Tag Archives: lobbying

Chris Stewart, climate science denier, is now head of Congressional climate science committee

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Originally posted to PolluterWatch

Chris Stewart, climate science denier

Chris Stewart, a republican from Utah, was recently appointed Chair of the House subcommittee on Science.

This means that Congressman Stewart now has dominion over the EPA, climate change research, and “all activities related to climate.” According to the House Science Committees website, the chair of the energy subcommittee oversees:

“all matters relating to environmental research; Environmental Protection Agency research and development; environmental standards; climate change research and development; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including all activities related to weather, weather services, climate, the atmosphere, marine fisheries, and oceanic research;…”

Unfortunately for the EPA, NOAA, and anyone worried about climate change, Chris Stewart is a climate science denier. Mr. Stewart believes there is “insufficient science” to determine if climate change is caused by humans. He believes this in spite of the fact that the EPA, NOAA, and all experts in the field (which he now oversees), disagrees with him.

Continue reading →

ALEC uses Indiana Regulator to help Coal Companies Stall Climate Change Action

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You’re probably familiar with the old “fox in the hen house” story, but what about when a hen joins the fox den?

This is the case with the recent American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting in Washington, DC. Leaked documents obtained by Greenpeace reveal that ALEC’s anti-environmental jamboree was inundated with coal money and featured an Indiana regulator advising coal utilities on delaying US Environmental Protection Agency rules to control greenhouse gas emissions and hazardous air pollution.

Bottom of blog: View contents of the ACCCE USB drive from ALEC's 2012 States & Nation Policy summit.

At ALEC’s coal-sponsored meeting, where state legislators and corporate representatives meet to create template state laws ranging from attacks on clean energy to privatization of public schools, Indiana’s Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Management Tom Easterly laid out a plan to stall the US EPA global warming action in a power point clearly addressed to coal industry representatives at ALEC’s meeting.

In a USB drive branded with the logo of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a folder labeled “Easterly” contains a presentation titled “Easterly ALEC presentation 11 28 12” explaining current EPA air pollution rules and how Tom Easterly has worked to obstruct them. The power points is branded with the Indiana Department of Environmental Protection seal. In the latter presentation, Easterly ended his briefing to ALEC’s dirty energy members with suggestions for delaying EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions at coal plants. Continue reading →

Lobbyists for the “Electric Reliability Coordinating Council” attack clean air rules on behalf of Arch Coal

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The Environmental Protection Agency is holding a public hearing today in Washington DC on the first-ever rules to limit carbon pollution from new power plants. It’s a popular rule, and EPA has already heard a lot about it: over a million comments supporting the rule were delivered to EPA last week.

But this is DC, so not everyone is thrilled. Scott Segal, a lobbyist at Bracewell & Giuliani, will be testifying on behalf of coal interests at the EPA hearing. When lobbying against clean air rules like the carbon pollution standard or mercury air toxics standard, Segal likes to use the title of director of the “Electric Reliability Coordinating Council” (ERCC); I suppose it sounds better than coal lobbyist. But what exactly is the ERCC? When he wrote a letter requesting a meeting about the carbon pollution rule with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Segal claimed that “ERCC is a group of power-generating companies.” But OMB meeting records reveal that the only lobbyist that joined ERCC for that meeting was Arch Coal’s Vice President of Government Affairs, Tom Altmeyer. Continue reading →

What’s on ALEC’s polluter agenda tomorrow?

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Tomorrow, the American Legislative Exchange Council–known as ALEC–will host their 2012 Spring Task Force summit in Charlotte, NC. At tomorrow’s meeting, the corporate front group will round up its various committees and prepare to peddle new state-level legislation to attack clean energy laws, protect polluting industries, privatize education, and suppress voters, among other big business schemes.

Need a refresher on ALEC? It’s the group that brings state legislators to the table with representatives from major corporations in the sectors of energy, healthcare, tobacco, private prisons, and other groups to manipulate state politics to maximize their profits and limit their liabilities. These companies help craft template bills for state legislators to bring home and introduce in their respective statehouses.

Documents obtained and published by Common Cause now give us a roster of specific attendees at ALEC’s environmental meetings, a consortium of state legislators and a who’s who of the most offensive polluting political heavyweights including: Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Duke Energy and Peabody.  Participating legislators know well they’re walking into a dirty party, sometimes using state taxpayer money to foot the bill.

The corporations that fund ALEC are well known for their political spending on both sides of the aisle. ALEC funders include Koch Industries, known for its coordinated political spending against President Obama, and Duke Energy, which is laying down a ten million dollar line of credit to host the Democratic National Convention in their hometown of Charlotte, NC. But these polluting companies are co-conspirators under the banner of ALEC, where partisan politics are set aside to focus on the mission of destroying environmental protections, clean energy competition and liability for crimes against both people and the ecosystems sustaining us.

