6
'Astroturf' campaign fights climate bill
American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity logo.
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, organizers of those town hall meetings protesting any overhaul of health insurance can take this next story as a big fat compliment.
Big oil and coal companies are using their trade associations to organize what would appear to be grass roots protests against the climate bill working its way through Congress. I said appear to be.
Marketplace's Steve Henn has more.
STEVE HENN: The American Petroleum Institute is big oil's lobbying muscle in Washington. And the group is planning a long hot summer for dozens of members of Congress.
Earlier this month, API's president sent a memo to members asking them to help turn out hundreds of employees for protests in more than 20 states. The aim -- to undermine support for the Climate Change bill in Congress.
DAN LASHOF: Any time a trade association tries to portray their activities as grass roots activity when it's clearly being orchestrated by corporate headquarters, that raises very serious questions about making sure that the public really understands what is going on.
Dan Lashof directs the climate center at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He says many groups are attempting to pass off corporate opposition to the bill as a grass-roots uprising. Earlier this summer, a lobby shop working for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity or ACCCE...
LASHOF: Fabricated letters to members of Congress, literally forged letters.
From local chapters of the NAACP and other civil rights groups...
LASHOF: Opposing climate legislation in the House, and it turned out that those organizations had not sent any such letters.
ACCCE apologized and fired the lobbyists. But Lashof is equally disturbed by another part of this story. Many companies that belong to the American Petroleum Institute and ACE say publicly, at least, that they support legislation to combat climate change.
So he wonders why their trade representatives are actively opposing it. Tom Williams is a spokesman for Duke Energy. His company has left other trade associations over this issue. But...
TOM WILLIAMS: I think Duke Energy has been a moderating influence on the membership of ACCCE overall.
And still other firms are playing both sides of the aisle. For example, BP's spent millions creating a green corporate image, but it's working with American Petroleum Institute on rustling up employees for the upcoming protests.
In Washington, I'm Steve Henn for Marketplace.
The story here isn't that the fossil industry is trying to get representation (as if it doesn't already have it) or further it's interests (as big tobacco etc. have done in the past). It's the misleading tactics, and the apparent use of lobbyists with a history of them. Perhaps there's a fear that more people are coming to their senses, and realizing why we need to reduce fossil carbon accumulation soon. That is, using proven technologies with modest net costs rather than betting on pipe dreams like commercial-scale carbon sequestration. Maybe a fear that people are STARTING to see through the greenwashing and the pseudoscience that has appeared in mainstream media as a source of false "balance" or controversy.
I just hope we continue to see coverage of any attempts to hoodwink congress or the public.
Perhaps you can point me to the last story anybody there at National Socialist Radio did about how union groups were being bussed hundreds of miles to support some Democrat campaign of deception.
Or about how the President's chief political advisor--David Axelrod--actually became famous because he invented new ways to astroturf and get Democrats elected.
No, that kind of story would just be about how concerned citizens are making sure their representatives know your views. But then again, it supports what you believe so its just protest or community orgnization. When its opposition to your views its "manufactured".
P.S. Since when would it be a bad idea for the employees of the very companies that the cap and tax bill is looking to destroy and put out of work contact their Congress Critters and tell them they don't think that's such a great idea? You know - the people who "represent" them.
I find your fake grass roots stories interesting in that they are advocacy pieces masquerading as news journalism.
NPR is blatantly shilling for health care reform and CO2 control without presenting the legitimate opposing views, or a real discussion of the costs of either.
The thing that is so concerning in this scandal is that ACCCE actually paid a contractor to forge letters to Congress from actual groups, making it appear as though they oppose climate and energy legislation, when in reality, they support it or have no position. The congressional investigation underway just discovered 5 more letters that were forged. I'm all for citizen action on issues, but forging letters from legitimate groups to make it look like they are on your side is stooping to a new low.
Are you really saying that it is wrong for citizens who work for energy companies to join with like-minded citizens to voice their opinions? I am attending because I love the USA and am concerned for my children's future - and not because my employer is making me attend. I believe this Climate Change bill will further harm the US economy, put more good people out of work, drive up our electricity and other energy costs, and make us dependent on foreign gasoline refiners whose emissions are not regulated - actually causing an increase in global CO2 emissions.
I also don't understand why you think an energy company can't be in support of a reasonable and fair climate bill and still honestly believe that this particular climate bill is not fair or reasonable.
