alecsum

i think i fixed bad paste

8/20/2015

GOP prz cands %?

Cruz

Jindal

GOP leadership

ALecKoch-alypse

These are privatization, financialization, militarization, and criminalization, which together are producing a steadily creeping authoritarianism-a new authoritarianism-to fit our times. Let's call them the Four Plagues, or if we wish, "The Four Horsemen of Our Apocalypse," from the Book of Revelations.

exxonsecrets:

ALEC provides state legisators with model legislation, including a continuing program trying to discredit state level legislation aimed at providing incentives to cut global warming pollution. Funded by conservative foundations and corporate grants, ALEC is a pivotal player between state and federal right-wing think tanks....ALEC is a former member of the Cooler Heads Coalition and a current member of the State Policy Network.

Meet 3x year, but many more meetings in state capitols (on spec issues"

nrdc: The organization's national meetings appear

to be mostly window dressing for policy decisions

that have already been made, either within

the organization's offices in Washington, D.C.,

or in closed consultations with the corporations

and other like- minded interests that finance virtually all its activities."

az gov brewer keynote

ALEC National Chairman Noble Ellington

Hightower:

AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL.

"With nearly 2,000 members" explains a brochure of this secretive organization, "ALEC is the nation's largest nonpartisan, individual membership association of state legislators." Maybe your very own local lawmaker is one of them--but you won't get that information from ALEC, which hides its list of legislators from public view.

Nonpartisan? Its website lists 22 legislators from around the country who serve as board members and officers of this tax-exempt legislative service organization. All are Republican. In fact, only token numbers of Democrats are allowed in the club, and all inductees are individually vetted to make sure they will adhere to ALEC's corporate dogma.

Which brings us to the organization's pose as an association of legislators. The "exchange" in ALEC's name is not between lawmakers, but between lawmakers and such behind-the-scenes powers as Altria, AT&T, Bayer, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, GlaxoSmithKline, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Industries, Kraft Foods,Peabody Energy, Pfizer, Reynolds American, State Farm Insurance, UPS, and Walmart. These giants form ALEC's "private enterprise board," and they are among the self-interested corporations that put up its money and shape its agenda.

State reps pay only a token $50 a year to be members of ALEC, while at least 82 percent of the $6 million yearly budget comes from corporations (ALEC demurely refuses to name its donors, much less report how much each gives, nor will it disclose how it spends the money).

What do corporations get for their tax-deductible donations? A greased skid for sliding their wish list into the laws of multiple states. ALEC is something of a speed dating service. It holds three national conferences a year, plus convening issue-specific policy sessions in 20 to 30 state capitols annually. These are cozy sessions that conveniently gather groups of legislators to meet in private with corporate executives. The two groups schmooze together and develop bills to help extend corporate power over workers, consumers, environmentalists, and others--then the lawmakers go back home to pass the corporations' bills.

ALEC is the ultimate back room for corporate-legislative collusion. Its promotional brochure describes it as a dynamic partnership "that will define the American political landscape of the 21st century."

That's no empty threat. ALEC's tÃªte-Ã -tÃªtes result in about 1,000 bills being introduced across America every legislative session, and an ALEC official proudly adds, "We usually pass about 200 bills a year." And what pieces of work they are! For example:

Even before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took office this January, ALEC agents were handing him model bills for clubbing teachers and other public employees. Pushing ALEC's attack from inside the legislature were Wisconsin state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the rancorous, union-busting majority leader who was ALEC's state chairman last year, and state Rep. Robin Vos, the house budget slasher who heads ALEC's state organization this year. Likewise, governors in Indiana, Maine, Michigan, and Ohio have backed anti-union legislation this year that closely resembles ALEC's 'model' bills.

In 2009, ALEC drew up the Voter ID Act to ban university students from using their college-issued ID's as proof of residency for voting. Seven states have adopted this model law, which is intended to bar eligible students from the voting booth. These kids must be disenfranchised, New Hampshire's house speaker bluntly said in February, because they're "voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience." This model bill has been introduced in 18 other states this year in a rather obvious ploy to hold down the student vote in the 2012 presidential election.

Arizona's infamous anti-Latino immigration law was crafted at an ALEC conference. The state senate leader who sponsored the bill was in the meeting, as was an eager executive from Corrections Corporation of America, the private prison operation that stands to get a nice business boost from Arizona's law.

Numerous state bills have been filed to kill, dilute, or withdraw from Obama's universal healthcare reform. Many bear remarkably similar wording, perhaps because they were drawn from a special report churned out by the 'nonpartisan' ALEC, entitled "The State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare."

