How to Get a Strong Senate Climate Bill, Part 5: Fight teabaggers, astroturfers and town-hall mobs

If you’re reading this post, and you’re not a right wing-nut blogger looking for something to froth at the mouth about, chances are you’re a progressive activist type who takes the democratic process seriously enough to stay informed on the issues and occasionally respectfully push and prod your elected officials on them. If that’s the case, odds are you’re also pretty appalled, disgusted, and downright frustrated with the hysterical, anti-democratic mobs and their corporate ringleaders who have attempted to hijack the debate over health care over the last few weeks.

If you’re reading this post, it’s also a big no brainer that you’re here to read about climate policy not the health care debate. Maybe you revile the tea-bagger maniacs that are turning town halls into town hells but as a climate activist you’re not going to get too worried or worked out about them until they start coming for climate policy as well. Well if that’s the case then my advice to you would be to start getting worried and start taking action.

Emboldened by the well-publicized scenes of ignorant, disruptive fury that have stifled rational dialogue over real policy at town halls over the past few weeks, opponents of federal climate change action including the American Petroleum Institute and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity have already initiated campaigns to employ the same types of anti-democratic tactics to derail Congressional efforts to pass a climate bill this fall. Last week, API launched its’ “Energy Citizens” initiative Continue reading

Don't Let the Polluters Get Away With This!

A recent Zogby International poll reported that 67% of likely voters “believe Congress is either doing the right amount (22%) or should be doing more (45%) to address global warming. Just 28% believe that Congress is doing too much.”

That helps to explain why the American Petroleum Institute (API), along with groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Conservative Union and Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks are holding “Energy Citizen” rallies all over the country starting today in Houston, Texas. Their purpose? To “call on the Senate to oppose unsound energy policy and ‘get it right.'”

In other words, maintain our addiction to and dependence on polluting and dangerous fossil fuels.

It is critical that supporters of energy reform show up to these API-organized rallies and the ongoing town hall meetings Congress members are holding across the nation. We need to speak the truth about the necessity of strong federal legislation to address the climate crisis and jumpstart a clean energy economy!

Who will be at these rallies? A lot of them will be employees of API member groups. In a memo written by API President and CEO Jack Gerard obtained and released by Greenpeace a few days ago, Gerard urges member groups to provide “strong support for employee participation in the rallies.”

Talk about an Astroturf group!

These rallies are coming as health insurance companies, “clean coal” proponents and right-wing groups are mobilizing to try to intimidate elected officials at town hall meetings in support of their conservative agenda.
We don’t know where all the town meetings over the next few weeks are being held, but we do know where the API rallies are being held (more here):

8/18, Houston, Texas, Verizon Wireless Center, 11:30 am
8/20, Roswell, NM, Eastern New Mexico Fairgrounds, Arts and Crafts Building, 11:30 am
8/20, Greensboro, NC, Greensboro Coliseum, 5:30 pm
8/21, Lima, Oh, Veterans’ Memorial and Civic Center, 11:30 am
8/21, Farmington, NM, Convention Center at McGee Park, 11:30 am
8/22, Atlanta, Ga., Marriott Century Center, 11:30 am
8/25, Elkhart, In., RV Hall of Fame, 11:00 am
8/25, Greeley, Co., Island Grove Regional Park, TBD
8/25, Nashville, Tn., Wild Horse Saloon, 11:30 am
8/27, Bismarck, ND, National Center of Energy Excellence at Bismarck State College, TBD
8/27, Tampa, Fl., Tampa Convention Center, 5 pm
8/27, St. Louis, Mo., Hilton at the Ballpark, 11:30 am
8/31, Greenville, SC, Carolina First Center, 5 pm
8/31, Minneapolis/St. Paul, South St. Paul Hotel and Convention Center, PM TBD
8/31, Anchorage, Ak., Anchorage Convention Center, TBD
9/1, Springfield, Il., TBD
9/3, Detroit, Mi., Burton Manor Banquet and Conference Center, TBD
9/3, Richmond, Va., TBD
9/3, Philadelphia, Pa., TBD, 4:30 pm
9/5, Lincoln, Nb., Embassy Suites Lincoln, 2:30 pm
9/7, Huron, SD, Freedom Stage, South Dakota State Fair, 1:15 pm

If you live in or are close to one of these locations and would like contact information for the primary local organizer, write to me at ted@chesapeakeclimate.org. I can also suggest some creative possibilities for what you could do.

If you go to one of these rallies, leave a comment here letting us know what you are able to pull together.

