Republican Senator Lugar a client of Chicago Climate Exchange

5/18/06: "“I am pleased to announce that the Lugar Stock Farm has enrolled as an offset provider in the Chicago Climate Exchange. ...Our farm will be the first in Indiana to enroll in this important exchange. I am hopeful that farmers in Indiana and elsewhere will investigate the possibility of enrolling in the exchange.

• This not only will encourage the practice of sequestering carbon, it will provide an additional source of farm income to those who qualify,” said Lugar.

9/9/09: " ...Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.),(is) a potential swing vote on a climate bill. Lugar himself

• owns carbon credits on the exchange via trees planted on his property, although the senator

• has never cashed in on the project.

The team also includes Joshua Greene, a former advocate for oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, and Nicole Silver, a former aide to ex-House Minority Whip David Bonior (D-Mich.).

• The amount paid to Green's company, McLeod, Watkinson & Miller, is yet to be reported. Greene and Silver's firm, Patton & Boggs, received $20,000 from the exchange in the second quarter of 2009, according to official congressional documents.

The (Chicago Climate) exchange also has reach in Washington beyond its lobbying firms. President Obama praised the greenhouse gas trading system when he was a U.S. senator from Illinois, and sat on the board of the

• Joyce Foundation, which helped set up the exchange via monetary grants. Sandor gave the maximum $50,000 to attend Obama's inauguration.

The farm lobby has close ties to the exchange, as well, and large companies like utility giant

• American Electric Power are exchange members.
  

CCX's directors include Stuart Eizenstat, a Washington, D.C., attorney who headed the U.S. delegation to climate talks in Kyoto, Japan, and previously worked for Presidents Carter and Clinton.

• Trexler said that the exchange's fingerprints already can be seen on the federal climate bill.

"One way or the other, the CCX has dramatically influenced the whole approach, just because of their historic association with farmers," Trexler said.