One of ALEC's specialties is developing state laws to stop citizens from interfering with corporate whim. For example, when various communities began outlawing the use of genetically altered seeds in their area, ALEC rushed out a model bill to remove local control of seeds--11 states have passed it. Also with such climate-change deniers as Koch and Exxon funding ALEC and sitting on its board, you can guess why this corporate policy front has produced more than 800 draft measures against regulating global warming emissions--and, at least six states are considering bills nearly identical to ALEC's draft resolution for "state withdrawal from regional climate initiatives."

sw: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) describes itself as the largest "membership association of state legislators," but over 98% of its revenue comes from sources other than legislative dues, primarily from corporations and corporate foundations.[1] After the 2010 congressional midterm elections, ALEC boasted that "among those who won their elections, three of the four former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. Senate are ALEC Alumni and 27 of the 42 former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. House are ALEC Alumni."

...

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve "model" bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, ...

Founding

ALEC was "founded in 1973 by Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett, and...Paul Weyrich"[4].

Its articles of incorporation[5], were signed by Donald L. Totten of Schaumberg IL, Donald Lukens of Middletown OH, and Louis Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge LA.

Originally promised "no attempt to influence legislation"

Surprisingly, the nascent group's statement of purpose included this assurance: "No substantial part of the activities of the corporation shall be the carrying on of propaganda, or otherwise attempting to influence legislation."[5]

...

Changes in the 1980s

The National Journal recognized the rising prominence of ALEC in the New Right movement of the mid-1980s in a major feature article. The article noted its connections to the Heritage Foundation, including a shared Capitol Hill building. It also described the organization's political wing, the now defunct ALEC-PAC, which in 1984 targeted 84 legislative seats in states. Notably, the state backed conservative Democrats in some races, getting involved in states with either thin conservative or liberal majorities including Ohio, New Mexico, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington and Wisconsin.

Richard A. Viguerie,a leading new right conservative[6], spoke of ALEC in the context of the growing movement, saying that "leading conservatives [had] 'fairly recently' determined that the state-local level 'is the missing piece of the puzzle for us.'

Then executive director of ALEC Kathleen Teague Rothschild, reflecting the new thinking of conservative strategists, noted that "In Congress, you've got only one legislative body and they will either pass or kill your bill. In the states, if you're trying to get banking deregulation passed and you've lost in Kansas, Nebraska and Texas, it's not a total failure. You may well win in Arizona, California and New York that year. You've got 50 shots."

Teague also noted that a nationwide network present in every state could be effective in supporting amendments to the United States Constitution. "State legislatures must ratify constitutional amendments. If the cumulative efforts of the conservative PACs succeed in pressuring Congress to pass a school prayer or a balanced budget amendment", said Teague, "they'll have to get 38 states to pass those things. You have to have an active support network in the states when ratification time comes."

Corporations supporting ALEC in 1984 included theEdison Electric Institute, Procter & Gamble Co., Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., Hoffmann-LaRoche Inc., Adolph Coors Co. and ARCO. Teague described corporate interest in state legislative affairs as "rising so rapidly that 'I have more big corporations who want to see me, get involved and become members than we can practically cope with.'"

The chairman of ALEC's business policy board at the time was Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld said that his interests in economics and government regulation, rather than social issues, led him to become involved with the organization.

Shook Hardy tort reform (asbestos)

Farm Team: Amazing number of alums (state level leader have "duty" to pass laws in state; one in 100 is democrat):

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)

Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois)

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (1995 Chair of ALEC Business Policy Board)

Speaker Tom DeLay (R-Texas)

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card (for George W. Bush's Administration)[7]

Senator Don Nickles (Oklahoma)

Congressman Joe Wilson (recently called Obama a "liar")

Representative Dan Burton (Indiana)

Congressman Billy Tauzin (Louisiana)

Representative Katherine Harris (Florida)

Senator Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma)

Former Governor Tommy Thompson (Wisconsin), running for U.S. Senate in 2012, identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years[7]

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ)[8]

Governor Jan Brewer (Arizona)[9]

Former Governor Bill Owens (Colorado)[7]

Governor Terry Branstad (Iowa), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years[10]

Former Governor John Engler (Michigan), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years[7]

Governor Nikki Haley (South Carolina), ALEC alumna[11]

Governor John Kasich (Ohio), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years[10]

Former Governor Frank Keating (Oklahoma)[7]

Governor Bob McDonnell (Virginia)[12]

Governor Rick Perry (Texas); [13] received the "Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award" from ALEC in 2010[14]

Governor Scott Walker (Wisconsin)[15][16]

