It's The "Waters Advocacy Coalition" - Brought To You By Farm Bureau, NAM, Cattleman's Association

[hatrack]

:puke:

At first glance, the Waters Advocacy Coalition could be mistaken for a typical environmental group. The home page of its Web site, protectmywater.org, features a banner reading “Protect the Clean Water Act” across a photo slide show of flowing streams and clear mountain lakes.

On Facebook and Twitter, where the group’s handle is @ProtectCWA, its bio reads: “Our coalition is made up of diverse organizations that have an interest in and actively protect our nation’s waters and wetlands resources.” But Bill Chameides, a professor of environmental science at Duke University who writes about environmental issues at his blog the Green Grok, recently noticed something unusual about the group: this month it filed a formal objection to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to rescind a Clean Water Act permit for a proposed West Virginia coal mine.

The Mingo Logan Coal Company, the mining operator, were “consistently unwilling” to consider actions to reduce direct impacts on headwater streams and wildlife from the mine, the E.P.A. had written in its controversial decision vetoing the permit. Soon afterward, on Jan. 11, the Waters Advocacy Coalition wrote to President Obama’s Council on Environmental Quality, declaring that the E.P.A’s action “has no legal foundation, is not warranted on the facts and will chill investments and job creation across America.” “The implications could be staggering, reaching all areas of the U.S. economy including but not limited to the agriculture, home building, mining, transportation and energy sectors,” the letter continued.

As it turns out, there’s no big mystery here: the Waters Advocacy Council is not an environmental organization, but a lobbying outfit for some of the nation’s largest industrial and agricultural concerns, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Industrial Sand Association and the National Mining Association.

EDIT

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/industry-groups-self-depiction-raises-eyebrows/

[Nihil]

1. What a nice bunch of environmentally-aware organisations ...

> the Waters Advocacy Council is not an environmental organization,
> but a lobbying outfit for some of the nation’s largest industrial
> and agricultural concerns, including the American Farm Bureau Federation,
> the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Cattlemen’s
> Beef Association, the National Industrial Sand Association and the
> National Mining Association.

They're "aware" of the environment all right and work very hard indeed
to ensure that they maximise their opportunities to exploit it for
short-term profit ...

:mad: