ALEC Energy, Environ & Agric task force

Note: new node 5/24/14, much info on other 3 alec nodes

prolly neglected

alec crit infra2017 ltr

https://www.scribd.com/document/371677094/ALEC-letter

Special Program to Work on Radical Rewrite of U.S. Constitution

ALEC is extending its conference well into the evening on Friday this year to hold an "interactive academy" on rewriting the U.S. Constitution. Attendees will "learn how an Article V amendments convention will actually play out," and "cast their ballots to decide which ideas to pursue," an invite obtained by CMD details.

One of the goals of the tutorial appears to be to convince lawmakers that a runaway convention can be prevented, despite expert opinions that this is impossible.

"Once you have the convention, it is subject to nobody's control," Georgetown University Law Professor David Super told the AP. "It makes its own agenda. It makes its own voting rules that decides how long it lasts and how far it goes."

At the 2020 Annual Meeting, former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) detailed a legal strategy to force a convention to rewrite the nation's founding document even though at the time only 28 of 34 states needed had resolutions calling for one pending.

Former State Rep. Ken Ivory (R-UT) will moderate the event, whileU.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell,Prof. Robert Natelson, David Biddulph, former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, and Dr. Barry Poulson will present.

ALEC is already pushing constitutional convention calls for a balanced budget amendment and sweeping new limits on federal powers, but meeting attendees will also have the opportunity to consider a newly proposed convention call for a package of tax and fiscal reforms, including "abolishing the existing Internal Revenue Code," called the Application Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution to Propose an Amendment to Require Fiscal Limitations and Accountability for the Legislative and Executive Branches of the National Government.

The model application also seeks to combine the states that pass it with other balanced budget amendment convention calls in an attempt to reach the 34 states needed to convene a constitutional convention.

Protecting Fossil Fuel Interests and Other Climate Harming Measures

ALEC politicians will once again consider model bills to protect fossil fuel interests and polluters.

Meeting attendees will debate a number of policies framed around ending "energy discrimination."The radical Energy Discrimination Elimination Act would punish financial institutions and other companies that cease to do business with fossil fuel companies by barring the state from investing in them and denying them state business. The policy also includes an anti-boycott measure which prohibits government contractors from boycotting energy companies, even asking for "written verification" from companies stating that they "will not boycott energy companies during the term of the contract."

This model, as well as the Affordable, Abundant, Reliable Electricity Act, which seeks to protect all energy producers in the name of maintaining a reliable electrical grid, are being lobbied for by Randy Eminger,executive director of the Energy Policy Network, an email obtained by CMD details.

An advocate for "clean coal," Eminger describes his mission at Energy Policy Network as, "to support the continued use of coal-fueled power," in the email, and notes that "four other comrades from the industry" will be at the ALEC conference as well.

In keeping with ALEC's climate-denial history and pay-to-play work for fossil fuel giants, ALEC lawmakers will also vote on resolutions to oppose any government action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and oppose any restrictions on the use of fossil fuels to produce electricity.

Indeed, ALEC is even proposing a model bill, the Safeguarding Greenhouse Gas Regulatory Authority Act, to bar any state agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions or entering into any regional compact without "specific legislative authorization.”

The Resolution Urging States to Establish**Electric Vehicle** Charging Stations as a Competitive Market Free From Utility Commission Regulation urges state utility commissions to forbid "regulated utilities from using electric customer funds to build its own fleet of electric charging stations," thereby removing crucial funds to expand the infrastructure a larger fleet of electric cars will need in the future. This will have the intended consequence of forcing people to continue driving gas-guzzling vehicles for longer than necessary.

ALEC is also introducing another preemption model bill around plastics, the Act to Establish Statewide Uniformity for Essential Plastic Regulations. Spun as a policy to ensure "essential" plastic products are available, the proposed bill would bar municipalities from banning or taxing plastic food wrappers and plastic water bottles. The measure follows a 2015 American City County Exchange (an ALEC offshoot) resolution that calls on local government not to regulate many single-use products,including, "reusable bags, disposable bags, boxes, cups, and bottles that are made of cloth, paper, plastic, extruded polystyrene, or similar materials."

Regulating Big Tech?...

ref email

eric Burlison

From: Randy Eminger Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2021 4:04 PM To: Eric Burlison Cc: 'Michael Gibbons'

Subject: ALEC model bills supporting Coal-based power Attachments: ALEC - Energy Discrimination Model Bill for 2021.docx; ALEC - Reliable Resilience Electricity Act.docx

Sen. Burlison – I’m reaching out to you to 1) introduce myself and 2) let you know that two model bills that you may be interested in, have been introduced for consideration by the ALEC Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Taskforce in Salt Lake. As executive director of the Energy Policy Network my mission is to support the continued use of coal-fueled power.

I’ve worked with Mike Gibbons on several issues and he wanted to make sure you were briefed on my initiative at the upcoming ALEC conference. Two model bills (attached) have been introduced a Texas (Rep. Dennis Price) and Arizona legislator (Rep. Chris Finchem).

