Subscription Center
Aug 6, 2009 07:15 PM | 12
A coal industry advocacy group has acknowledged that a contractor it hired later subcontracted a D.C.-based lobbying firm that then fired off a dozen falsified letters to congressional offices, pressuring a "nay" vote on a climate bill, The New York Times reported this week. The forged notes—designed to appear as if written by members of nonprofit groups—arrived before votes were cast on major clean energy legislation; the House narrowly approved the bill on June 26.
Bonner & Associates, hired by a contractor for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), fabricated names of supposed members of the NAACP and Cresciendo Juntos, a Hispanic community group, and made them the "authors" of the would-be grassroots letters, according to the newspaper.
"They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it," Tim Freilich, an executive committee member for Cresciendo Juntos, told Climate Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF).
ACCCE President and CEO Stephen L. Miller said in a prepared statement Monday that the organization apologized for the "deception" and was "outraged" at the conduct of the lobbying firm.
"Bonner and Associates was hired by the Hawthorn Group—our primary grassroots contractor—to do limited outreach earlier this year on H.R. 2454. Based upon the information we have, it is clear that an employee of Bonner’s firm failed to demonstrate the integrity we demand of all our contractors and subcontractors. As a result, these egregious actions led to falsified letters being sent to Members of Congress," Miller said.
One of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Ed Markey (D–Mass.), is demanding more answers from the ACCCE, which was informed about the fake letters two days before the vote, according to the Associated Press.
Miller noted in his statement that the ACCCE is "evaluating all possible measures—including potential legal action." Meanwhile, Bonner & Associates has fired a temporary employee who is being held responsible for the letters.
This wouldn't be the first time the lobbying firm used what are now called "astroturf tactics." A 2002 Baltimore Sun article reported that "after the group was hired by PhRMA to kill Maryland legislation that would have affected prescription drug legislation, they faxed dozens of community leaders with a petition that was meant to appear grassroots, 'including grammatical errors and a handwritten cover letter.'" The Sun article is noted at the Web site of Think Progress, also a project of the CAPAF.
The latest anti–climate bill letters, including one written by a fictional T. J. Hudson of the NAACP, are at least a grammatical improvement, if not a moral one—just a few missing commas here and there.
Picture by DNY59 via iStockphoto
Tags:
climate bill,
coal industry
More News Blog:
Next: CT scans of fossils enable 3-D models of ancient spiders
Previous: Aesop's fable not so fantastical: Rooks use rocks to raise floating food
See what we're tweeting about
Myrmecos 11 Astounding Arthropods You’ll See at BugShot/Belize. Plus, a Zombie Fungus. http://t.co/sjLUVr8eA0
docfreeride Has shifting an online course from one platform to another ever NOT been a colossal pain in the ass? Not for me. Grrr.
sciammind #SciAmBlogs Thursday - science diagrams, mental illness art, beavers are fish, amphibian decline, cicadas, and more. http://t.co/FmFu7XjfeB
Deadline: Jul 25 2013
Reward: Varies
This challenge provides an opportunity for Solvers to build a web-based or mobile “app” to explore data relationships in scholarly conte
Deadline: Jun 30 2013
Reward: $1,000,000 USD
This is a Reduction-to-Practice Challenge that requires written documentation and&
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
12 Comments
Add CommentQuestion is how do you stop people who benefit from human misery, pain and suffering from promoting their businesses?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe see them here on sciam's comment pages too.
So, the coal industry benefits from human misery, pain and suffering? Why don't you stop a minute and visualize what would happen if we would shut down all the coal companies tomorrow? Think of all the miners out of work and the distinct lack of electical power in most of the country. Talk about human misery and suffering!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCoal companies create supply to meet demand. They do this to attempt to earn a profit. And, yes, they promote their business. Last I checked this was still legal, although Obama may be working on that right now.
