Oil Industry Conjures Illusion of Public Support for KXL Using ALEC Politicians

[Scuba]

http://www.progressive.org/oil-industry-conjures-illusion-public-support-kxl-using-alec-politicians

Millions of U.S. citizens have voiced their opposition to the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline in recent months, with more than 2 million public comments opposing the project hand delivered to the State Department last week. At the same time, hundreds of state legislators have been lining up in favor of KXL, seemingly just as passionate and as heartfelt as those opposed to the project. But many legislators have been tasked with promoting the project by oil industry lobbyists who provide them with model bills, talking points and draft op-eds.

According to documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), the American Petroleum Institute (API) and other oil industry groups have been directing state legislators to make public and legislative statements in favor of the pipeline project, and have provided legislators with draft legislation, language for op-eds and testimony to be presented as their own. Central to these efforts is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), through which lobbyists -- such as those from API -- can meet in secret with state legislators from across the country.

...

During the most recent annual ALEC meeting in August 2013, held in downtown Chicago, oil-industry lobbyist Michael Whatley provided legislators at the group's International Relations Task Force meeting with a briefing on the KXL pipeline, urging legislators for their help in getting the project approved. Whatley -- a lobbyist for the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) -- has regularly attended ALEC meetings in recent years, and has presented to the organization on KXL in the past. CEA receives funding from the two leading U.S. oil lobby groups -- the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) -- and lists among its members leading oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell and BP amongst many others. Whatley's lobbying firm HBW Resources also has a somewhat unexplained relationship with the Alberta Government – see Salon.

According to the internal minutes from the ALEC meeting provided to CMD, Whatley called on legislators to help push the pipeline project to approval. Much as environmental groups view KXL as being a line in the sand, as symbolic of how serious the Obama administration is about tackling climate change, the oil industry considers the project to be a possible harbinger of things to come. "We're very concerned about the precedential impact of this refusal," Whatley told the group.

And it's working ....

As The Progressive reports, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and South Dakota have all introduced legislative resolutions supporting the pipeline

[KoKo]

1. Thanks for posting this... Recommend!

BTW...don't have the article link...but a wealthy Silicon Valley billionaire who supported Obama is going to spend 2 Million in NC because he is totally against Fracking and will do ads and such. I hope he will do this in other states which aren't fracking yet...but their state legislatures are in favor of it in the next few year.

Sorry for not having the link... Will post sometime when I dig it up. I thought it a bit of good news.

[KoKo]

4. Billionaire Democratic Environmental Activist Ready to Play Hardball in 2014 Elections

Feb 20, 2014 2:09pm


(Charley Gallay/Getty Images)

Democrats’ favorite wealthy political donor, environmentalist Tom Steyer, is ready to play hardball in the 2014 elections.

But an adviser for Steyer’s super PAC Next Gen Climate Action, which has committed to spending more than $100 million in a climate change ad campaign this year, said they don’t plan to attack Democrats in tough races who disagree with their environmentalist agenda.

“We’re certainly not subscribing to what I would call the tea party theory of politics,” said the group’s senior adviser Chris Lehane on a conference call with reporters today. “The tea party has spent a considerable amount of time involving themselves in races where they effectively go out and take out a candidate.”

“We do think it’s really, really, really important from a climate perspective that we maintain control of the Senate for Democrats,” he added.

So Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., you’re in luck.

That doesn’t mean that they’ll stay out of races like Landrieu’s, where she has been outspoken in her support for the Keystone XL pipeline, an oil sands project that would bring unrefined oil from Canada to the U.S., which the environmental community strongly opposes.

Though they haven’t committed to doing anything in Landrieu’s race yet, Lehane said that ad campaigns may not be negative but they could potentially prod voters to push Democratic candidates toward an anti-Keystone platform.

As for all that money, Steyer’s commitment of at least $50 million from his own pockets and $50 million from like-minded people (who are also likely to be very wealthy), is a much needed helping hand for Democrats who are facing an uphill battle to hold on to the Senate and stop any hemorrhaging of seats in the House.

But it runs counter to their multi-year campaign against big-dollar super PACs, which they say have an out-sized influence in political elections.

Lehane framed Steyer’s involvement as a counterpoint to spending by the fossil fuel industry and other people who he said are motivated by “economic self-interest.”

“What Tom is spending by any objective analysis is a very small drop in a very large oil bucket of money that has been spent on the other side,” Lehane said.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/02/billionaire-environmentalist-tom-steyer-wont-tea-party-dems-in-2014/

[woo me with science]

2. Corporate-owned government does not serve or represent people.

It advertises, markets to, and manipulates them.

[Octafish]

3. Gosh. I read on DU there was 88-percent support from Dems or some such number.

What DUer kgrandia posted:

New Study: Koch's Could Make $100 Billion on Keystone XL Pipeline Deal

Yah know, b/c it makes perfect sense for Pres. Obama to approve a pipeline that his largest political enemies will make $100 billion off of.

A new study released today concludes that Koch Industries and its subsidiaries stand to make as much as $100 billion in profits if the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is given the go-ahead by U.S. President Obama.

The report, titled Billionaires’ Carbon Bomb, and produced by the think tank International Forum on Globalization (IFG), finds that David and Charles Koch and their privately-owned company, Koch Industries, own more than 2 million acres of land in Northern Alberta, the source of the tar sands oil that will be pumped to the United States via the Keystone XL pipeline.

IFG also finds that more than 1,000 reports and statements in support of the Keystone XL pipeline project have been made by policy groups and think tanks that receive funding from the Koch brothers and their philanthropic foundations.

http://my.firedoglake.com/kevingrandia/2013/10/20/new-study-kochs-could-make-100-billion-on-keystone-xl-pipeline-deal/

[KoKo]

5. And, some of us spent years on Mellon-Scaife going after Clinton....

When the real Big Money was busy working behind the scenes infesting both parties. Why didn't we know? Was Mellon-Scaife and Starr just another distraction from what was really going on? (CT ALERT)

[Octafish]

6. Remember Steve Kangas?

The guy spelled out the issue: The Origins of the Overclass. He was found in a Mellon-Scaife bathroom, a suicide.

They used President Clinton, destroying his reputation in order to advance their agenda. He also served their agenda, signing into law Gramm-Leach-Bliley, which led directly to the biggest bank heist ever.

PS: I really like the (CT Alert) thing. It will protect many delicate minds. These CT Wise Guys need the protection, like Cass Sunstein, delicate and fragile. LOL. They act like their brains will fry if they have to even think about what their government wants hidden for even one second. What they fear is the truth, which, considering their own roles in its suppression, becomes a very ugly thing.

[KoKo]

7. Brings back memories...

Ahh...Steve Kangas...


On your comments about the "CT Alert"... what you say....