Delivering new energy sources to the U.S. market was what the Bush administration had in mind when, as soon as it took office, it started clearing the way for importing LNG.
"Everyone got the sense that things were changing," recalled Phyllis Saathoff, managing director of the Brazos River Harbor Navigation District, and speculators were "grabbing up any possible site."
Asked why the commission chose to grant the key initial deal to Crest, Saathoff said, "We worked it out and could accommodate [the Crest proposal], so we did."
At the time, Neil Bush's role in the company was not widely known. But the company made sure that the harbor commission knew. Saathoff said that when Crest executives approached the commission about the project, one provided Neil Bush's name as a reference.
Neil is one of five children of former President George H.W. Bush and is the younger brother of George, the current president, and Jeb, the governor of Florida.
Asked if the use of Neil Bush as a reference had any influence on the handling of Crest's proposal, Saathoff said, "It had no bearing whatsoever. We don't do business that way."
Bush's role at Crest became public last year during his divorce proceedings. In a sworn deposition, he described himself as co-chairman of Crest, which he called a "financial investment entity." He said he was paid about $60,000 a year for providing "maybe three or four hours a week" in miscellaneous consulting services.
It is one of a number of partnerships and consultancies that Bush, 49, has been involved in over the years. He did not respond to telephone and e-mail requests for comment for this article.
In 1991, he was sanctioned by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision for his role as a director of Silverado Savings & Loan, a Colorado bank that failed, ultimately costing taxpayers $1.3 billion. The agency cited Bush for "multiple conflicts of interest" in his business dealings with developers who were seeking bank loans. He was forced to pay $50,000 as part of a court-approved settlement.
Bush has periodically been the subject of reports detailing his involvement in business deals with the politically connected. Records that became public in his divorce showed that he had an agreement with a Chinese semiconductor firm that would net him $2 million.
