Meierling, Wm bill

<h1>===</h1><div>david a
</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/07/27/alecs-pr-man-has-a-dark-past-as-spin-doctor-for-african-dictators/">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/07/27/alecs-pr-man-has-a-dark-past-as-spin-doctor-for-african-dictators/</a></div><div>
</div><div>American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has a history of

defending controversial and harmful legislation, but the man behind

ALEC’s public relations machine, Bill Meierling, has defended actions

far worse than anything done by ALEC.Two of Africa’s most

notorious dictators hired Meierling to downplay their abuses of power

and build political support for their authoritarian regimes: Equatorial

Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Democratic Republic of

Congo’s Joseph Kabila.Meierling helped set up the information

ministry of Equatorial Guinea for the country’s tyrant, Obiang, and in

the Democratic Republic of Congo he advocated for Joseph Kabila’s

illegal attempt at a third term as president.A “former member of

ALEC who grew disillusioned with the organization” sourced the materials

for this story to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), which were

confirmed through Foreign Agent Registration Act filings. Anyone

representing the interests of a foreign government has to register as a

lobbyist and disclose their activities.Meierling officially <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilhelm-meierling-b534a17" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">joined</a>

ALEC in January 2013 as executive vice president for external relations

and strategic partnerships. As head of the group’s spin machine, he has

since retained that role and become the chief marketing officer.

Meierling “<a href="https://www.alec.org/person/wilhelm-meierling/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">manages</a>

crisis response and provides senior level counsel to investor-,

government-, and public relations divisions of Fortune 500 member

companies regarding state and federal advocacy; environmental, social

and governance (ESG) activism; and other concerns.”In Meierling, ALEC found an experienced propagandist who led the organization through a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/03/alec-funding-crisis-big-donors-trayvon-martin" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">donor crisis and member exodus</a> when its promotion of “<a href="https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Shoot_First_Bills" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Stand Your Ground</a>”

legislation was tied to the death of the unarmed Black teenager Trayvon

Martin. He managed PR when Google’s executive chairman <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/09/22/google-were-parting-with-the-climate-change-skeptics-at-alec/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">said</a>

ALEC was “literally lying” about the climate emergency, and when

corporations again dropped ALEC for its keynote speaker David Horowitz’s

<a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/09/17/verizon-dumps-alec-denounces-speaker-racist/" data-wpel-link="internal">racist and bigoted remarks</a> at a 2018 annual meeting.<h2>Meierling Assisted in Equatorial Guinea Propaganda Campaign</h2>Before joining ALEC, Meierling <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilhelm-meierling-b534a17" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">ran</a> his own PR firm, OpinionMakers International. Through OpinionMakers, he was hired in 2007 as a <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/fara2.opensecrets.org/5789-Exhibit-AB-20070129-1.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">subcontractor</a>

of lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates to work for the Equatorial

Guinea government and President Teodoro Obiang. He was paid handsomely,

raking in $15,000 a month in fees for his firm. Cassidy and Associates

made headlines with their work for Obiang when an executive <a href="https://apjjf.org/-Ken-Silverstein/2461/article.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">bragged</a> about how they were able to get Obiang off Parade Magazine’s top ten list of worst dictators. Obiang only “improved” to being <a href="http://www.dallariva.org/csumba/mba602/Sum08/The%20World's%20Worst%20Dictators.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">ranked</a> the world’s 13th worst dictator.Meierling fondly recounted his time in Equatorial Guinea in an <a href="https://www.lyonspr.com/campaigns/humans-in-pr/bill-meierling-humans-in-pr/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">interview</a>,

saying, “I was brought there in the mid 2000’s to help train them and

help prop up the information ministry within the country.” The Ministry

to which he referred is not so much one of information as it is

propaganda. In its <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FOTP%202007%20Full%20Report.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">2007 Freedom of the Press Report</a>,

the organization Freedom House described Equatorial Guinea as having

“virtually no independent media” and stated that “all domestic radio and

television stations are owned directly by the government or by the

president’s family. State-owned media are dominated by sycophantic

coverage of the government and the president.” The country still <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/equatorial-guinea/freedom-world/2020" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">ranks at the bottom</a> of Freedom House’s rankings with no independent journalism or freedom of speech.The coverage by state run media is so atrocious, a presidential aide once compared President Obiang to God while on a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3098007.stm" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">radio interview</a>

in 2003. “He [Obiang] can decide to kill without anyone calling him to

account and without going to hell because it is God himself, with whom

he is in permanent contact, and who gives him this strength,” said the

aide. Obiang uses the state controlled media to stay in office, most

recently <a href="http://saharareporters.com/2016/04/26/equatorial-guinea%E2%80%99s-dictator-win-election-landslide-following-crackdown-media-and-civil" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">in 2016</a> when he won a sham election with over 90 percent of the vote.“It

was just an incredible opportunity to build something from the ground

up and to work in a developing nation with the people and the government

that was really interested in growing, changing, and telling their

story,” Meierling said of <a href="https://www.lyonspr.com/campaigns/humans-in-pr/bill-meierling-humans-in-pr/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">his work</a> in Equatorial Guinea.As part of that job, Meierling specifically worked to spin the dictator’s dismal human rights record.In August of 2007, Meierling <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5789-Supplemental-Statement-20080204-2.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">wrote</a>

a press release highlighting a visit by the United Nations Working

Group on Arbitrary Detentions and the Equatorial Guinea’s supposed

progress on “deprivation of liberty” and other human rights abuses.Whatever

progress allegedly occurred, however, was short-lived. In October of

2007, opposition party member Salvador Ndong Nguema <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/118999.htm" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">died</a> from injuries after being tortured in prison.Later

in 2010, four political opponents of President Obiang were abducted by

Equatorial Guinean security forces in Benin after fleeing the country

years earlier. They were held in the notorious Black Beach prison, where

they allegedly confessed to a 2009 attempted coup. The military

executed them after a brief military trial. Human rights observers <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2010/08/guinea-ecuatorial-ejecuta-cuatro-hombres/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">viewed the military trial as a sham</a> and believed the men were coerced to confess after being tortured.Meierling also consulted with Equatorial Guinea on the development of its oil industry. In 2008, he wrote a <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5789-Supplemental-Statement-20080204-2.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">press release</a> for the government highlighting a trip by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) to the country’s new liquefied natural gas facility. A <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210324020251/https:/digitalstrategies.org/an-introduction-to-digital-strategies-for-healthcare-executives/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">biography</a>

on Meierling for another PR firm that was recently removed described

his work on the project and touted his connections to the Obiang regime.

