Michael Whatley’s Washington Years

Tom Frutiger didn’t remember signing a petition in support of a utility’s plan to nearly double his electric bill. But his name appeared among 2,500 on a petition that the Consumer Energy Alliance filed with Wisconsin state regulators in 2014. 

Other people listed said they hadn’t signed, either. After the names came under scrutiny, a judge refused to admit the petition into evidence in related proceedings. The group’s executive vice president insisted that the responses were legitimate.

“We talk to folks and then ask if they would like us to send a letter in on their behalf,” Michael Whatley told the Capital Times. “If they answer in the affirmative, we go ahead and do that.”

Whatley is now in the last days of a U.S. Senate race against former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper in which he’s made lower energy costs central to his campaign. “I have a career where I have fought for lower energy prices for consumers all across the country,” he told E&E News last year. 

Whatley’s candidate biography recounts his government work and his leadership of both the state and national Republican Party, but says nothing about the years he spent lobbying. That included representing the parent company of We Energies, one of the utilities whose rate proposal CEA supported in Wisconsin. Over the years, multiple CEA petitions faced scrutiny—as have other groups Whatley led that packaged talking points from the companies they represented as consumer demand.

Lobbying filings, tax returns, government emails, and financial disclosures show how Whatley helped build extensive networks to support industry priorities, connect corporate executives with federal officials, and develop longstanding relationships within and beyond Washington.

‘The Voice of the Energy Consumer’

Whatley co-founded the government affairs group HBW Resources in 2007. Company documents listed Whatley as a one-third owner. Whatley also served as executive vice president of CEA, which HBW created and continues to run. (His campaign did not respond to requests for comment before publication.)

CEA, which calls itself “the voice of the energy consumer,” obtained tax-exempt status from the IRS in September 2008 and has claimed “more than 450,000 members nationwide.” Its website lists several hundred, including major oil producers, pipeline companies, and electric utilities.

In 2016, CEA submitted 347 letters to federal regulators backing a $2 billion natural gas pipeline across northern Ohio. One carried the name of a man who died 18 years earlier, and another was attributed to a woman with dementia. A pipeline opponent reached 14 people who said they had not signed or authorized the use of their name. CEA dismissed the fraud allegations as “wildly overblown” and claimed the petitioners had responded affirmatively to an automated phone survey. 

In 2018, South Carolina law enforcement officials opened an investigation into about 2,000 emails sent through CEA’s website to state lawmakers in support of Dominion Energy’s $14.6 billion merger with SCANA Corp. Some residents said the messages used their names without permission. CEA claimed it had nothing to do with potentially falsified emails. “We stand behind our methodology in collecting comments,” Whatley said in a statement.

Whatley resigned from CEA in 2019 when he was elected chair of the North Carolina GOP, but concerns about CEA’s methods have persisted. In 2023, nearly 150 Ohioans said they didn’t authorize signatures on letters supporting fracking in state parks—including a 9-year-old. CEA blamed a subcontractor and said it had “instituted new controls to ensure this never happens again.”

‘We Try and Build Strong Allies’

Whatley explained CEA’s strategy at an industry conference in Houston in 2008. Energy companies faced a policy “train wreck,” he warned, unless they could learn from environmental organizations that “play outside the Beltway.” That includes forging alliances with labor unions, manufacturers, farmers, and truckers to build pressure on Congress, Oil & Gas Journal reported.

As a nonprofit organized as a 501(c)(4), CEA is not required to disclose its funders. But HBW lobbies on behalf of multiple energy industry clients listed among CEA’s members, including Duke Energy and several major oil companies. While some companies and trade associations have disclosed payments to CEA through tax forms and investor relations materials, there is no complete, public list of the group’s financial backers. Whatley first registered as a lobbyist for CEA in January 2009, as battles over outer continental shelf drilling and the Keystone XL pipeline project heated up. 

CEA’s tax returns show just how closely it is tied to HBW. From 2014 through 2025, it paid more than $24 million of its $39.7 million in total revenue to HBW for management and professional services. All 17 people currently listed on CEA’s staff page work for HBW.

Whatley wore many hats for HBW-created groups. He was, for example, executive director of the Southeast Energy Alliance, another HBW creation. In that role, Whatley urged the Interior Department to open the mid-Atlantic Ocean to drilling. 

In an interview with the Canadian National Post that year, Whatley described CEA’s growing operation as building alliances with unions and industry groups. “We work with the administration, with Congress, outside the beltway with other trade organizations and groups, and we try and build strong allies,” Whatley said. “We work with the truckers, the manufacturers and the chambers, and make sure that people are echoing what we say when we go and meet with policymakers.” 

CEA described the alliance as “a nonpartisan organization that advocates for balanced and rational energy policies for the Southeast.” It described Whatley as the alliance’s executive director, without mentioning his relationship to CEA or HBW. Another release directed readers to a Whatley op-ed on the website of Secure Our Fuels—another CEA-run effort. 

Whatley also lobbied for the National Ocean Policy Coalition, an HBW-managed group whose members included Shell, Chevron, and the National Onion Association, which sent a letter to government officials in 2015 supporting Shell’s bid to drill for oil in the Arctic using language nearly identical to a CEA petition.

Following BP’s 2010 oil spill, the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition was launched at a CEA event in 2011 to create a “unified force” of coastal-state governors to build momentum for offshore drilling. CEA played an even larger role in the coalition than its website disclosed, investigations by the Center for Public Integrity and Republic Report later revealed. Metadata from a 2014 letter signed by governors showed HBW Resources produced the document; Shell and ExxonMobil appeared to have edited two other letters. 