Former Governor Tommy Thompson (Wisconsin), identified by ALEC as involved in its formative years[7]

Governor Mary Fallin (Oklahoma) [17]

ACA:

Obama came into office with a number of priorities (promises): Climate, Health Care ___; invested all his "political capital on ACA, gutsy as had been beaten routinely since Truman (if not FDR [Whitaker and baxter aka Campaigns Inc hired by AMA to kill it; also gave us RMN] [Bill and Hillary tired to do it the 3rd Way with indistry cooperation in the open, but they were also working behindthe scense to kill it, and bailled at first opportunity (Harry and Louise neg ads]

Boehner [or was it McC?](ALEC alum) openly vowed to oppose BO on anything, not matter what. Nevertheless, BO made multiple olive branches, all rebuffed; voted 50x to repeal in House, even though obvious veto could not be beat in Senate; in desperation we get state AG: (plus Roberts SCOTUS somewhat surpringly upheld ploy to exploit text rtechnicality?]

SW: "...Boldin was advocating for "nullification," a legal theory supported by conservatives that asserts any state has the right to nullify or invalidate a federal law the state deems unconstitutional. According to Boldin, "[Thomas] Jefferson said, 'whensoever the federal government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoratitaive, void and have no force; and nullification is the rightful remedy.'" The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected nullification, most recently in the 1950s when Southern states tried using the strategy to resist racial integration of public schools.

[ALEC is like a speed-dating service for lonely legislators and corporate executives," says Mark Pocan, a Democratic state assemblyman in Wisconsin, where ALEC played a role in last year's efforts to cripple public-sector unions. "The corporations write the bills and the legislators sign their names to the bills. In the end, we're stuck with bad laws and nobody knows where they came from."

Prominent bills drafted by ALEC include Arizona's SB 1070 (the nation's strictest anti-immigration legislation) and proposals introduced in 38 states to undermine Obama's health care law by making it illegal to penalize residents for failing to obtain health insurance. A recent study of ALEC's impact in Virginia found that it was responsible for 50 bills introduced there, including legislation to require people to show identification before voting, encourage schools to contract with private education companies, and legalize the use of deadly force in defending one's home.]

PM:

ALEC has been described as a speed-dating service for corporations and politicians.

It's both a network hub and an incubator. It has become increasingly important because of a number of converging trends:

1) In the wake of pseudo-populist proto-Tea Party CA Prop 13 tax revolt, many state budgets have been severely constrained [balanced budget requirement, term limits are systemic problems?]

With frequent turnover of legislators (some part paid very little for workinf part of the time/year); learning how the system works (and building relatinships, ideally bipartisan) takes time. Thus orientation/boot camp for legislators offered by varous rightwing groups has disprportinate leverage; one CTT famous for its briefing document that can ve read in the walk from offices to floor of Congress (or a satifying BM]. A related aspect is that new memebers of state legislature may have minimal staff, they may be even greener than the candidate, and may get the gig to reward them for campaigning, which are not precisely the same skillset for governing; they may have little expertise in any relevant subject matter to write bills.

So into this vaccum, ALEC has off-the-rack pre-packaged bills, often submitted verbatim wth no hint of origin (Stand Your Ground infamous example). These bills are written by industry execs or lobbyists who are assigned to various interest group task forces [term is interesting: originally a WWII navy convoy on a mission, later a tgov't group to take urgent action, then declined into a way to pretend to take action, finally co-opted by a pseudo-goverment but actually coroprate front group to give veneer of democrartic respectability) when in reality the more money a corporation gives the more votes it has.

Terry G?

PILKINGTON: Well, I think you have to sort of put yourself in the mind of some of these state legislators. They're, you know, they're often very poorly funded, even poorly paid. I mean in Texas the base salary of a state legislator is $7,000 a year. Though often have very small staff and few resources to help them do the business of being an elected politician. Which can include, you know you, it's really difficult to actually draft legislation because you haven't got the legal advice, you haven't got the staff to produce it, you haven't got even staff to research the subject. You know, if ALEC comes along and says well, here's a model bill for you. It's all written for you.

JUNKETS:

ALEC corporations are funding lawmakers' out-of-state travel expenses to posh resorts for ALEC meetings with corporate lobbyists, in addition to gifts of entertainment and exclusive parties.

see Great Barrier Reef CA $1600/day:

"In California, State Senator Raymond

Haynes has sponsored a veritable slew of ALEC written Private Property Bills over the years.

Haynes, who recently completed a term as

ALEC's national chairman, has been amply

rewarded for his dedication to the organization.