“When the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and Marathon Oil sought

American support for construction of the world’s largest LNG export

train from Bioko, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea to Elba Island, Georgia, the

African nation’s leadership turned to him,” it said.While the

country’s oilfields have proven to be plentiful, the average citizen of

Equatorial Guinea still lives in poverty. Despite having a per capita

gross domestic product higher than that of Brazil and China, the country

ranks <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f4d0e2d0-1cc9-11ea-97df-cc63de1d73f4" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">141st out of 189</a> on the United Nations Human Development Index.Meierling has also worked for Obiang’s son, Teodorin, directly. In March, Meierling’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210324020251/https:/digitalstrategies.org/an-introduction-to-digital-strategies-for-healthcare-executives/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">website</a>

listed Teodorin and his girlfriend at the time, Eve, as former clients

for “reputation” management services, but the content has since been

removed.Teodorin has been the subject of numerous corruption

investigations, and has assets have been seized by U.S., French, Swiss,

and Brazilian authorities based on what the U.S. Justice Department

characterized as “<a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/supercars-houses-and-suits-equatorial-guineas-teodorin-obiang" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">relentless embezzlement</a>.”According to a <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FOREIGNCORRUPTIONREPORTFINAL710.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">2010 U.S. Senate investigation</a>,<blockquote>From

2004 to 2008, Teodoro [Teodorin] Nguema Obiang Mangue, son of the

President of Equatorial Guinea, has used U.S. lawyers, bankers, real

estate agents, and escrow agents to move over $110 million in suspect

funds into the United States. Mr. Obiang is the subject of an ongoing

U.S. criminal investigation, has been identified in corruption

complaints filed in France, and was a focus of a 2004 Subcommittee

hearing showing how Riggs Bank facilitated officials from Equatorial

Guinea in opening accounts and engaging in suspect transactions.</blockquote>The

report attributed the success of Obiang and his family’s ability to

embezzle funds to the help they received from numerous lawyers,

lobbyists, and consultants to gain influence.<h2>Meierling Assisted Congo Dictator in Misinformation Campaign to Keep Him in Office</h2>In 2017, while working in his current capacity as chief marketing officer for ALEC, Meierling <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/fara2.opensecrets.org/6476-Short-Form-20171012-4.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">was paid $20,000 per month</a> for public relations work by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Meierling <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/fara2.opensecrets.org/6476-Short-Form-20171012-4.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">described</a>

the work done through a company called How Handy is That LLC as

“strategic communications services” and reported that he would be

“writing for, advising or representing the foreign principal.”<a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6476-Informational-Materials-20180607-1.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Documents</a> disclosed in compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act show a series of op-eds appearing in the Washington Times

in 2017, many of which attack Moise Katumbi, a candidate who was

running in opposition to DRC President Joseph Kabila. While the articles

are labeled as “sponsored,” none of them disclose the DRC government as

the sponsor. One of the pieces authored by Meierling describes the

electoral situation in the DRC as follows:<blockquote>As

President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

readies his country and its government for Congo’s next free and fair

national election, some of the very opposition groups with whom he

worked to arrange next year’s vote are coordinating with powerful forces

outside of DRC who are deploying millions of dollars in foreign money

to influence its outcome, undermine its integrity and financially

benefit from its aftermath.</blockquote>Meierling brazenly

misinformed readers about the elections in the DRC when he described

them as being “free and fair.” At the time, Kabila was illegally holding

office, as his constitutionally limited two terms had expired in 2016.Kabila’s government <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/17/drc-delays-election-to-2018-despite-opposition-anger" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">delayed</a>

the presidential election until 2018, claiming to need more time to

update the country’s voter registry. Protests erupted in response to the

delay, and the United Nations <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/17/drc-delays-election-to-2018-despite-opposition-anger" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">reported</a> that government security forces killed 49 protesters.The group Journalists in Danger “<a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo-2018.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">reported</a>

121 cases of attacks on media from November 2017 to October [2018] and

attributed 77 percent of these attacks to government agents, including

nearly half to state security forces.”Meierling is not currently registered as a foreign agent.CMD reached out to ALEC for comment twice for this piece and received no response.</div><div>===<a href="https://truthout.org/articles/documents-from-open-records-lawsuit-further-undermine-claims-that-alec-is-legislator-driven/">https://truthout.org/articles/documents-from-open-records-lawsuit-further-undermine-claims-that-alec-is-legislator-driven/</a>
new documents released as a result of the Center for Media and

Democracy’s open records lawsuit against American Legislative Exchange

Council (ALEC) vice-chair Senator Leah Vukmir provide more evidence that

lobbyists and special interest groups are calling the shots within

ALEC, undermining that group’s latest PR spin that it is a

“legislator-driven” organization.

The previously-undisclosed records from ALEC’s Spring 2013 meeting show a Florida-based <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network">State Policy Network</a>

lobbying group instructing Senator Vukmir and other legislators to

introduce a “model” resolution for legislators to thwart Medicaid

expansion in their state, and even writing an entire “script” for

legislators to parrot in the ALEC task force meeting — contradicting

ALEC’s claims to reporters last year that only legislators propose model

policy, and demonstrating that such claims are merely a talking point.

