WASHINGTON (AP) – Companies run by President Bush’s fund-raising “pioneers” have scored several policy victories in the past few years, including $93 million to protect an oil pipeline in Colombia, a government watchdog group said in a report released Monday.

In most cases, Common Cause offered no evidence that pioneers themselves intervened, but listed several pro-energy and other administration decisions benefiting businesses run by volunteer Bush fund-raisers. The pioneers each raised at least $100,000 for his 2000 campaign.

“I think what’s wrong is in the overall picture,” Common Cause president Chellie Pingree said. “You don’t want to think wealthy executives can contribute money or raise money and then get the rules changed to their benefit.”

The report cites the Bush administration’s pursuit of federal money to help protect the Cano Limon pipeline in Colombia used by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum. Occidental’s executives included J. Roger Hirl, a Bush pioneer who stepped down as Occidental Chemical’s president last December and as an Occidental Petroleum executive vice president last summer.

The Cano Limon is frequently sabotaged by a Colombian rebel group. Congress last February approved spending up to $93 million to protect the pipeline.

“The average businessperson who doesn’t make contributions at that level doesn’t get that kind of treatment,” Pingree said.

White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said the administration’s actions on Cano Limon were meant to fight terrorism, drug trafficking and attacks on world sources of energy.

“I completely dismiss the premise” of the report, Buchan said. “The administration and a bipartisan majority in Congress agreed the attacks on the pipeline were depriving the Colombian government of its ability to protect itself against terrorist attacks and draining revenue needed for providing social services to the Colombian people.”

Other policy decisions cited by Common Cause include:

• Billions of dollars in energy industry tax breaks in the Bush administration’s proposed energy plan. Those meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force during the plan’s development included Enron and Reliant, companies then run by pioneers.

• Defeat of a Senate proposal that would have imposed new security requirements on chemical companies. The measure was opposed by the Bush administration and a coalition led by pioneer and then-American Chemistry Council president Frederick Webber.

• Continuation of federal subsidies for the sugar industry.

Pingree, a former Democratic state senator from Maine, said the report shows how important it is to fix the presidential public financing system to make it more attractive to candidates.

Bush skipped public financing and its spending limits in the 2000 primaries and raised more than $100 million, much of it brought in by pioneers.

AP-ES-10-13-03 1915EDT