He's been on the receiving end of numerous

ALEC-paid trips, including a ten-day trip to

Australia in 1998 that included three days on the

shores of the Great Barrier Reef, where, Haynes later admitted, little work was conducted. The

purpose of the trip, Haynes said, was to set up

an Australian version of ALEC.

In Private Jets and "Petroleum Club" Dinners, U.S Politicians Get the Dirt on Canadian Tar Sands

Officially, ALEC organized the Alberta tour as an "ALEC Academy." In ALEC's description of corporate sponsorship opportunities [8], this type of event is described as being "an intensive, two--day program for legislators that focus on a specific area of policy." It comes with an $80,000 fee to sponsor [8]

...

Better Than a Thank You Note, Payback in Ohio

After the trip to Alberta, Rep. Adams, the Assistant Majority Floor Leader and Ohio ALEC state chair, led the calls in Ohio for the approval of the KXL pipeline, sponsoring a bill (HCR 9) [17] and talking publicly [18] about the proposed pipeline.

EDUCATION

The right attacks unions in general and teacher's union in particular, which actually stand up for teacher's rights, but push vouchers that increase segregation (while pretending to do the opposite) and create refor" that prtetends teachers but really only crates a shield to use public money to teach creationism and climate denial

It's not a myth - the Loch Ness Monster has turned up in, of all places, Louisiana. According to the New York Daily News, Louisiana's Eternity Christian Academy is using a textbook that asserts the monster is not only real, but that its existence disproves evolution. What's more, the school is eligible for taxpayer funded vouchers, thanks to a bill signed by Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal that strongly resembles model legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC Model Bill Behind Push To Require Climate Denial Instruction In Schools

By Steve Horn

2012-01-26

The Trojan Horse: The "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act"

LAT "Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards that require educators to teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position. South Dakota and Utah passed resolutions denying climate change. Tennessee and Oklahoma also have introduced legislation to give climate change skeptics a place in the classroom."

...

Texas

Texas, in this case, is a bit of a wild card. Rather than a bill proposed by a state legislature, in 2009, the Texas School Board passed an amendent calling for the "balanced" teaching of climate change, meaning both science and "skepticism."

The Austin Statesman explained [36],

"The State Board of Education…adopted standards on the teaching of global warming that appear to both question its existence and prod students to explore its implications.

Standards are used to guide textbook makers and teachers.

Language…instructed students to 'analyze and evaluate different views on the existence of global warming,'"…

This provision mirrors and is likely inspired by the ALEC model bill [15] provision on global warming, which suggested science teachers should "Provide a range of perspectives presented in a balanced manner."

A Bill In the Corporate Polluter's Interest

The money paper trail for this ALEC model bill runs deep, to put it bluntly.

When the ALEC model bill was adopted in 2000 by ALEC's Natural Resources Task Force, the head of that committee was Sandy Liddy Bourne [37], who after that stint, became Director of Legislation and Policy for ALEC. She is now with the Heartland Institute [38] as vice-president for policy strategy. In Sandy Liddy Bourne's bio on the Heartland website [39], she boasts that "Under her leadership, 20 percent of ALEC model bills were enacted by one state or more, up from 11 percent."

SourceWatch [40] states that Liddy Bourne "…is the daughter of former Nixon aide and convicted Watergate criminal G. Gordon Liddy, who spent more than 52 months in prison for his part in the Watergate burglary…[and her] speech at the Heartland Institute's 2008 International Conference on Climate Change was titled, 'The Kyoto Legacy; The Progeny of a Carbon Cartel in the States [41]."

The Heartland Institute [42] was formerly heavily funded by ExxonMobil and Koch Industries [43], just like ALEC [44] was at the time that Liddy Bourne's committee devised the "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act [15]." These two corporations are infamous for their funding of climate change "skeptic" think tanks and front groups.

Today, the corporate polluter members [45] of ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force [45] include representatives from American Electric Power [46], the Fraser Institute [47], the Cato Institute [48], the Competitive Enterprise Institute [49], the Institute for Energy Research [50], the Mackinac Center for Public Policy [51], the Heartland Institute [52], and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity [53], to name several.

Kids Eating Rat Poison Is an "Acceptable Risk" for ALEC

Brendan Fischer on December 6, 2011 -

An American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member is defying Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules limiting the sale of rat poisons that pose dangers to children and the ecosystem. ALEC representatives say that kids eating rat poison is an "acceptable risk" that does not justify government intervention in the market.