CMD long suspected Vukmir had records pertaining to the Medicaid

resolution, and her initial failure to disclose them helped prompt CMD’s

lawsuit. It also motivated CMD to continue pursuing the case even after

Senator Vukmir tried to claim immunity from any suit to enforce the

open records law. <div class="truth-23fea2ea795fa096673bacf221803473 truth-post-content-high" id="truth-23fea2ea795fa096673bacf221803473"><div class="truth-post-content-high" id="truth-1267782927"><div class="callout inline-callout callout--subscribe callout--light" id="truth-255392" data-callout-id="255392" data-callout-theme="light" data-callout-placement="Post Content - High" data-callout-title="Never miss another story"><div class="gf_browser_gecko gform_wrapper gform_wrapper_original_id_1 subscribe-form_wrapper input-group_wrapper gform_legacy_markup_wrapper" id="gform_wrapper_1980052621">

                        </div>

</div></div></div>

Throughout last year Senator Vukmir repeatedly <a href="https://www.thewheelerreport.com/wheeler_docs/files/0918vukmir.pdf">claimed</a>

in statements to the press that she had “produced all records subject

to [the] open records request” that gave rise to CMD’s case. However, as

part of the settlement (where Vukmir agreed to pay $2,500 in damages),

she not only released records pertaining to the Medicaid resolution, but

also more than 100 pages of other documents that had been withheld.

Read the documents <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/vukmir_docs_cmd_apr3.pdf">here</a>.

“Lobbying Group Pulling Legislators’ Strings”

At ALEC’s Spring Task Force Summit a year ago, Vukmir and other board

members voted to approve a policy that only legislators — and not

lobbyists — can introduce model bills or resolutions, part of ALEC’s

effort to re-brand itself as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-alec-stands-its-ground/2013/12/04/ad593320-5d2c-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html">“legislator-driven organization.”</a>

But at the same meeting, Vukmir and other legislators agreed to

introduce a model resolution under the direction of a lobbying group.

In advance of the Task Force Summit, Christie Herrera, vice-president

of policy at the Florida-based SPN affiliate Foundation for Government

Accountability, <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/herrera_vukmir.pdf">asked Vukmir</a>

to sponsor a resolution opposing Medicaid expansion. She sent Vukmir a

draft of the resolution, but acknowledged “it may be tweaked a bit,

based on SPN member suggestions.”

Herrera then <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/herrera_emails.pdf">wrote to Vukmir and other legislators</a> thanking them for sponsoring the resolution, and providing specific instructions about what to say.

“Each of you will need to introduce the bill,” Herrera wrote. “As

such I have written opening remarks that are also attached to this

e-mail.”

The remarks were more than mere talking points. Herrera wrote an

entire script for legislators to parrot. She wrote that “ALEC had a

(ridiculous) concern that the task force debate would be ‘one-sided,’ so

I have focused each of your remarks on addressing at least one

pro-expansion talking point” — yet all the remarks ultimately urged the

corporate lobbyists and legislators in attendance to adopt the

resolution.

Herrera told Oklahoma Senator Kim David to say, “I have spoken to

many constituents about whether our state should expand Medicaid.” She

told Arizona Senator Nancy Barto to claim that in her state, “we’ve

already experimented with Medicaid expansion, to disastrous results.”

Herrera told Missouri Representative Sue Allen to repeat the line, “My

cosponsors and I hope that this resolution can serve as a template for

other lawmakers who choose to oppose Medicaid expansion with a formal

resolution.”

Vukmir did not plan to attend the task force meeting where the

resolution was considered, but other records show her sending a text

message asking how it went. Herrera responded: “Passed unanimously.

Great job Madame Sponsor!”

Even the Wisconsin State Journal said that the docs <a href="https://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/documents-released-in-open-records-lawsuit-show-lobbying-group-pulling/article_1e33edf4-857d-507c-92c7-ec6948c5fc02.html">show</a> the “lobbying group pulling legislators strings.”

Additional Evidence of ALEC Bill Tracking

<a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/policy_report_stfs_2013.pdf">Other records</a>

describe task force leaders reporting to the ALEC board about the

introduction and passage of ALEC model legislation in state legislatures

— despite ALEC’s recent claims that it doesn’t track its model bills as

they are adopted in states across the country.

ALEC <a href="https://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-30/did-the-american-legislative-exchange-council-give-me-the-full-story">told Bloomberg News in 2012</a>

that they don’t track the introduction and adoption of ALEC model

bills. Last year, when Brookings Institute fellow Molly Jackman was <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2013/12/06-american-legislative-exchange-council-jackman">researching ALEC</a>, its staff <a href="https://twitter.com/MollyJackman/status/427888688203173888">told her</a>

ALEC doesn’t track its legislation. ALEC and its staff took to twitter

in late 2013 to repeat the claim, publicly, that “we don’t track our

model policies.”

As CMD’s Nick Surgey <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/01/12372/ALEC_Denials_of_Bill_Tracking">wrote in January</a>,

ALEC’s public denials about its obvious bill tracking activities may

signal an IRS investigation into the group. Bill tracking adds to the

evidence that ALEC is engaged in lobbying, which ALEC is supposed to

keep to a minimum to preserve its 501(c)(3) charitable status; ALEC has

repeatedly told the IRS that it engages in zero lobbying. CMD, Common

Cause, Voters Legislative Transparency Project, and Clergy Voice have

filed complaints with the IRS challenging ALEC’s charitable status for,

among other things, engaging in excessive lobbying.

Herrera, the Foundation for Government Accountability vice-president

of policy who gave Vukmir the anti-Medicaid expansion resolution,

previously worked as director of ALEC’s Health and Human Services task

force, where she <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/FCHCA_email.pdf">urged the introduction</a> of <a href="https://www.democraticdiva.com/2011/08/12/alec-is-like-a-lobbyist-godzilla-on-steroids-but-they-dont-have-to-register-as-lobbyists-in-az/">ALEC legislation</a> in states like Wisconsin and <a href="https://youtu.be/qmcfocz9ld4?t=1m39s">acknowledged lobbying</a> in states across the country to support legislation to repeal or block the Affordable Care Act.

