While ExxonMobil and BP have "spent lavishly on image ads," Chevron's new "power of human energy" campaign is a particularly ambitious "bid to recast itself as an environmentally responsible corporate citizen." Advertising Age reports that its first ad, a 2 1/2 minute spot from the ad agency McGarryBowen that was directed by Lance Acord (of "Lost in Translation" fame) and narrated by Campbell Scott, is "part of an estimated $15 million integrated U.S. campaign." Ads will also run in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, adapted from U.S. print ads by local offices of WPP's Y&R firm. Online components include "interactive stories showcasing 'human energy' at work within the company," at chevron.com, along with "Energyville," an "interactive game showing the tradeoffs of different energy sources." Chevron's corporate brand and reputation manager, Helen Clark, said that while 10% of Americans "hate us and our industry ... when people get the chance to learn about us, it helps to change their views." In related news, EarthRights International is petitioning Chevron -- as "one of the largest foreign investors in Burma (Myanmar) and the only remaining major U.S. corporation with a significant presence there" -- to pressure the Burmese junta to respect human rights.

The influence of U.S. political advisors was evident in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections that took place this past weekend. Current President Viktor Yushenko has benefited from the services of a variety of U.S. political advisors, including Stan Greenberg, former pollster for Bill Clinton; Stephen E. Schmidt, campaign manager for California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; and Neil Newhouse, who was a pollster for Mitt Romney during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts. Paul J. Manafort was charged with reforming the image of Yushenko opponent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich from "shady reactionary and Kremlin pawn" to "arguably the nation's most popular politician." Manafort was a key advisor to former Senator Bob Dole in his failed presidential bid, and he is a partner in the lobbying firm Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc. While he has not been a public presence in the campaign, Manafort's "handiwork has been evident in Mr. Yanukovich's tightly organized campaign events, in his pointed speeches and in how he has presented himself to the world." Opponents have a more jaundiced view of the transformation. An advisor to former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko commented, "They are just packaging him in a new cover and educating him in some techniques to use. It's the same Soviet and post-Soviet political culture."

In its bid to build new nuclear power plants, the nuclear power industry has "found a way around a long-standing regulatory policy they say added a year or more to construction times for nuclear plants." The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) "agreed to industry demands" and decreased "its oversight of initial work at reactor sites," by "narrowing its definition of the word 'construction.'" A 1971 court victory by scientists and environmentalists in Maryland requires a public hearing and construction permit before construction on new nuclear plants can begin. In 2006, the Nuclear Energy Institute began lobbying to change what "construction" meant. In 2007, the NRC obliged by redefining "construction" to exclude "excavation, road building and the erection of some cooling towers." The new definition is expected to take effect later this year, over the protests of NRC environmental project manager Andrew Kugler, who believes it will exclude from federal oversight some "90 percent of the true environmental impacts of construction." One NRC Commissioner who voted for the change, Jeffrey S. Merrifield, now works for The Shaw Group, Inc., a company that builds nuclear plants.

Concerned at news reports on its electronic surveillance, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has held "an unprecedented series of off-the-record 'seminars' in recent years to teach reporters about the damage caused by such leaks and to discourage reporting that could interfere with the agency's mission to spy on America's enemies," reports Josh Gerstein. The half-day seminars were held between 2002 and 2004 and featured "high-ranking NSA officials" suggesting "innocuous" re-writes of "objectionable passages in published stories." The seminars "seemed designed to elicit a chummy atmosphere," writes Gerstein, adding that the NSA's seminar talking points included: "Reporters go to great lengths to protect their sources, as do we. We need your help." Among the "offensive" stories were 1998 articles in the New York Times about possible Persian Gulf attacks suggested by intercepted conversations involving Osama bin Laden, and a Knight Ridder piece on "electronic intercepts of the traffic on bin Laden's communications network."