goal of growing large enough to influence the debate beyond the Beltway." The group plans to publish a desk reference on energy resources in the United States, including how much energy is needed to power the country in the future and how much of that energy could come from the United States.

Wallace is a former chief financial officer to the House Natural Resources Committee. Gordon, president of the new group, is the founder and president of the National Wilderness Institute, which has challenged the Endangered Species Act. Kish retired as a senior adviser to the committee after serving as the committee’s chief of staff in the 1990s.

Personnel

 * Rob Gordon, founder and President

Board of Directors

 * Carl Michael Smith, Chairman. Smith is an energy attorney and consultant.
 * Richard Stroup, Director. Stroup is a Visiting Professor of Economics at North Carolina State University and a Senior Fellow at Property and Environmental Research Center, a think tank that promotes free-market environmentalism.
 * Robert L. Testwuide III, Director. Testwuide is a Vice President and Wealth Management Advisor with Merrill Lynch’s Global Private Client Group.
 * Bruce Yandle, Director. Yandle is Professor of Economics Emeritus and Dean Emeritus of Clemson University’s College of Business & Behavioral Science. Yandle is also a Senior Fellow with Property and Environmental Research Center.

National advisors

 * Ernest L. Daman, Advisor. Daman is Chairman Emeritus of Foster Wheeler Development Corporation
 * Lisa M. Jaeger, Advisor. Jaeger is a partner in the law firm Bracewell Giuliani
 * Craig Manson, Advisor. Judge Craig Manson is a lecturer in law at University of the Pacific, McGeorge and was appooinrted by the Bush administration as Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks in the Department of Interior between 2002 and 2006.
 * Kathleen Hartnett White, Advisor. A former Chairman and Commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

Contact information
Responsible Resources PO Box 320247 Alexandria, VA 22320 Phone: (703) 535-3004 Fax: (703) 647-6259 Email: info AT resres.org Website: http://www.responsibleresources.org/

SourceWatch resources

 * Brian Kennedy (Responsible Resources)
 * National Wilderness Institute
 * Richard Pombo

Articles

 * Mary Ann Akers And Paul Kane, "Save the Oil Companies!", "In The Loop", Washington Post, January 17, 2008.
 * Jim Snyder, "Former GOP Aides Form New Energy Group," The Hill, February 27, 2008.
 * Beth Wellington, "Ousted Rep. Pombo's Aides Set Up Shop as "Responsible Resources", The Writing Corner, February 29, 2008.