Accusations Are Not “Unfounded” if True

Senator Vukmir’s release of the records last week was the culmination of an 11 month legal battle. CMD <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/06/12140/cmd-files-open-records-suit-against-alec-board-member-sen-leah-vukmir">filed suit</a>

against Vukmir in May of 2013 after suspecting that she had not

released all records pertaining to ALEC’s Spring meeting. CMD’s Research

Director, Nick Surgey, had sought Vukmir’s text messages related to

ALEC’s spring meeting. In response, the state Senator divulged one set

of text messages with Herrera discussing the sponsorship of the

resolution — yet claimed she had no emails or other records pertaining

to the meeting. Because of that exchange and because Vukmir is on the

National Board of ALEC and attended the meeting, CMD was convinced that

she had withheld records responsive to our request.

Senator Vukmir <a href="https://www.thewheelerreport.com/wheeler_docs/files/0918vukmir.pdf">publicly insisted</a> that she had no records in her possession, and then tried to throw up every possible roadblock to CMD’s lawsuit: her staff <a href="https://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/process-server-says-senator-s-aide-chased-and-pushed-him/article_a0e198fc-b6d1-524d-ab21-d848f1a2d352.html">berated and chased a process server</a>

who tried serving her with court documents, and then, with the backing

of Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s office, she made an unprecedented

claim that she was <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12242/wisconsin-attorney-general-seeks-vitiate-open-records-law-protect-alec%E2%80%99s-national">entirely immune from lawsuit</a>,

based on a novel reading of the Wisconsin Constitution. If her legal

theory were upheld, it would undermine the public records law, because

legislators could never be held accountable for their failure to comply

with their open records responsibilities.

After extensive briefing on the subject of the state constitution’s legislative privilege, hundreds of hours of legal work, and <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12250/wisconsin-media-defends-state-open-records-law">significant media attention</a>, it turns out that CMD was right: Senator Vukmir had failed to disclose over a hundred pages of public records.

Despite the settlement and award of damages to CMD for Vukmir’s

failure to disclose the documents earlier, ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling

told the press the suit was a “yearlong witch hunt based on unfounded

accusations.”

However, as the evidence demonstrates, ALEC’s spin again rings false.

Accusations aren’t “unfounded” if they turn out to be true, and filing a

lawsuit to enforce and defend state open government laws is hardly a

“witch hunt.”