Whatley was also described as the vice president of Nebraskans for Jobs & Energy Independence, a group formed in part by two lobbyists for TransCanada to support the Keystone XL pipeline, a project to carry oil from Canada’s tar sands into the U.S. 

Records also show that Whatley sent a proposal to the government of Alberta in January 2010 to “develop and execute” a campaign pushing back on low-carbon fuel standards that could threaten imports from the tar sands. That year, Alberta’s government paid HBW $35,693.

Federal law generally requires individuals and firms that engage in political or lobbying work on behalf of foreign governments or clients to register with the Justice Department as foreign agents. Records show HBW registered to represent Alberta in February 2025, but not before, and there’s no indication Whatley ever did.

How Washington Works

Before launching HBW, Whatley had learned Washington from the inside. In 2000, he became legal counsel to Sen. Paul Coverdell, a Georgia Republican. From 2001 to 2003, Whatley worked as principal deputy assistant secretary in George W. Bush’s Energy Department. He was then staff director and chief counsel of a Senate subcommittee focused on air pollution, climate change, and nuclear safety, and served as chief of staff to Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina from January 2004 to January 2005.

He opened a lobbying practice at the Patriot Group in 2005 and registered to represent Cinergy, an electric utility that later merged with Duke Energy. Seven more power companies, including Wisconsin Energy, signed on within weeks. He later became a partner at O’Connor & Hannan (now Nossaman LLP), lobbying for clients such as ExxonMobil, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and mining company Freeport-McMoRan.

Whatley left HBW in 2022. He served as chair of the Republican National Committee from March 2024 to August 2025, where he drew a salary of more than $1.1 million, according to financial disclosures. 

But he was still making money on consulting, including a total of $755,555 from the government affairs group CAPCVENTURES in 2024 and 2025. Founder Michael Zehr worked with Whatley at both HBW and O’Connor & Hannan and formed CAPCVENTURES in 2022. Whatley reported $361,000 in income from the firm in 2026. 

Whatley’s most recent financial disclosure names three clients that paid more than $5,000 for his services through CAPCVENTURES: the Renewable Fuels Association, which achieved a major win in March when the EPA finalized record volumes of ethanol; Centrus Energy, a nuclear fuel provider whose subsidiary received a $900 million award from the Energy Department; and GE Vernova, a gas turbine maker that announced a deal with Duke last year.

Whatley, along with his wife and college-age children, reported between $16,000 and $65,000 of stock in GE Vernova in his latest financial disclosure, and up to $410,000 in Duke stock. They also disclosed owning up to $12.1 million in total assets as of 2026, including up to $875,000 in Chevron, $500,000 in Linde, and $295,000 in ExxonMobil.

Asked about potential conflicts tied to his investments, a Whatley campaign spokesperson told Fox News last month that he supports restrictions on congressional stock trading and placing officials’ assets in qualified blind trusts.

Zehr is one of more than 120 lobbyists who have helped fund Whatley’s 2026 campaign. Dozens of PACs affiliated with lobbying firms and industry clients have also contributed. Among them: the American Exploration & Production Council, American Petroleum Institute, Duke Energy, Koch Inc., and TransCanada Pipelines. 

In North Carolina, CEA has been involved in many high-level fights, such as the since-cancelled Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a joint Duke and Dominion Energy natural gas project, and Duke’s requests for utility rate increases and a pass-through to customers on coal-ash cleanup costs. 

CEA also supplied research to the North Carolina Energy Policy Council and supported legislation on power plant construction costs that became law over Gov. Josh Stein’s veto last year. As of last year, the group had a registered lobbyist in the state, though it no longer does.

Around the Revolving Door

Four and a half days into a new job at the EPA in June 2017, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water Lee Forsgren sent Whatley his new contact information. “Look forward to continuing to work with you,” he wrote.

Three days later, Whatley sent him the guest list for an event that included representatives of Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, Statoil, and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Before joining the EPA, Forsgren worked with Whatley at HBW and was a registered lobbyist. His relationship with Whatley dates back to at least 2006, when the two lobbied together on behalf of a waste disposal company seeking federal contracts after Hurricane Katrina.

When Hurricane Harvey hit in August 2017, Whatley introduced Forsgren to BP representatives, writing that he’d “open up a line of communications.” Forsgren replied the same day, “Can we find a time to talk tomorrow morning?”

Whatley sent nearly identical notes to ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, and Chevron representatives, per emails the EPA released in a lawsuit from environmental groups. Neither Whatley nor HBW listed any of the companies as active federal lobbying clients at that time, but all four were CEA members.

At the end of the first Trump administration in 2021, Forsgren returned to HBW, where he worked as a lobbyist until taking an appointment to lead the Army’s civil works office last year. His relationship with Whatley continued. In April 2025, Forsgren toured Hurricane Helene debris sites in Western North Carolina alongside Whatley, whom Trump had named to his Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council. 

Whatley’s role in Helene recovery has become a campaign talking point, most recently with the White House’s announcement of $850 million in Helene relief during a campaign rally. 

At a September rally in Gastonia, Trump joked that he would withhold future disaster relief if Whatley loses. “I’m only kidding,” he said.

After years of helping energy companies make their case to lawmakers and regulators in Washington and beyond, Whatley could now find himself on the other side of the table.