Green Options

Nashville legend Merle Haggard has sued environmental awareness group the Green Train for illegally using his name and forging his signature in an effort to collect donations. The group claims to have been founded by Haggard himself along with Bob Wolf.

Haggard says that Bob Wolf asked him for support on a non-profit project in 2007 and Haggard obliged with a $20,000 donation. However, the organization never attained nor attempted to gain non-profit status, said the director of Tennessee’s Divicision of Charitable Solicitiations and Gaming.

A quick look at the Green Train website through Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine, it’s clear that The Green Train has some explaining to do:

Country music legend Merle Haggard is singing the praises of renewable energy. His hometown of Oildale, CA has been – as the name implies – historically rich with oil.

But it’s time for the U.S. to kick its fossil fuel addiction, says Haggard. He’s working with local resident and actor Charles Napier (from Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Austin Powers, among others) to create a “sensible” green energy project. Haggard hasn’t lived

[...]