<hr />Read the documents <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/vukmir_docs_cmd_apr3.pdf">here</a>.=
<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ginni-thomas-teams-up-with-james-okeefe-in-dark-money-operation-to-protect-trump/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: currentcolor none medium;">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ginni-thomas-teams-up-with-james-okeefe-in-dark-money-operation-to-protect-trump/</a><div class="mce-content-body" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a right-wing political activist, has launched a new set of organizations meant to “protect President Trump” and attack Democrats and left-leaning organizations, according to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/06/04/ginni-thomas-trump-conservative-group/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">an article published by The Intercept</a> this week.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">The well-connected Thomas, a former Heritage Foundation staffer, presented her plans to build a “robust infrastructure” to a meeting of the secretive <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/council-for-national-policy/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">Council for National Policy</a> last month. TheCNP is a strategy-development-and-sharing network that includes leaders across the U.S. religious and political Right, including people like <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/why-has-the-religious-right-embraced-neo-confederate-michael-peroutka/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">neo-Confederate Christian Reconstrucionist Michael Peroutka</a>. CNP members <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/secretive-council-for-national-policy-pushing-trump-to-sign-religious-liberty-order/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">pushed Trump to sign an executive order on religious liberty</a>.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">Thomas is planning to build a “robust infrastructure” of affiliated organizations. Among her partners in the new project are longtime right-wing operative Richard Viguerie; undercover videographer and political trickster James O’Keefe; Republican campaign lawyer Cleta Mitchell; and Bill Meierling, chief marketing officer for the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/american-legislative-exchange-council/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>, a matchmaker for corporate lobbyists and conservative legislators willing to do their bidding.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">A slide from Thomas’s presentation at Council for National Policy notes, “Long Term teams taking shape will focus on Education, Media, Entertainment/Arts, Faith, Corporate/Economic, Government, Science, and more”—nearly identical to the list of spheres of cultural influence targeted by Religious Right proponents of <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/seven-mountains/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">Seven Mountain</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/topics/seven-mountains/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">s Dominionism</a>.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">The Intercept also reported that Thomas had spoken at another CNP event last October, at which she declared, “The hard left is in control of the Democrat Party … And they’re controlling the media and corporations and Hollywood and education.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">This January, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/hate-had-a-meeting-in-the-white-house/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">Thomas organized a White House meeting</a> where she was joined by anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney and others where, among other things, they complained that White House aides were blocking right-wing Trump supporters from getting administration jobs.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">Thomas and many of her partners were among conservative activists who <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-coalition-pushing-freedom-caucus-founder-jim-jordan-to-run-for-house-speaker/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">mobilized</a> a year ago to try to replace then-House Speaker Paul Ryan with right-wing favorite Rep. Jim Jordan.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">Thomas <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ginni-thomas-gives-awards-to-james-okeefe-sean-hannity-frank-gaffney-other-right-wing-activists/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">presented United in Purpose “Impact” awards to O’Keefe, Gaffney, and Sean Hannity</a> in 2017. In 2016, TPM <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/virginia-thomas-scotus-christian-adams-voter-fraud-campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">reported</a> that Thomas “wanted to ‘target’ the ‘most questionable’ precincts in Virginia with an anti-voter fraud campaign.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;">Thomas also <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/ginni-thomas-and-jesse-lee-peterson-discuss-evil-black-lives-matter-illusion-of-racism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">interviewed right-wing radio host Jesse Lee Peterson</a> for the Daily Caller in 2016. The two talked about what Thomas called “race hustlers” who she said are “in the business of keeping blacks angry” and about Black Lives Matter, which Peterson called “evil,” “wicked,” and “worse than the KKK.” Last year, Thomas reportedly <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/405437-clarence-thomas-wife-hires-ex-tpusa-staffer-who-once-said-i-hate" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">hired</a> a former Turning Point USA staffer who had resigned after The New Yorker <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-conservative-nonprofit-that-seeks-to-transform-college-campuses-faces-allegations-of-racial-bias-and-illegal-campaign-activity" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: currentcolor none medium; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em;">published</a> screenshots of text messages that included a text that said “I HATE BLACK PEOPLE.</div></div></div><h1>=<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/dirty-scheme-americans-buy-more-gasoline-2623764478.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/dirty-scheme-americans-buy-more-gasoline-2623764478.html</a>12/18The Dirty Scheme to Make Americans Buy More Gasoline<div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px;"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url css-listicle-body-2623764478" data-elid="2623764478" data-authors="Natural Resources Defense Council" data-headline="The Dirty Scheme to Make Americans Buy More Gasoline" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description">By Rhea SuhIt's not often that an industry chieftain brags to investors about picking the pockets of American families with help from the White House.That's what happened, though, after <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-oil" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Big Oil</a> schemed with the Trump administration last summer to ensure higher gasoline consumption—to the tune of $16 billion a year—and more climate-disrupting carbon pollution from our cars, vans and pickup trucks.An important investigative story by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/climate/cafe-emissions-rollback-oil-industry.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times</a> lays bare this craven sellout of the public interest and details the hammerlock the oil industry has on domestic policy under President Trump. The article details how the Trump administration bowed to the major oil companies to try and gut commonsense rules that were already saving consumers billions of dollars a year at the pump and helping clean up our dirty tailpipe emissions.In a cynical confession, Gary Heminger, chairman of Marathon Petroleum, boasted to analysts last week that weakening the clean car rules would boost gasoline sales by up to 16.8 million gallons a day.At $2.65 a gallon, the national November average, that comes to $44.5 million a day, or more than $16 billion a year, money that American workers won't be able to spend on their families' needs because it will go, instead, to the oil industry. "However," Heminger warned investors, "you have another side who doesn't want to pivot away" from the fuel savings and pollution reductions the rules support. "So we have a lot of work to do to keep this momentum going."That so-called "work" doesn't come cheap. In the national elections of 2016 and 2018, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=2018&ind=E01" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry totaled $176 million</a>, with 87 cents of every dollar going to Trump's party.It's paying off for the industry—at the country's expense.In 2012, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obama-administration-auto-industry-strike-deal-on-vehicle-fuel-efficiency/2011/07/27/gIQA72mKdI_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.494e3cb1eb31" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">with the endorsement of the major automakers</a>, the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/08/28/obama-administration-finalizes-historic-545-mpg-fuel-efficiency-standard" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation teamed up</a> on <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/luke-tonachel/strong-clean-car-and-fuel-economy-standards-finalized-here-are-details-and" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">a pair of rules that cut tailpipe pollution </a>from our cars, vans, SUVs and pickup trucks. The rules had the industry on track to double gas mileage by 2025, cutting the nation's oil consumption by a staggering 2.4 million barrels per day by 2030.It's one of the most important steps we've taken, as a country, to protect future generations from the growing dangers of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate change</a>. That's because our cars and light trucks account for about <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">17 percent of U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases</a> contributing to the problem. Mile for mile, the 2012 rules cut the carbon footprint of driving in half.The measures have supported a surge in manufacturing jobs, with <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/supplying-ingenuity-clean-vehicle-technologies-report.