For decades, tens of thousands of young children have become ill after touching or ingesting rat poison applied "loose," in pellet form. And a variety of wild animals, from bald eagles to bobcats to owls, have been found dead with lethal levels of a super-toxic rodenticide in their systems.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/2361-six-extreme-rightwing-attacks-by-alec-in-state-governments

Undoing Efforts to Address Climate Change

After federal climate change legislation failed in 2010, over 30 states joined regional climate agreements in the Midwest, Northeast, and West to coordinate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, develop clean energy sources, and bring predictability to state rules and regulations. By most measures, this state-led, decentralized, cooperative effort proves the vitality of federalism, a concept ALEC allegedly supports. However, these regional initiatives might also affect the profits of ALEC funders like Koch Industries and Exxon Mobil, and ALEC drafted the "State Withdrawal from Regional Climate Initiatives" (pdf) to thwart these state-led efforts. The ALEC resolution includes talking points urging state governors to withdraw from regional climate initiatives, and has shown up in states like Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington, in some cases with the ALEC language duplicated verbatim.

VOTER ID

Pro-Nuclear Power, offshore oil drilling

Anti-GMO labeling

Anti-Union

Tort Reform:

Private Enterprise Advisory Board," includes representatives of fossil fuel interests (Koch Industries, Peabody Energy, Exxon Mobil, Energy Future Holdings), the pharmaceutical industry (PhRMA, Pfizer), and big tobacco (Altria, formally known as Phillip Morris). It also includes insurance companies like State Farm, which profits from a rigged tort liability system by paying out less in claims (even while raising premiums).

Eco-Terror

SB 1070 PIC

Guns: Post Sandt Hook "Meaningful action" has been thwarted, largely because of the power and wealth of the National Rifle Association (NRA). One of the key avenues it has used to exert its influence is the American Legislative Exchange Council [9] (ALEC). For decades, the NRA has helped bankroll ALEC operations and even co-chaired ALEC's "Public Safety and Elections Task Force," where it secretly voted on bills alongside elected representatives. At ALEC's annual meeting this summer, the NRA had the biggest booth at the convention in Salt Lake City and also underwrote a shooting event along with one of the largest sellers of assault weapons in the world...

Here is a review of the NRA-by-way-of-ALEC gun agenda:

The retail sale of machine guns has been barred by federal law since the gangster era but, as uncovered [12] by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), one year ago at ALEC's "policy summit" in Arizona, the NRA obtained unanimous support from the corporate and lawmaker members of ALEC's Task Force for "amending" ALEC's "Consistency in Firearms Regulation Act" to expressly bar cities from banning "machine guns." Other provisions of that bill prevent cities from banning armor-piercing bullets and from banning efforts to alter guns to make them more deadly if the state does not do so. It also bars cities from suing gun manufacturers for gun deaths based on the theory of liability used by governments to sue tobacco manufacturers for smoking deaths.

In 2008, as noted [13] by CMD, in the aftermath of the tragic massacre of students and professors by a heavily armed Virginia Tech student, ALEC adopted a model bill to remove state prohibitions of guns on college campuses and to allow students to bring guns to class.

Also in 2008, as CMD has documented, [14] ALEC also weighed in on litigation challenging a handgun ban in the city of Chicago. ALEC filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in that case, McDonald v. Chicago, on the same side as the NRA.

...

As CMD has shown, [13] ALEC also strongly opposed the 1994 "Assault Weapons Ban," which sought to expand the long-standing federal bar on fully automatic machine guns by preventing the purchase of rapid-firing "semi-automatic" assault-style weapons. Certain military-style firearms -- such as the .223 Bushmaster rifle reportedly found at the scene of the Connecticut school massacre and similar to the one used in the sniper shootings that terrorized D.C. in 2003 -- include versions for sale in the U.S. that were modified by manufacturers for the civilian market along with versions that allow three-shot bursts of fire with each pull of the trigger for law enforcement rather than their faster-firing military-style kin like an M4 or AK-47, in light of the federal assault weapons ban. The ban was allowed to expire during the George W. Bush administration, which had very close ties to the NRA.

LOCAL CONTROL

Right to Farm includes chemicals, sludge (pathogens, heacy metals, carcingen?), GMO's CAFO's

schools? virtual online

Parent trigger --> charter

Seeds:

It remains unclear whether the seed industry has played any role in promoting the enforcement push, but this powerful agribusiness sector is vigilant about expanding its control over seeds. As first reported by MintPress News [12] this January, the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is peddling its “Pre-Emption of Local Agricultural Laws Act”—a law providing “exclusive regulatory power over agricultural seed, flower seed and vegetable seed and products of agriculture seed, flower seed and vegetable seed to the state.” Despite the conservative mantra of “local control,” ALEC’s measure would prohibit local governments from enacting or enforcing measures to “inhibit or prevent the production or use of agricultural seed, flower seed or vegetable seed or products.” [= anti gmo ordinance?]

