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Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy is an Alabama-based is a 501(c)(4) group that describes itself as " a coalition of working people, business owners, environmentalists, and trade organizations who are fighting for fair, responsible energy policies. PACE believes that the national conversation about the future of energy must include discussions about the cost of particular energy alternatives, not just their environmental benefits." The group lists the Alabama Pulp & Paper Council, Manufacture Alabama and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as its "Official Partners".[1]

PACE was incorporated in February 2009 by William D. Lineberry, an attorney with the Birmingham, Ala. office of Balch & Bingham -- a firm that lobbies on behalf of the Southern Company and its Alabama Power subsidiary. Lineberry also serves on the tax committees of the Business Council of Alabama as well as Manufacture Alabama -- both of which are partners in PACE. PACE's other members include the Chamber of Commerce divisions in Alabama and Tennessee, and the IBEW System Council U-19, which represents 3,000 Alabama Power employees.[2]

Contents

Working People for Fair Energy and coal ash regulations

[PACE Introductory Video]

Pace is also part of the Working People for Fair Energy (WPFE), another 501(c)(4) group that describes itself as "a non-profit organization devoted to fighting for energy laws that are fair and affordable to working people and low-income families." It was started by Dr. Charles Steele Jr., former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization founded in 1957 by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders.[3] While appearing to be a group dedicated to environmental justice and working families, a Facing South Investigation found that WPFE has close ties to industry interests with a financial stake in fighting impending EPA coal ash regulation.[2] On Sep. 14, 2010, Steele testified against coal ash regulation at a North Carolina EPA hearing on the issue, claiming that the costs would disproportionately burden the most economically vulnerable Americans. The research cited by Steele in his account of his EPA testimony came from a group called the Affordable Power Alliance (APA) led by conservative African-American Christian minister Harry R. Jackson Jr. APA in turn is affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality, founded in the 1940s as a civil rights organization but which in more recent years has supported anti-environmental initiatives such as expanded oil drilling while accepting money from ExxonMobil and other corporations. "Coal and natural gas are the new civil rights battleground," CORE Chairman Roy Innis has said, "because without these sources, 'we' cannot enjoy this great society."[2]

In 1994, Charles Steele was elected to the Alabama state senate, and reelected three times before resigning to become president of the SCLC in November 2004. While in the Senate, Steele chaired the Industrial Recruitment Committee. Alabama Power was one of the biggest contributors to his campaigns. When Steele left the state senate in 2004 to head SCLC, the organization was in trouble financially, and Steele built a $3 million headquarters for the organization with a capital campaign headed by Mike Garrett, president and CEO of Georgia Power, "whom Steele got to know during his days in the Alabama legislature," as Ebony magazine reported.[2]

In an interview with Facing South, Steele said he didn't see a problem with WPFE's and PACE's relationship with industries that have a financial stake in fighting coal ash regulation: "Our issues are the same," he said. Instead, Steele likens what will happen should EPA regulate coal ash as hazardous waste to a "revolution": "You better get ready," Steele told Facing South. "This is like the civil rights movement -- we're going to have to take it to the streets."[2]

Steele has also argued against a renewable electricity standard.[4]

Personnel

Contact details

Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy

P.O. Box 70072,

Montgomery, AL 36107

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. Charles Steele, "A national renewable energy standard is a mistake" Daily Caller, July 15, 2010.

External articles

STUB

Categories:

==

facing so

Industry connections

Steele was at the EPA coal ash hearing representing Working People for Fair Energy (WPFE), one of the numerous 501(c)(4) "social welfare" lobbying groups that have sprung up in advance of this fall's elections -- and that are not required by law to disclose where their money comes from. The website for the Atlanta-based group, which Steele incorporated last June, says its purpose is "protecting working families from national energy laws that create higher energy prices."

But a Facing South Investigation has found that WPFE has close ties to industry interests with a financial stake in fighting coal ash regulation:

* The scant information WPFE offers about itself on its website is that it's part of the Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy (PACE), another 501(c)(4) that's based in Montgomery, Ala. PACE was incorporated in February 2009 by William D. Lineberry, an attorney with the Birmingham, Ala. office o:{f Balch & Bingham -- a firm that lobbies on behalf of the Southern Company and its Alabama Power subsidiary. Lineberry also serves on the tax committees of the Business Council of Alabama as well as Manufacture Alabama -- both of which are partners in PACE. PACE's other members include the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the IBEW System Council U-19, which represents 3,000 Alabama Power employees and is one of the largest member unions of the state AFL-CIO, another PACE partner.}:

:{:{}:

* The research cited by Steele in his account of his EPA testimony came from a group called the Affordable Power Alliance led by conservative African-American Christian minister Harry R. Jackson Jr. APA in turn is affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality, founded in the 1940s as a civil rights organization but which in more recent years has supported anti-environmental initiatives such as expanded oil drilling while accepting money from Exxon Mobil and other corporations. "Coal and natural gas are the new civil rights battleground," CORE Chairman Roy Innis has said, "because without these sources, 'we' cannot enjoy this great society."

}:

* When WPFE held a town hall meeting last year in Tuskegee, Ala. to discuss energy policy, joining Steele on the panel was Stephen A. Jones -- director of corporate relations for Alabama Power.

In an interview with Facing South, Steele said he didn't see a problem with WPFE's and PACE's relationship with industries that have a financial stake in fighting coal ash regulation.