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">nearly 300,000 Americans hard at work helping us to get more miles from a gallon of gas</a> or moving us closer to the electric cars and hybrid vehicles of the future. Some 70,000 of those jobs are in Michigan alone, where more than 224 facilities are turning out materials or components to help make our cars run cleaner and more efficiently.Last August, though, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nrdc/trump-administration-reverses-clean-car-standards-gutting-another-key-climate-policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the Trump administration proposed gutting the rules</a>, throwing national support for clean car progress into reverse. Automakers wanted flexibility in meeting the clean car standards. On balance, though, the rules complemented tens of billions of dollars in industry investment in a new generation of automobiles.So it was something of a mystery as to why the administration turned away from standards that save our families billions of dollars a year at the pump, fight the central environmental challenge of our time, and help create scores of thousands of well-paying jobs. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/climate/cafe-emissions-rollback-oil-industry.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Times article</a> provides the answer: it's not the automakers but, rather, the oil companies that see the road ahead through the rearview mirror.We're not going to stand by and watch Donald Trump put our future at risk to pump up oil profits. We're fighting this proposal. We'll make our case in court, if necessary, and <a href="http://cleancarstates.org/big-oil-behind-shadowy-campaign-to-gut-clean-car-rules/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">we've joined other groups in calling on the EPA and the Transportation Department to come clean</a> about how the administration sold out our environment and our pocketbooks in its fealty to fossil fuels.As my NRDC colleague <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/testimony-of-luke-tonachel-regarding-proposed-rollback-of-clean-cars-fuel-economy-standards_2018-09-25.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Luke Tonachel testified in a federal hearing on the proposed changes last September</a>, "We Americans pay taxes so that the government will serve and protect us, not Big Oil."<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/rhea-suh" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Rhea Suh</a> is the president of the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>.</div></div>=refno lnx nyt
The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules
Marathon, the country’s largest oil refiner, has backed the Trump administration proposal to roll back car efficiency standards.By Hiroko TabuchiDec. 13, 2018When the Trump administration laid out a plan this year that would eventually allow cars to emit more pollution, automakers, the obvious winners from the proposal, balked. The changes, they said, went too far even for them.But it turns out that there was a hidden beneficiary of the plan that was pushing for the changes all along: the nation’s oil industry.In Congress, on Facebook and in statehouses nationwide, Marathon Petroleum, the country’s largest refiner, worked with powerful oil-industry groups and a conservative policy network financed by the billionaire industrialist Charles G. Koch to run a stealth campaign to roll back car emissions standards, a New York Times investigation has found.The campaign’s main argument for significantly easing fuel efficiency standards — that the United States is so awash in oil it no longer needs to worry about energy conservation — clashed with decades of federal energy and environmental policy.“With oil scarcity no longer a concern,” Americans should be given a “choice in vehicles that best fit their needs,” read a draft of a letter that Marathon helped to circulate to members of Congress over the summer. Official correspondence later sent to regulators by more than a dozen lawmakers included phrases or sentences from the industry talking points, and the Trump administration’s proposed rules incorporate similar logic.The industry had reason to urge the rollback of higher fuel efficiency standards proposed by former President Barack Obama. A quarter of the world’s oil is used to power cars, and less-thirsty vehicles mean lower gasoline sales.In recent months, Marathon Petroleum also teamed up with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a secretive policy group financed by corporations as well as the Koch network, to draft legislation for states supporting the industry’s position. Its proposed resolution, dated Sept. 18, describes current fuel-efficiency rules as “a relic of a disproven narrative of resource scarcity” and says “unelected bureaucrats” shouldn’t dictate the cars Americans drive.A separate industry campaign on Facebook, covertly run by an oil-industry lobby representing Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Phillips 66 and other oil giants, urged people to write to regulators to support the rollback.The Facebook ads linked to a website with a picture of a grinning Mr. Obama. It asked, “Would YOU buy a used car from this man?” The site appears to have been so effective that a quarter of the 12,000 public comments received by the Department of Transportation can be traced to the petition, according to a Times analysis.Gary R. Heminger, Marathon’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement that the company supported “sound fuel economy standards” and wanted to “help ensure they are achievable and based on existing technology.”He added, “We appreciate the administration’s willingness to conduct a thorough review in order to ensure future standards are achievable and will actually benefit American consumers.”
ImageMarathon’s chief executive, Gary Heminger, third from right, at the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 3 to note an acquisition that made the company the nation’s largest refiner.CreditRichard Drew/Associated PressA spokesman for Koch Industries, the energy conglomerate led by Mr. Koch, said the company had “a long, consistent track record of opposing all forms of corporate welfare, including all subsidies, mandates and other handouts that rig the system.”The oil industry’s campaign, the details of which have not been previously reported, illuminates why the rollbacks have gone further than the more modest changes automakers originally lobbied for.The standards that the Trump administration seeks to weaken required automakers to roughly double the fuel economy of new cars, SUVs and pickup trucks by 2025. Instead, the Trump plan would freeze the standards at 2020 levels. Carmakers, for their part, had sought more flexibility in meeting the original 2025 standards, not a categorical rollback.The Trump plan, if finalized, would increase greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by more than the amount many midsize countries put out in a year and reverse a major effort by the Obama administration to fight climate change.The energy industry’s efforts also help explain the Trump administration’s confrontational stance toward California, which, under federal law, has a unique authority to write its own clean-air rules and to mandate more zero-emissions vehicles.California has pledged to stick to the stricter standards, together with 13 other states that follow its lead. But President Trump’s plan challenges California’s rule-writing power, setting up a legal battle that threatens to split the American auto market in two.That is a prospect automakers desperately want to avoid.But for gasoline producers like Marathon, a shift toward more efficient vehicles poses a grave threat to the bottom line. In October, the company acquired a rival, Andeavor, making it the biggest refiner in the United States, with sales of 16 billion gallons of fuel a year.Even while doubling down on gasoline, Marathon has projected an environmentally friendly public image. “We have invested billions of dollars to make our operations more energy efficient,” Marathon said in a recent report. The company’s Twitter account recently highlighted a gardening project and the creation of a duck pond at one of its refineries.On a conference call with investors last week, Mr. Heminger, the Marathon chief executive, was already counting the extra barrels of fuel a Trump rollback would mean for the industry: 350,000 to 400,000 barrels of gasoline per day, he said.“However, you have another side who doesn’t want to pivot away” from the stricter rules, Mr. Heminger said. “So we have a lot of work to do to keep this momentum going.”