You really need to stick to good science! Is this Scientific American or Scientific Democrat? You are losing credibility by your drop into politics....shame on you....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShutting down the coal companies tomorrow would be painful, but we'd get over it. That is more than I can say for the devastation they have left behind. And yes, it is legal to rape the planet and leave behind nothing but sludge, polluted rivers and moonscapes where there were mountains. Hopefully Obama will change that. Yes it is sad about the miners; just like it is sad about the fisherman who devastated the fish stocks and are now unemployed, and the whalers, who wiped out the atlantic grey whales and made at least five other species endangered before crude oil thankfully put them out of business. Job's do not justify immoral or unsustainable behaviour. If the only way you can earn a buck is to devastate the planet, then I hope it is an environmentalist that puts you out of work instead of you putting yourself out of work by completely destroying what you depend on.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd I don't know what mileage you expect to get from, "coal companies create supply to meet demand. They do this to attempt to earn a profit." The same thing can also be said for prostitutes, drug dealers, arms merchants, hired killers,… but I guess in your eyes there're all just poor souls trying to make a buck while the man tries to stick it to them. You are such a champion of the people!
The coal companies can see their future and know that their days are numbered. They won't go away without an ugly fight. This is just the beginning, and there is just too much money to be made. And hey, I do like electricity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe need to stick to good science, which can be hard. After all, look how everyone was taught that nutrition science demonstrated that "low fat" diets would prevent heart disease and obesity and apparently now this isn't true. The science of carbon capture looks to be similar and appears to primarily be a way to delay phasing out coal.
As we bring solar energy online in its many forms, coal will go to bed. America and the world thrive on innovation.
Right now it seems only half of America is thriving on innovation. The rest are apparently more interested in resisting change wherever possible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't rock the boat!
By the way, there is no accusation that the coal companies did anything wrong here. It was a crooked lobbying firm, which is a bit redundant. The real story is not about coal or coal compainies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe mere posting of this piece of work indicates the extreme left tilt of the Sciam editors. If you want to get into something truly disgusting, why don't you go after congress, who recently ordered 8 new Gulfstreams so they can fly around the world in style. It would probably be painted by Sciam as a subsidy to the oil industry.
Coal provides the vast majority of electricity to flyover country. I realize yo coasters don't care much about us here in the middle except it's annoying to spend so much time in the air getting from one civilized place to another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFine. Turn off our electricity and gasoline.
We'll turn off your food.
Import THAT from China.
If we understand the harm that coal mining causes (on many levels) it is obvious that we need to move as quickly as possible on the development of alternative, renewable sources for our energy. We in the US are getting about 50% of our electricity from coal today, but that doesn't mean we can't change - it actually means the change will be easier in some aspects than moving off oil. Oil is used in a decentralized manner, in millions of individual motors, boilers and chemical processes. Coal use is today concentrated in a few thousand power plants, cement plants and chemical processes. The combination of efficiency improvements (in motors, lighting, etc) and the introduction of decentralized generation by renewable sources with coordination by smart grid technology can reduce our demand and improve the resiliency of the electric system. While we work on those improvements, more research can be done on decentralized forms of carbon sequestration and new forms of renewable generation. All of these actions combined will allow us to make the transition we must make to the post fossil fuel phase of our civilization.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJames,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you as a West Virginian claiming that coal is devastating the state but the people living there are too stupid to turn against coal and instead support it? Doesn't seem to make much sense - your claim that is.
Why do you, someone who is obviously superior to all those "pesticating" coal miners and their kids, chose to live in a state that's been "devastated" by coal and contains all those idiots you detest? Is it because your job is too important to you, just as it is to all whom you look down upon?
Or maybe I'm wrong and you are there fighting for change to make life better for those folks? Somehow I doubt that.
Soccerdad - It is always the last thing you think of and the first thing you deny. I was born and raised in West Virginia and I know that change comes hard to a lot of people in this state and to some, they will not allow change at all, and it takes a long time to change them...if you ever can. People like this, you cannot embarass into change because the foscil fuel companies have them so dumbed down that most of them are brain dead and they say, "It is better to stay with the devil you know". Most of the time the only way they will change is to be forced to change. I do not detest all the people in West Virginia; just the big fat lazy greasy stupid ones that cannot even recognize their own name when they see it in print and that is about 70% of the population. All these mental deformities were caused by the biproducts of coal. You sound like you belong in the 70% of West Virginians who don't give a damn about anything or you are just an asinine, anti-environmental republician.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRobert Shmidt nails it. But then again so does captainrande. Futher still though, the ACCCE is seriously full of it. Of course they hired a crooked lobbyist firm so that they can completely deny any wrongdoing since they "weren't involved" even though they knew 2 days before the vote and sat on it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this