Fracking:

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, a Republican who often talks about “local control” over natural resources, signed a law in March preventing counties and cities from banning or even regulating oil and gas drilling

Promoting Trojan Horse-like Fracking Regulations

Thirteen of the bills concern hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking."

ALEC has three items of "model" legislation in its library concerning fracking: two pro-fracking resolutions and a bill -- illogically titled "The Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act" -- that allows operators to keep secret the details of chemicals injected into a well by making a near impossible to challenge claim of "trade secrets."

As reported by the New York Times in April 2012, ExxonMobil brought the fracking bill to ALEC in December 2011 following its adoption as law in Texas

Renewalble Energy: eg bill to repeal renewable energy standards, the "Market Power Renewables Act," after the failure of the ALEC "Electricity Freedom Act" in 2013.

The "Market-Power Renewables Act" will likely serve as the model for another round of attacks on state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in 2014 following ALEC's failure to weaken or eliminate clean energy policies this year. The new bill would significantly weaken state clean energy laws by broadening the eligible electricity sources to include existing, large hydroelectric power plants, biomass, biogas and other sources of electricity.

In 2012 and 2013, ALEC tried to roll back states' renewable energy standards, and failed. Now it's trying to roll back solar net-metering programs, which let homeowners sell electricity from their rooftop panels into the grid, and that campaign isn't going so well either.

webodec3 Brain Control ===

The group sponsored at least 77 energy bills in 34 states last year. The measures were aimed at opposing renewable energy standards, pushing through the Keystone XL pipeline project, and barring oversight on fracking, according to an analysis by the Centre for Media and Democracy.

Until now, the biggest target in Alec's sights were state Renewable Portfolio Standards, which require electricity companies to source a share of their power from wind, solar, biomass, or other clean energy. Such measures are seen as critical to reducing America's use of coal and oil, and to the fight against climate change [8]. RPS are now in force in 30 states.

In 2012, Alec drafted a model bill pushing for the outright repeal of RPS.

In the confidential materials, prepared for the August board meeting, Alec claimed to have made significant inroads against such clean energy policies in 2013.

"Approximately 15 states across the country introduced legislation to reform, freeze or repeal their state's renewable mandate," the taskforce reported.

That compares to model bills in just seven states in support of the hot-button issue of the Keystone XL pipeline, according to figures in the documents.

"This legislative year has seen the most action on renewable mandates to date," the documents said.

Three of those states – North Carolina, Ohio, and Kansas – saw strong pushes by conservative groups to reverse clean energy regulations this year.

None of those efforts passed, however, with signs of strong local support for wind farms and other clean energy projects that were seen as good for the economy – from Republicans [9] as well as Democrats.

ALEC2

ALEC's Stealth Convention

"AJR 81 comes right out of the 'Convention of States' workshop and materials presented at ALEC where state legislators were promised bundled campaign contributions and grassroots support if they joined this effort to amend the federal constitution," said Rep. Chris Taylor, a Madison Democrat who attended ALEC's Annual Meeting in Chicago last summer, in a statement. "I am alarmed that this effort is now making its way through the Wisconsin legislature and is tentatively scheduled to be considered by the full Assembly next Tuesday."

ALEC has published a "how-to" manual for an Article V constitutional amendment, and at its last two meetings hosted workshops on amendment strategy from the group "Citizens for Self Governance," led by Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler, and whose board includes WisconsiniteEric O'Keefe (who has spoken publicly about being subpoenaed in Wisconsin's John Doe probe in his role as Director of Wisconsin Club for Growth). Citizens for Self Governance seeks to use the amendment process to severely restrict federal power, for example by redefining the Commerce Clause to prohibit Congress from enacting child labor or anti-discrimination laws. In recent years, the Article V idea has spread in Republican circles thanks to right-wing radio host and author Mark Levin, and has been elevated by the likes of Glenn Beck....http://www.prwatch.org/node/12379

Peabody Energy is the largest producer of coal in the U.S. and boasts that it generates 10% of the country's energy, and also has a lobbyist representative on the ALEC corporate board; it was the 2011 winner of ALEC's "Private Sector Member of the Year" award and has sponsored ALEC meetings and events. In 2007, it spun-off coal mines it owned in West Virginia and Kentucky into an independent company, which then filed for bankruptcy and sought to be released from its pension and retirement operations.