Marathon’s Early StartMarathon began its outreach to the Trump administration early, asking to meet with Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency soon after he became its administrator in early 2017. Marathon had been a top donor to Mr. Pruitt in Oklahoma, a state where oil is so prominent that a well stands on the grounds of the capitol building.“Our CEO, Gary Heminger, would be very glad for an opportunity to visit with the Administrator,” a Marathon lobbyist wrote in an email to Mr. Trump’s transition team on May 8, 2017. “I believe this would be a constructive dialogue.” The E.P.A. helps oversee fuel economy rules along with the Transportation Department.Mr. Pruitt was scheduled to meet with the Marathon chief at least twice — once in June 2017 as part of a meeting with the board of a powerful fuel-industry group, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, and again in September for a more private talk, according to emails and schedules released in a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club.A Marathon spokesman, Chuck Rice, said Mr. Heminger did not discuss auto-efficiency rollbacks with Mr. Pruitt. An E.P.A. official did not respond to a question about whether the auto rules were discussed.Marathon then turned its focus to Congress, hiring the firm Ogilvy Government Relations to lobby legislators in Washington on fuel-economy standards, according to Ogilvy’s disclosure forms. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.Over the summer, Marathon representatives also approached legislators about an  industry talking-points letter, according to six people familiar with that effort. The file properties of a Microsoft Word version of one letter, provided by a Congressional delegation, show that it was last edited by a Marathon lobbyist, Michael J. Birsic, on June 11, 2018.Mr. Rice of Marathon said the company did not write the letter, and the company declined to say who did. It did not offer an explanation for Mr. Birsic’s digital fingerprint on the document file.Nineteen lawmakers from the delegations of Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania sent letters to the Transportation Department that included exact phrases and reasoning from the industry letter. The lawmakers’ letters, sent in June and July, all make the point that oil scarcity is no longer a concern.
[ImageA portion of a letter detailing pro-industry talking points that was later echoed in letters written by lawmakers to regulators, such as the example below.ImageA letter sent by Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to regulators used language similar to the industry talking-points note, excerpted above.]The Trump administration’s proposed rollback echoes the post-conservation theme. While energy conservation is significant, the proposal says, the downside of additional petroleum consumption would be dwarfed by the rollback’s benefits.Representatives from the three state delegations either declined to comment or did not respond to requests.Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, criticized the industry’s campaign. “It appears as though oil interests are cynically trying to gin up support in Congress for the weakest possible standards to ensure that cars and SUVs have to rely on even more oil,” he said.“If this attempt is successful, the outcome will be a blow to the auto industry, consumers, and our environment.”The Facebook CampaignThe Facebook ads, featuring Mr. Trump waving alongside the message, “SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT’S CAR FREEDOM AGENDA!,” appeared the week after the administration made public its fuel economy plan in August. At least 10 times during the two-month public comment period on the plan, the ads, which did not state their oil industry origins, asked people to write to the government to back weaker emissions standards.Public comments matter in federal rule-making. The law requires that citizens’ views be taken into account before a rule is finalized.“File an official comment to SUPPORT our President’s plan for safer, cheaper cars that WE get to choose,” read one ad, which ran for seven days in early October. The ad leads to a page that provides basic language to submit.
[ImageFacebook ads by Energy4Us prompted more than 3,300 of the 12,000 public comments on the administration’s rollback proposal, a Times analysis showed.]
More than 3,300 of the 12,000 public comments that D.O.T. has made public contain language identical to that petition, an analysis of the files showed.The campaign was a product of the fuel and petrochemical manufacturers trade group, widely known as AFPM. However, neither the Facebook ads nor the site identified the industry group. Instead they name a group called Energy4US, which describes itself as “a coalition of consumers, businesses and workers” promoting affordable energy.Energy4US has close ties to the industry group. According to internet domain records, Victor Adams, listed as an AFPM web manager, registered Energy4Us.org in 2015 using his work email address. Energy4US lists the group as a coalition member, along with about 50 other groups including energy interests, labor groups, a sheriff’s association and even a recreational fishing alliance.The AFPM board includes representatives from Exxon, Chevron, Phillips 66, Marathon and Koch Industries. The companies all referred queries to the group.Derrick Morgan, a senior vice president at AFPM, said the group “regularly works with policymakers, coalition groups and individuals to promote shared goals,” and also will “lead and join groups like Energy4US.”The Department of Transportation said it was “generally aware” that there were groups urging the public to make comments through online campaigns, but said it does not regulate them.
[Image Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao at the White House this year.CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times]Taking the Fight On the RoadHouse bill 1593 is just eight words long: “To repeal the corporate average fuel economy standards.” Koch Industries, a petroleum empire with interests as diverse as gasoline, pipelines, fertilizer and Stainmaster carpets, is the bill’s sole corporate backer.The measure, which would eliminate fuel standards altogether, is not expected to go far. But it underscores the company’s stance on the matter. And Koch interests are fighting that battle not only in Washington but increasingly in statehouses and even local policy meetings nationwide.
Earlier Investigative ReportingTaking the fight over climate change to local communitiesHow the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country June 19, 2018In Dearborn, Mich., at a September meeting on the Trump fuel-efficiency rollbacks, Annie Patnaude of Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded group, spoke in favor. “This is a step in the right direction to protect consumers and workers against government mandates that would limit choice,” she said.In Iowa, Americans for Prosperity joined the fight over whether to make it easier for gas stations to install chargers for electric vehicles. In Illinois, it discouraged state officials from considering subsidies for electric vehicles.And last month an Americans for Prosperity representative trekked to a public hearing in Colorado, where regulators were thinking about becoming the 13th state to follow California’s stricter standards. The representative, Shari Shiffer-Krieger, a field director for the group, argued that people in the rugged state wanted SUVs, not tighter emissions rules. “Coloradans deserve much better,” she said.The oil industry lost that fight. Colorado allied itself with California.But Americans for Prosperity said fights like these get to the heart of its free-market philosophy. “We believe in a level playing field so all Americans have the equal opportunity to succeed,” said Bill Riggs, a spokesman for the group, in a statement. The organization will keep fighting “mandates that unfairly pick winners and losers in any industry,” he said.
Drafting Pro-Oil State LegislationOn August 6, a Marathon lobbyist, Stephen D. Higley, emailed a Wisconsin state representative an explainer of American fuel economy law. The memo didn’t mince words.“It’s a relic,” the memo said, particularly at a time when the United States was “poised to become the largest oil producer in the world.”The Wisconsin representative, Mike Kuglitsch, participates in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Koch-funded group that helps companies write model legislation for state lawmakers to use as a basis for their own laws.Emails obtained by the Times show that Marathon has been working with members of the legislative exchange council to build support for the Trump fuel-efficiency rollback in state legislatures and to denounce California’s power to write its own rules for cars. The emails were made public under Wisconsin’s open records law to Documented, a watchdog group that tracks corporate influence in public policy.California’s special authority could effectively split the American auto market in two, since 13 other states — representing roughly 35 percent of nationwide car sales — have agreed to follow California’s stricter rules. That means automakers might find themselves making cars to two competing standards.“Who should decide what cars and trucks consumers should buy, consumers themselves or unelected bureaucrats in Sacramento, California or Washington, D.C.?” the memo sent by Marathon said.In a statement, Bill Meierling of the legislative exchange council said that mandating fuel economy was a rule that “many state legislators believe doesn’t make sense for working Americans.”Just days after the emails between Marathon and the Wisconsin lawmaker, some 1,500 state legislators and other officials from across the country gathered in New Orleans to cheer on Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Transportation, at the legislative exchange council’s annual convention. Marathon sponsored the event.The Transportation Department was determined to cut government regulations, said Ms. Chao, a former fellow at the Heritage Foundation, which has received Koch funding and has long opposed the fuel economy rules.Mr. Trump’s proposed rollback, she said, “ranks as one of the most significant regulatory reforms that this administration is undertaking.” The room erupted in applause.For more news on climate and the environment, follow @NYTClimate on Twitter.Hiroko Tabuchi is a climate reporter. She joined The Times in 2008, and was part of the team awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. She previously wrote about Japanese economics, business and technology from Tokyo. @HirokoTabuchi • Facebook
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Big Oil Angles, Quietly, to Ease Emissions Cuts</div></h1><h1>==</h1><h1>Wilhelm Meierling </h1>