"Our issues are the same," he said.

Steele's perspective is shaped by the close personal ties to energy interests forged during his decade in the Alabama senate, where he chaired the Industrial Recruitment Committee. Alabama Power -- a major player in state politics -- was one of the biggest contributors to his campaigns.

When Steele left the state senate in 2004 to head SCLC, he was taking the helm of an organization in deep trouble financially and otherwise. But Steele's connections helped turn around the SCLC's money woes. He built a new $3 million headquarters for the organization with a capital campaign headed by Mike Garrett, president and CEO of Georgia Power, "whom Steele got to know during his days in the Alabama legislature," as Ebony magazine reported.

Some of the deals Steele made between SCLC and business interests proved controversial. In 2008, for example, an op-ed bearing Steele's byline appeared in a number of Southern U.S. newspapers criticizing federal legislation to reduce credit card fees by arguing that it would boost the profits of major retailers including Wal-Mart. But it turned out Steele didn't write the editorial and was angry the P.R. firm that did put his name on it because, as the Washington Post reported, Wal-Mart "is listed on the SCLC's Web site as a sponsor of the organization. No one at the SCLC would want to insult a large benefactor."

:{:{}:

That same year, Steele had an op-ed published in the Washington Post that noted the devastating effect the subprime mortgage crisis was having on minority homeowners. But rather than supporting proposals to better regulate credit markets, Steele attacked them -- while defending companies that issued high-interest credit cards to people with bad credit. As Mother Jones observed at the time, that's not altogether surprising when you consider that a year earlier "the SCLC formed a partnership withCompuCredit, a subprime credit card issuer and payday lending company."}:

The Federal Trade Commission eventually sued CompuCredit for unfair and deceptive trade practices and for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, charging that it cheated consumers out of more than $200 million through a scheme in which they paid so much in fees that they had little credit available.

But Steele defended the company even then, saying that it "has been a true friend to the SCLC."

==

http://energyfairness.org/official-partners/

About PACE

    Official Partners

    Blog

    News

    Renewable Energy

    Multimedia

    Contact

Official Partners

   AFL-CIO    Alabama Agribusiness Council

Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association     Alabama Cattlemen's Association     Alabama Poultry and Egg Association

Alabama Pulp and Paper Council     Alabama Rural Electric Association of Cooperative     Business Council of Alabama

Coalition of Alabama Waterway Associations     Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama     Empower Consumers

Generation America     GA Agribusiness Council     IBEW

Manufacture Alabama     NFIB     Southern Cotton Growers, Inc.

Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry     Tennessee Mining Association     Tennessee Paper Council

Working People for Fair Energy            

SEARCH

Stay Plugged In

Email Address

Like PACE on Facebook

Watch PACE on YouTube

Find PACE on Google+

Twitter

    SNL: 21 GW of #coal, #natgas, #nuclear capacity 'at risk' of closure through 2020 https://t.co/NVpn7m7AS9 @utilitydive about 26 minutes ago

    TVA's Watts Bar 2 reactor hits 41% power generation for the first time https://t.co/ffPzZp30Go @PwrEngineering about 13 hours ago

    House Republicans introduce a bill to block new regulations on #fracking https://t.co/0g5azC17OT @RealNewsTarget about 15 hours ago

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Alan Wilson AG ala

barber shop

Calvin Davenport

Dr. Charles Steele ex SCLC

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coal plant flags confederate red cross?

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crane

David Reister

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Gary Brinkworth

Rep. Gene Green

Glenn McCullough

Gregg Harper (R-MS)

Jay Timmons

Lance Brown

Clarence and Carlean Lee

manufacturing

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Nick Grana

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Patrick Moore

Phelim McAleer

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Roger Martella, Jr.

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Executive Director of the Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy (PACE), Lance Brown is fighting for national energy policies that are fair and sensible.

A native of Selma, Alabama, Brown formed PACE in 2009 by organizing more than twenty Southeastern organizations to form a coalition to change the national dialogue about national energy policy.

Brown now regularly presents to community and civic organizations, appears as a subject matter expert on energy policy with the media, publishes a regular energy column in Washington, DC’s The Daily Caller, and serves on a consumer board for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

He recently produced a documentary on the potential effect of national energy policy on America’s working families and businesses.

View the documentary here.

Brown is a Harry S. Truman Scholar who received a B.A. from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master of Public Administration from Auburn University Montgomery.

Contact: lance@energyfairness.org

Looked at in the long term, the FFCs may not turn out to be such smart investments after all. Indeed, in the boilerplate language of financial prospectuses, past results are no guarantee of future results; and there are already investment models [29] showing that non-FFC funds deliver better proceeds.

These efforts and arguments have yet to convinceHarvard President Drew Gilpin Faust that climate change is one of those “extraordinarily rare circumstances” [30] when divestment is justified. Instead, she proposes “engagement” with the boards of the energy companies, as if sweet reason by itself stood a chance of outtalking sweet crude oil.  She touts Harvard’s teaching and research on climate issues, while neglecting the way those corporations fund disinformation meant to blunt the effect of that teaching and research.  Having declared that the issue is not “political,” she defends Harvard’s investments in the chief funders of propaganda against climate science.  Some rejection of politics!  Meanwhile, for saying no to divestment, President Faust wins the applause [31] of an Alabama coal company front group.

http://energyfairness.org/about-pace/