Let’s stand up for clean energy and strong action on the climate crisis now!
Continue reading

'Mountains Just Get In the Way' and other gems from the Coal Lobby

By now you’ve heard about the DC-based lobbying firm that sent utterly forged letters to Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello and Pennsylvania Congress members Kathy Dahlkemper and Christopher Carney urging them to oppose landmark global warming legislation.Congressman Perriello received eight forged letters, one from a Hispanic non-profit Creciendo Juntos, five from the Virginia chapter of the NAACP, one from the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, and one from the American Association of University Women. Four letters in total were sent to the two representatives from Pennsylvania. CCAN Director Mike Tidwell interviewed a Creciendo Juntos Board Member on his radio show earlier this week. Listen to the show now.The news broke on Friday. On Monday we learned that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) — the coal industry’s top front group — had hired Bonner & Associates and knew about the forgeries days before the House voted on the bill. And yet it did nothing.And because being responsible for forged letters to Congress isn’t bad enough, on Tuesday ACCCE spokesman Joe Lucas came out with another gem. Joe Lucas told a Guardian reporter that people who lived in the shadow of mountaintop removal sites welcomed the radical form of mining because those pesky mountains just get in the way.

I can take you to places in eastern Kentucky where community services were hampered because of a lack of flat space

Coal lobby resorted to deception, identity theft

At least six letters sent to Congressman Tom Perriello (D-7th Dist.) from Charlottesville-based minority groups opposing the American Clean Energy and Security Act were forged, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported today. Congressman Perriello, a freshman Congressman from the Charlottesville area was considered a swing vote on the legislation.

First of all, was Congressman Perriello the only one to get these letters? I wonder…

Secondly, way to go Perriello for standing up to these lies and voting the right way on a important, if weak, clean energy bill.

The letters were sent by the Washington lobbying firm Bonner & Associates, which has lobbied on behalf of utility companies in the past. The firm did not register to lobby on behalf of any company or organization against the cap-and-trade bill.

Two of the letters purportedly came from the Albermarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP and Creciendo Juntos of Charlottesville.

Read the letters:

NAACP
Creciendo Juntos

The American Clean Energy and Security Act, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives 219-212 in June, would put a cap on emissions of global warming pollution and invest money into the renewable energy and efficiency sectors.

According to the Center for American Progress, a $150 billion clean energy investment across the country would bring 45,000 jobs to Virginia and about $3.9 billion in investments, reducing unemployment by 1.1 percent.

What a Strong Bill Looks Like, Part 1: Consumer Protection

Solving global warming is not going to happen over night. The lawmakers dealing with climate legislation now are probably not going to be in office in 2050, when we need to have cut our global warming pollution 80%. So a key part of any climate bill is whether it’s built to last – through Congressional terms, Presidents, and generations.

We need public support for a carbon cap for at least the next 40 years as we work our way toward 80% cuts. The best way to do that is to make sure that the Senate climate bill is fair — it has to put people before polluters.

President Obama last February laid out a framework to fight global warming that was simple, fair, and built to last. All polluters would pay for greenhouse gas emissions, the President said. No exceptions. The money gathered from polluters would then be rebated to middle- and lower-income Americans while leaving $15 billion per year for investments in clean energy and green jobs.

This framework — where 100 percent of the carbon credits are auctioned and revenues used for direct consumer relief — protects consumers and ensures that polluters aren’t given a free ride.

Unfortunately, the House-passed clean energy bill was heavy on the corporate giveaways and light on the protections for energy consumers. The House version would give away 85 percent of the carbon credits for free to utilities, oil refiners and manufacturers. While consumers are offered no protection from price volatility or rate hikes in this version, industrial energy users secured protections to guarantee their bottom lines.

That’s why a coalition of heavy-hitting groups including AARP, Public Citizen, the Consumer Federation of America, and the National Consumer Law Center have teamed up with CCAN to call on the Senate to establish a stronger system of consumer protection. Continue reading

Strong Men Take Over Senate Hearing

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson testified before the Environment and Public Works Committee Tuesday as the Senate drafts its version of a clean energy and climate bill. Grassroots advocates with CCAN and the Avaaz Climate Action Factory, some wearing strong man suits, turned out in force to demand a stronger bill. In honor of Administrator Jackson’s presence, we specifically demanded restoration of the EPA’s authority to regulate global warming pollution from coal plants.

As you know, the House of Representatives successfully passed H.R. 2454, a 1,400-page cap-and-trade bill that was the result of months of negotiations. The bill underwent many changes as its authors – Congressmen Markey and Waxman — negotiated to get the votes they calculated it needed to pass. The result? The House-passed bill just isnt’ good enough.

In one of the most controversial compromises, the House repealed the Clean Air Act provision that empowered the EPA to regulate carbon pollution from dirty coal plants.

Without this provision, the Obama Administration is powerless to stop hundreds of old, dirty coal plants from spewing global warming pollution into the air. Some of the biggest climate polluters on the planet could be let off the hook.

Even worse, the coal industry is trying to build at least 100 more dirty coal plants. For years, environmental and citizen groups have blocked these plants. Right now the Chesapeake Climate Action Network is fighting two proposed coal plants in Virginia alone. If this Clean Air Act provision is eliminated, local groups may be unable to stop another generation of dependence on dirty coal.

Tuesday marked the beginning of a series of hearings and high-level meetings aimed at producing a Senate complement to the House climate bill. CCAN and others will be working non stop to make sure the Senate bill truly delivers on the clean energy future we so desperately need. Want to stay in the loop? Join our special “Hill Force” list and we’ll keep you up to date on how to get involved.

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