Senior Director, Public Affairs at American Legislative Exchange Council

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<h2 class="section-title">Wilhelm Meierling's Overview</h2>

<dt id="overview-summary-current-title" class="summary-current" style=" display: block;">Current</dt>

<li>Senior Director, Public Affairs at American Legislative Exchange Council</li>

<li>Director of Media and Public Relations at <a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/united-way-worldwide?trk=ppro_cprof">United Way Worldwide</a></li>

<li>Adjunct Professor of Multicultural Marketing and Engagement at George Washington University</li>

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<li>Communications Director, International Network at United Way Worldwide</li>

<li>Senior Account Supervisor at <a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/edelman?trk=ppro_cprof">Edelman</a></li>

<li>Partner at OpinionMakers International</li>

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<dt id="overview-summary-education-title" class="summary-education" style=" display: block;">Education</dt>

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<li>The George Washington University</li>

<li>Hampden-Sydney College</li>

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5 people have recommended Wilhelm

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<h3 class="false">Senior Director, Public Affairs</h3>

<h4><a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/alec?trk=ppro_cprof">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> </h4>

</div>

Nonprofit; 11-50 employees; Construction industry

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2013-01-01">January 2013</abbr> – <abbr class="dtstamp" title="2013-04-24">Present</abbr> (4 months) Washnigton, DC

Public affairs and communications lead for the American Legislative Exchange Council--the largest nonpartisan membership organization of state elected officials.

</div>

<div>

<h3 class="false">Director of Media and Public Relations</h3>

<h4><a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/united-way-worldwide?trk=ppro_cprof">United Way Worldwide</a> </h4>

</div>

Nonprofit; 201-500 employees; Nonprofit Organization Management industry

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2012-01-01">January 2012</abbr> – <abbr class="dtstamp" title="2013-04-24">Present</abbr> (1 year 4 months)

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<div>

<h3 class="false">Adjunct Professor of Multicultural Marketing and Engagement</h3>

<h4><a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/george-washington-university?trk=ppro_cprof">George Washington University</a> </h4>

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Educational Institution; 5001-10,000 employees; Higher Education industry

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2010-03-01">March 2010</abbr> – <abbr class="dtstamp" title="2013-04-24">Present</abbr> (3 years 2 months) Washington D.C. Metro Area

Adjunct professor of multicultural engagement focusing on Latino and African America political advocacy and public relations.

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<div>

<h3 class="false">Communications Director, International Network</h3>

<h4><a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/united-way-of-america?trk=ppro_cprof">United Way Worldwide</a> </h4>

</div>

Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Nonprofit Organization Management industry

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2010-08-01">August 2010</abbr> – <abbr class="dtend" title="2012-01-01">January 2012</abbr> (1 year 6 months)

Plan, implement and oversee United Way's international communications strategy among 500+ member organizations in 40+ countries.

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<div>

<h3 class="false">Senior Account Supervisor</h3>

<h4><a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/edelman?trk=ppro_cprof">Edelman</a> </h4>

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Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2008-09-01">September 2008</abbr> – <abbr class="dtend" title="2010-08-01">August 2010</abbr> (2 years)

Multicultural Practice Senior Account Supervisor; Direct outreach and provide communications counsel to clients seeking inroads with multicultural communities.

</div>

<div>

<h3 class="false">Partner</h3>

<h4>OpinionMakers International </h4>

</div>

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2007-01-01">January 2007</abbr> – <abbr class="dtend" title="2010-01-01">January 2010</abbr> (3 years 1 month)

OpinionMakers International is a public/government relations firm that specializes in foreign relations with the United States and European Union. Specific expertise on African development, Central and South America.

</div>

<div>

<h3 class="false">Advocacy Account Executive</h3>

<h4><a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-washington-times?trk=ppro_cprof">The Washington Times</a> </h4>

</div>

Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Newspapers industry

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2006-04-01">April 2006</abbr> – <abbr class="dtend" title="2007-02-01">February 2007</abbr> (11 months)

While at the Washington Times, I assisted clients in delivering targeted, strategic messages to legislators and other opinion leaders.

</div>

<div>

<h3 class="false">Grassroots Coordinator</h3>

<h4><a class="company-profile-public" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-leadership-institute?trk=ppro_cprof">The Leadership Institute</a> </h4>

</div>

Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Political Organization industry

<abbr class="dtstart" title="2005-06-01">June 2005</abbr> – <abbr class="dtend" title="2006-05-01">May 2006</abbr> (1 year)

As a Grassroots Coordinator, I traveled the country to train state and federal candidates, campaign staffs, and volunteers on effective methods of voter turnout, coalition development, and outreach.

</div>

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