These Cincinnati and New Orleans conferences were the only two ALEC events to be protested prior to the 2011 Scottsdale SNPS. The only instance of any criminal act perpetrated by an “anarchist”-- or by any other individual-- also happened to be the only arrest of any kind associated with either of these two protests-- and, as records show, this arrest (for simple vandalism and resisting arrest) was a far cry from the claims of “violent tactics” reported by Dowhan to her AZDPS superiors at ACTIC on November 17. Nevertheless, records show that these, and related, claims largely laid the foundation for the massive PPD presence (including the 58 off-duty officers employed by ALEC/Kierland and the presence of the “mobile field force”/TRU) set out for Arizona ALEC protestors during the 2011 SNPS.

In May 2012, PRWeek reported that ALEC had hired the notorious global PR firm Edelman. Edelman is the firm of choice for big tobacco, big oil, and big pharma, all key sponsors of ALEC. ALEC also held a special meeting asking right-wing bloggers, such as the Breitbart operation,for help in "a very aggressive campaign to really spread the word about what we actually do," as CMD has reported.

EDELMAN WFB to attacj Hodai, fag

ALEC3

With so much attrition, ALEC has decided to fight back, and the tactic it’s chosen is intimidation. It sent cease-and-desist letters to Common Cause and the League of Conservation Voters, threatening to sue them unless they retract statements saying ALEC is denying climate change.

The letter said it was “clear” that ALEC did not deny that climate change was happening and was human-caused. It claims that ALEC adopted the “model policy” that “human activity has and will continue to alter that atmosphere of the planet” in 1998.

Jeffersonian Project Used to Lobby for BBA

ALEC's new lobbying arm, the Jeffersonian Project, appears to have been used to lobby for the bills.

According to a memo written by ALEC lawyer Alan Dye and reported by The Guardian, the new 501(c)(4) group was created in 2013 to resolve "questions of ethical violations made by our critics and state ethics boards." Groups like Common Cause, the CMD, the Voters Legislative Transparency Project and others alleged in IRS complaints that ALEC was violating its 501(c)(3) charitable status by engaging in excessive lobbying. Although ALEC publicly dismissed the complaints, the formation of the 501(c)(4) Jeffersonian Project indicated that behind the scenes, ALEC was taking the threat of an IRS audit seriously.

ALEC's 40th annual meeting in Chicago was met by over a thousand protesters. Local groups in Texas held an educational event on Saturday, July 26, and are planning protest activities for Wednesday, July 30.

This year, ALEC has a new executive director, Lisa Britton Nelson, who is a former lobbyist forVisa and AOL Time Warner -- both of which have had ties to ALEC -- and also worked with Newt Gingrich and GOPAC. Several new companies also recently joined its "Private Enterprise Advisory Council": NetChoice, the National Federation of Independent Business, and K12 Inc.

Speakers at ALEC's annual meeting will include Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Wall Street Journal editorial board member Stephen Moore, and Newt Gingrich. "Policy workshops" include instructions on "How to Think and Talk About Climate and Energy Issues," "Energy Exports: A Free Market Economic Stimulus to Create Jobs and Grow the Economy," "EPA’s Proposed Carbon Emissions Rulemaking — What Does it Mean to States?" and more of the increasingly frequent attempts to spin efforts to limit the anti-democratic effects of unlimited political spending by billionaires and corporations as "Silencing Opposing Views: Attacks on Free Speech and Private Charitable Giving."

ALEC's "Justice Performance Project," which appears to have taken on many of the roles of the "Public Safety and Elections Task Force" that ALEC shuttered in the wake of the controversy following the death of Trayvon Martin, will discuss "efficiently engaging the public-private partnership with the surety bail industry." In other words, how to enrich bounty hunters.

Also at this year's meeting, ALEC's task forces will consider bills to make it virtually impossible to enroll in Medicaid, expand charter schools to further bankrupt traditional public schools,expand exports of "natural gas" from fracking, and undermine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Air and Clean Water Act regulations. 7/14

Meanwhile, The Guardian reports new documents reveal ALEC is struggling to re-enlist donors after an exodus prompted by its backing of Florida’s "Stand Your Ground" law. Stand Your Ground initially helped shield George Zimmerman from prosecution for killing Trayvon Martin and was later used in instructions to the jury that acquitted him. According to The Guardian, ALEC has lost nearly 400 state legislators from its network over the past two years and more than 60 major corporate donors. The group is facing a funding shortfall for the first time after losing more than a third of its projected income.

Now the advocacy group is working with companies such as Google, Facebook, and Yelp, and taking more civil libertarian stances on technology issues than it has in the past.

