From high fidelity to high octane

In that historical sweet spot after Vietnam but before buzz-kills like safe sex and mandatory drug sentences, Stephen Brown had one of those desert-island, all-time top-five dream jobs. 

A lifelong music fan, Brown took a two-year hiatus from the career track after law school to work at Cellar Door Productions, a regional rock ‘n’ roll promoter that put on concerts from New Jersey to Miami. He saw Bruce Springsteen, Little Feat, Jefferson Starship and the Rolling Stones up close.

As a kid, Brown once thought of becoming a priest. As an adult, Brown was responsible for handing out backstage passes for the Van Halen ashow.

{mosads}“I’m 25 years old. I have a law degree. I’m single. It is a dream job. It’s 1981. We didn’t have all the fears and concerns that we have today.

“I was single,” he repeats. “The sky was the limit. It was a great time to be alive.”

Fast-forward 27 years and Brown’s life has changed as dramatically as the fashions have. He is the proud father of a daughter in her first year in college. And now he has one of those all-time, top-five most challenging jobs — on K Street anyway.

He works as a lobbyist for the Tesoro Corp., a large oil refiner. That means he has to deal with members angry about high gas prices and huge corporate profits.

“I think the oil and gas industry replaced the tobacco industry as the most hated entity on Capitol Hill,” he says.
Brown’s background may not fit the oil lobbyist stereotype. He is a Democrat, for one. He doesn’t have the sinister laugh of someone who works for one of those companies that Control the Planet.

But going from picking out women hot enough to party with Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth to explaining the problems with ethanol is not as unexpected as one may think.    

Two main interests have always driven him: music and politics. OK — maybe three interests.

“Her name was Wendy Lovelette. I had the biggest crush on her in seventh grade. She was into Eugene McCarthy. So I figured, ‘Hell, I’ll be into Gene McCarthy, too.’ ”

Brown was 12. The relationship with Lovelette did not blossom, but a love for campaigns did. At 14, he managed his boyhood buddy’s bid for town supervisor, a campaign covered by The Wall Street Journal and Life magazine. By 17, Brown was on the national staff of the George McGovern for President campaign.

After Brown’s two-year stint as rock manager, real life began when he joined the staff of pollster Peter Hart. From there, he worked for Reps. Ron Coleman (D-Texas), Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Ken Bentsen (D-Texas). (Boucher is the only one still serving.)    

As a Democratic oil lobbyist, Brown has to straddle two opposing worldviews, but gets kudos from both sides for being straightforward and transparent.

“The first time I met him, my antenna was up because I knew his political background. But over a period of time, I eventually worked with him on some of the most contentious matters,” says Dan Kish, who was a longtime staffer on the House Resources Committee. Kish is now at a start-up natural resources nonprofit.

“I always felt like I could trust him,” Kish says.

“He’s got a lot of integrity,” says Kevin Kimble, the chief of staff to Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “He understands where our members come from so he doesn’t put them in a bad position.”

Brown understood, for example, the broad political support for ethanol on Capitol Hill, and realized he likely would not be able to stop a proposed new federal mandate for renewable fuels production. He tried instead to moderate the proposal.

Unsuccessfully, it turned out. With the rare acquiescence of the White House, Democrats pushed through an energy bill that calls for a five-fold increase in renewable fuels production.

That target includes the production of 22 billion gallons of non-corn-based ethanol.

Brown says the deadlines are likely to outpace technology on next-generation fuels like cellulosic ethanol.

The premature pursuit could cause disruptions in the market, raising oil prices.

“The party, my party, I think, has bought into this mythology surrounding energy independence,” he says. “But I’m not sure they are being realistic and honest with themselves when they think independence is either desirable or can be obtained through the energy legislation they enacted.”

The industry, which gave 85 percent of its campaign donations to Republicans in 2006, is not blameless either, Brown says.

“We need to find ways to allow them to help us without just a ‘hell no’ position. … You can’t just go to a Democratic office and say we need you to oppose what a majority of your caucus wants to do on energy policy because we think it’s wrong.”
He said the industry, for example, needs to stress that overly proscriptive energy policies will eventually harm the most economically disadvantaged voters whom his party has a history of protecting.