Skip to content

On Tuesday TIME published an opinion piece by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. In “Our Best Response to Russia is Energy Security,” Richardson argued in favor of using LNG

Issues:

On Tuesday TIME published an opinion piece by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. In “Our Best Response to Russia is Energy Security,” Richardson argued in favor of using LNG exports to respond to the situation in Ukraine and send “a strong signal” to Moscow:

Strongly supporting projects, such as the Trans-Adriatic and Anatolian Pipelines to extend the East-West energy corridor (connecting the Caucasus and Central Asia to world markets), is not just important for securing regional independence from Russia. These projects are in the West’s long-term interests as well.

In the article TIME noted that Bill Richardson is “a former Secretary of Energy and Ambassador to the U.N.” but failed to disclose that he is an Advisor to consulting firm APCO Worldwide and Chairman of APCO’s Global Political Strategies (GPS) group. In December 2012 APCO was contracted by the Ukrainian State Agency for Investment and National Projects for $330,000 to consult on improving the image of an LNG infrastructure project in the country. From Kyiv Post:

When justifying the choice of a one-bidder tender, the agency said that APCO Worldwide has got experience in communication support and PR in large-scale projects around the globe and can provide professional communication and PR support to the national LNG Terminal project.

In November 2013, while APCO was still under contract with the Ukrainian state agency, The Financial Times (FT) published an article by Bill Richardson (Aptly named “American should not try to keep its shale gas to itself”) promoting US exports of LNG to Ukraine and Europe, without disclosing his APCO tie. After this egregious conflict of interest was exposed it was acknowledged and corrected by FT.

Straight forward connection.

After 13 months, APCO’s contract with the Ukrainian State Agency for Investment was cancelled in January for unknown reasons. But Bill is still on message promoting LNG exports, leading us to wonder about his current client list. Will TIME take a cue from The Financial Times and issue a correction?