...a presentation to ALEC’s civil justice task force urging the group to consider adopting model legislation on strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs. If approved, the anti-SLAPP policy would have to be ratified by ALEC’s communications and technology task force, which includes representatives from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

ALEC Increasingly Focused on Higher Education

For decades, ALEC has promoted the privatization of K-12 education through voucher programs that re-route taxpayer dollars to for-profit schools. But it has increasingly focused on imposing the same privatization agenda on higher education, with bills like the "College Opportunity Fund Act" that essentially create a taxpayer-funded voucher for for-profit and religious schools.

And, ALEC has adopted several bills to impose a standardized testing regime on public colleges and universities, which on the K-12 level has altered the classroom dynamic and interfered with teaching, for example with "The Collegiate Learning Assessment Bill," which was considered at ALEC's August meeting in Chicago.

ALEC still counts among its members Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit college chain that operates campuses under names like Everest, Heald, and WyoTech. Corinthian has become notorious for aggressive recruiting practices and leaving students unprepared for the job market and saddled with massive student loan debts. Nationally, over 40 percent of Corinthian's students default on their loans, and only 60% of students complete their coursework.

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Downgrading its level of conference sponsorship from the highest level last year is Tracie Sharp's "State Policy Network," (SPN [8]), which includes [9] 59 affiliated think tanks that help peddle ALEC's corporate-fueled agenda as good policy. As CMD has documented, a number of SPN special interest groups are funded by the Koch family, other Big Oil companies, Big Tobacco, and/or Big Insurance.

At Thursday's lunch, an official from the Texas Oil and Gas Association spoke about the dangers of the federal Endangered Species Act. According to Rep. Taylor, he discussed how:

"the Endangered Species Act threatens the economy of every single state in the nation. It's leading to high unemployment rates, threatens local economies, it doesn't allow growth ... this is a matter of life and death, to get rid of the Endangered Species Act, because every state's economy is going to topple if it remains in effect."

WSJ Conflicts of Interest: Moore's Many Undisclosed Ties to ALEC

However, Moore failed to disclose anywhere in that op-ed that he has a long-standing working relationship with ALEC. These close ties include the facts that:Wall Street Journal Ed Board Member Stephen Moore since at least 2007, Moore has been on ALEC's "Board of Scholars," one of five people with that designation; since 2007, Moore has been the co-author of one of ALEC's main publications, "Rich States, Poor States," which claims to rank the performance of states in accordance with their adherence to ALEC's ideal economic policies, reports that have been strongly criticized [8];

since joining WSJ's editorial board in 2005, Moore has presented on issues such as reducing corporate tax rates at ALEC's closed door task force meetings, where corporate lobbyists vote as equals with state legislators on "model bills" to be introduced into law in state capitols; and in 2009, ALEC said Moore "represents what we should expect of all journalists," and gave him its "Warren Brookes Award" for "journalistic excellence."

WSJ's Moore Cites ALEC Co-Author and Others without Disclosure

Nowhere in his editorial page piece defending ALEC did Moore mention any of these ties. Even when he favorably quoted Jonathan Williams criticizing Senator Durbin's letter -- which asked corporations that had funded ALEC if they support "Stand Your Ground" laws -- Moore noted that Williams is the staff director of one of ALEC's task forces but failed to mention to readers that he himself has a long-standing working relationship with Williams. ALEC's Tax Task Force director is actually Moore's co-author on five of the six editions of the "Rich States, Poor States" report (including the one issued three months ago).

Similarly, in the WSJ op-ed when he quoted newly-elected Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Moore failed to note that Cruz is one of the featured "plugs" for the 6th edition of this piece of work Moore co-authors that is published by ALEC. Likewise, in the op-ed when Moore quoted an unnamed board member of ALEC, he failed to mention his own long-time post on ALEC's Board of Scholars.

However, ALEC has leaned heavily on WSJ editorials as favoring its positions.

To cite one of many examples, last year ALEC's executive director sent an email to ALEC legislators and corporations calling CMD "an attack-dog" and flagging positive editorials about ALEC from the WSJ, none of which disclosed the strong connections between ALEC and Moore to the readers of the WSJ's editorial pages or mentioned the fact that the WSJ's parent corporation, Newscorp [9], is also a member and funder of ALEC, a fact CMD broke [10] last year.

Moore Did Not Disclose Gift from ALEC either

Moore also failed to mention his receiving an award from ALEC. According to ALEC's federal tax form from 2009 when it gave Moore the Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism, the award was described as a "cash grant" in the amount of $1,850, and the awards ceremony for Moore included the presentation of a small trophy with a metal scroll and quill.