So what exactly are ALEC and these oil, coal, chemical and public relations companies focusing on tomorrow? Continue reading →

API’s Jack Gerard Refuses to Answer Activists on Vote 4 Energy Advertising Costs

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We’ll get to the encounter with Mr. Gerard below, but first, some context:

Gas prices! Everyone’s talking about them, including our government at a Congressional  hearing today held by the House of Representatives Energy & Power Subcommittee featuring, among others, Mr. Jack Gerard of the American Petroleum Institute. As API’s president, Jack Gerard is Big Oil’s top lobbyist, and today he was doing what companies like Exxon and Shell pay him the big bucks to do – justify government subsidies and giveaways to Big Oil.

Also attending the hearing: referees raising the red flags on misleading statements and calling attention to the $5.97 million that oil companies have given to current members of the Energy & Power subcommittee since 1999 (data provided by the Center for Responsive politics through DirtyEnergyMoney).

activist refs call foul on Jack Gerard at a hearing on gas prices

This particular meeting of the subcommittee exposed some of the more blatant absurdities that API and their oil funded buddies in Congress like to propagate. Take gas prices – Jack Gerard likes to say “we need more American energy,” by which he means we need to open up every square inch of soil and water to oil and gas extraction. His argument is that gas prices would be lower if we sacrificed our land and investment capital to Big Oil’s drill. Continue reading →

Duke Energy distances itself from ERCC’s attacks on Mercury Rule

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By: Robert Gardner


Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo and local activists inspect the Riverbend coal plant in North Carolina. The plant, owned by Duke Energy, has emitted more than a thousand pounds of mercury pollution over the last ten years.

Update: Duke Energy distances itself from ERCC’s attacks on the Mercury Rule

After receiving our letter, a spokesperson for Duke had a chance to provide some insight to a reporter at the Charlotte Business Journal about where the company stands on coal front group ERCC’s attacks on the Mercury Rule:

Williams says Duke is a member of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which has opposed the EPA’s proposal. “But, as with many organizations we are affiliated with, we don’t agree with them on every issue.”

Duke’s efforts to distance itself from the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council’s attacks on the Mercury Rule show that the ERCC’s efforts to weaken and delay this important public health safeguard are not even supported by its own member companies. Scott Segal and the other Bracewell & Giuliani lobbyists who run this coal industry front group should stop misleading policymakers about whose interests they represent.

Original Post:

In the next couple weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to finally release safeguards to protect Americans from mercury pollution and other toxins emitted by coal fired power plants, and a strong rule could do a lot to protect communities from these poisons. Unfortunately, lobbyists for a few of the most polluting companies are trying to sabotage the rule before it’s out – and they’re hiding behind a coal industry front group called the “Electric Reliability Coordinating Council.” We need to know who is behind these attacks, so today Greenpeace is sending a letter to Jim Rogers, the CEO Duke Energy, to see if his company supports ERCC’s attacks on these much needed protections against mercury pollution. Here’s the text of the letter:

 

 

Dear Mr. Rogers,

As you know, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has recently announced a suite of much needed air quality rules. Among them are the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (“CSAPR”), and the EGU MACT, or “Mercury Rule.” A chorus of clean air advocates from across America has spoken in support of the Mercury Rule, with over 600,000 comments streaming into the EPA demanding protection from mercury pollution.

You have made it clear that Duke is positioned to meet EPA’s updated mercury standards, with plans to retire non-compliant facilities or install a variety of pollution controls.

Given your stated preparedness for the rule, we are puzzled by Duke Energy’s potential affiliation with the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, (“ERCC”). As you may know, the ERCC is aggressively seeking to delay and weaken much-needed federal mercury protections. Although the ERCC has refused to name its full membership, on June 7th of this year, ERCC Director and Bracewell & Giuliani lobbyist Scott Segal named both Duke and Progress Energy as member companies. On November 14, 2011, Mr. Segal sent a letter requesting a meeting with Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, seeking to delay and weaken the Mercury Rule as that office undertakes its cost-benefit analysis.

According to a recent Bloomberg article coal and energy industry lobbyists held just such a meeting with White House officials on Tuesday, November 29, 2011.

Given the importance of protecting Americans from the dangers of mercury pollution, it is critical that policymakers and impacted communities know who is behind ERCC’s attacks on the Mercury Rule. What is Duke Energy’s affiliation with the ERCC? Does Duke Energy support the ERCC’s attacks on the Mercury Rule and other public health safeguards?

Surely you know the importance of protecting communities from the impacts of mercury in their food chain. At least 1 in 12 American women of childbearing age have enough mercury in their bodies to put their baby at risk of mercury poisoning, which causes brain damage, learning disabilities, and birth defects. This rule will save lives, protect the environment, and create much-needed jobs for our economy.

In 2010 alone, Duke Energy’s coal-fired power plants emitted 1,444 pounds of mercury into the environment. It’s long past time for the EPA to protect citizens from mercury pollution of coal-fired power plants.

We look forward to your response.

Signed,

Gabe Wisniewski

Coal Campaign Director, Greenpeace USA