Green Options » coal lobby

Possible Coal Industry Link to Forged Letters

Tom Schueneman — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:42:45 +0000

Last week we reported on a series of forged letters sent to freshman Congressman Tom Perriello, purportedly from constituent groups, but in reality from an employee for “grassroots” lobbying firm Bonner & Associates. The letters urged Perriello to vote against the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

A total of 12 forged letters, sent to three House Democrats, have thus far been uncovered. As well, as Perriello, who voted for ACES, Kathy Dahlkemper and Chris Carney of Pennsylvania also received letters claiming authorship from community organizations. Dahlkemper and Carney voted against ACES.

The task now is unraveling the extent of the connection between the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the forged letters, and Bonner & Associates.

Mean Joe Green #67: Rep. Rahall (D) Shows His Love for (getting money from) Coal (companies)

Joe Mohr — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:13:11 +0000

$11,000 to show your “love” for coal by jumping out of a plane?!

If the coal industry’s ringtone didn’t kill the hopes and dreams of the renewable energy revolution, this certainly will.

Nick Rahall Jumps From a Plane for Coal. Here’s Why.
Rep. Rahall to leap out of a plane on behalf of coal

Mean Joe Green Cartoon Archive

Coal Is Not the Answer: Sierra Club Launches Coal-Debunking Campaign

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:16:47 +0000

Pushes back against coal industry PR blitz

You would have to live under a rock to have missed the massive media campaign coal industry groups have been waging over the last year or two. The language and symbols of clean coal now fill the airways on radio and TV; they appear on billboards, in talking points and even on websites like this one. The coal lobby has spent hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone trying to convince politicians and the people who elect them that coal is now or will soon be “clean.”

Big coal’s presence throughout this long election season as a major sponsor of the presidential debates from November 2007 to October 2008 stands in striking opposition to the absence of any substantive political discussions about climate change in the debates themselves.

But not everyone is buying it. As Kevin Grandia at DeSmogBlog points out, the Sierra Club just launched a PR push of their own, arguing that coal is not the answer. Here’s a little slice of the 116 year-old organization’s new debunking strategy.