A former close aide to Energy Secretary Rick Perry has set up shop on K Street.
Jeff Miller, who managed Perry’s 2016 presidential campaign, has launched Miller Strategies LLC — and has already signed up a host of clients, including some with business before the Department of Energy, disclosure records show.
Miller was considered a potential contender to be Perry’s chief of staff at DOE (E&E News PM, Feb. 2). Former George W. Bush White House aide and Edison Electric Institute strategist Brian McCormack ended up taking that position (E&E News PM, March 13).
Miller has registered to lobby for engineering and design company AECOM; Energy Transfer Partners LP, the firm behind the Dakota Access pipeline; electric car company Lucid Motors Inc.; and Southern Co., the electric utility giant.
Records released by the Senate last week show that Miller began lobbying for those companies either in February or earlier this month. Further, Miller is lobbying for Lucid Motors under an agreement with Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures LLC, former Rep. Ben Quayle’s (R-Ariz.) lobby shop.
Miller opened his firm in February, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has lobbying experience in California and Texas, including for tax services firm Ryan. A longtime GOP fundraiser and political adviser, Miller is considered close to several prominent Republicans, like Perry as well as House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
AECOM, one of Miller’s new clients, has a history of seeking nuclear-related contracts with DOE. Last year, for example, the agency chose AECOM and three other companies to begin exploring the possibility of conducting a deep borehole field test.
Boreholes are narrow, vertical holes drilled deep into the earth. In this case, DOE wanted to look into nuclear waste storage and geothermal resources.
Another client of Miller’s, Southern Co., may be seeking continued financial support from DOE in addition to easing regulations at U.S. EPA.
Southern, one of the nation’s largest power generators, hired Miller to focus on EPA, records show. The agency could soon scrap or move to rewrite the Clean Power Plan, which affects utilities nationwide.
When it comes to DOE, Southern could be angling for additional support for advanced nuclear reactors. Southern led a consortium of companies that in recent years received more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees from DOE to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia.
Other former aides of President Trump’s energy and environmental agency leaders have also signed up to lobby in the nation’s capital.
Glenn Coffee and Crystal Coon — both associates of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt — began lobbying earlier this month for QuikTrip Corp., a convenience store and gas station chain headquartered in Tulsa, Okla., on the renewable fuel standard, which is overseen by EPA (Greenwire, March 10).