1) One deals with financial discrimination being placed on banks and lending institutions that loan funds to fossil fuel companies. 2) The second one addresses the need for maintaining a reliable and resilient electric grid. We could use your help in promoting these two model bills. I will be in Salt Lake along with four other comrades from industry. I would welcome meeting you and grabbing a cup of coffee. Randy Eminger Executive Director Energy Policy Network(806) 674-7079

https://alec.org/model-policy/affordable-abundant-reliable-electricity-act/

aFFORDABLE, RELIABLE, AND RESILIENT ELECTRICITY ACT

Policy Status

Type: Model Policy Status: Final Date Introduced: July 29, 2021 Date Finalized: August 25, 2021

Issues

Energy

Task Forces

Energy, Environment and Agriculture

New Model Policies from the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force at the 48th ALEC Annual Meeting

HANNAH ROGERS/7 MONTHS AGO

President Trump Seeks to Jumpstart Construction of Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines

JOHN EICK/1 YEAR AG

President Elect Trump Should Allow Senate to Reject Paris Climate Agreement

JOHN EICK/2 YEARS AGO

https://www.alec.org/article/carbon-tax-straight-talk/

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2017/12/07/alec-hires-former-koch-staffer-lead-energy-task-force

The Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has hired Grant Kidwell, a former analyst from two major Koch-backed groups–Americans for Prosperity and the Charles Koch Institute–to lead its Energy, Environment and Agriculture (EEA) task force, a position that has been left vacant since July.

Funded by numerous fossil-fuel companies, ALEC and its EEA task force has a long history of passing “model bills” undermining environmental protections and opposing policies to combat climate change. The task force is made up of numerous corporate lobbyists and their trade groups that stand to benefit from measures weakening environmental protections: including Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil, Peabody Energy, the Edison Electric Institute, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the American Gas Association.

Kidwell’s first week at ALEC comes as the group holds its States and Nation Policy Summit, currently taking place in Nashville, Tennessee. Among the measures being discussed is a resolution urging theEPA to scrap the 2009 endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, which formed the legal basis for the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas pollution.According E&E News, the fossil-fuel funded Heartland Institute is rumored to be behind the resolution.

Before Kidwell’s appointment, Kenneth Stein who now works for the Koch-backed Institute for Energy Research, briefly served as the task force director from April to July 2017. John Eick, who now works for AFPM, previously led the task force from 2012-2017. Todd Wynn, who now works at the Department of Interior and previously worked at the Edison Electric Institute, was Director from 2011 to 2013.

This story was originally published in Documented here.

August2011, Dr.**Robert Bradley**, founder and CEO of the IER, spoke at the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.^[3]

12/16 dc conf

ALEC’s Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force will review a raft of old policies to see if they should be renewed as well as a brand new resolution calling on the President and Congress complete the review of the Yucca Mountain license application for nuclear waste disposal halted by Obama in 2010. Edison Electric Institute, which represents companies that operate nuclear energy plants like Exelon and Southern, is a member of ALEC and the Nuclear Energy Institute has given ALEC money in the past. It’s lobbying efforts are lead by a former ALEC staffer.

ALEC has long relied on funding from its coal and oil industry members such as Exxon Mobil and Peabody Energy. It is also a key cog in the climate science denial machine. ALEC has battled the Obama Clean Power Plan every step of the way and has encouraged state Attorneys General to sue to block the implementation of the plan. ALEC also recently attacked new EPA rules to protect American streams—and along with them American families and wildlife—from dangerous pollution caused by surface coal mining.

ALEC has stated that it is not a climate change denial organization, but its raft of pro-carbon policies and its “Energy Principles” statement, which falsely suggests that there is some debate about the “significance of natural and anthropogenic contributions,” puts the group firmly in the denial camp.

ALEC’s Free Trade and Federalism task force is looking at a draft bill to “Clarify State Jurisdiction Over Public Lands” to encourage states to review federal designations of national monuments and battle such designations in court. The bill further feeds the “reclaim our public lands movement” that has embroiled seven Western states in “unconstitutional and quixotic battles” to force the federal government to turn over protected public lands to the states.

http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2014/01/15/no-prodigal-sun-alec-doesnt-want-its-clean-energy-members-back/

Leaked American Legislative Exchange Council documents published by The Guardian recently offered a glimpse into ALEC’s financial troubles, spurred by its role in peddling corporate laws through statehouses around the country. ALEC’s controversial work has caused its member companies to abandon it, such as pushing the National Rifle Association’s Stand Your Ground laws, efforts to undermine clean energy incentives and delay climate change regulations, and breaking workers unions.

The ALEC documents revealed its **“Prodical** **Son”** **project** [sic], a list of 41 corporate members the legislator-lobbyist matchmaker would like to entice back into its roster. ALEC has lost about 60 corporate members since 2011, the year ALEC Exposed was launched by the Center for Media and Democracy.

But there are some private sector members that ALEC doesn’t want back. 60 companies left ALEC and it’s asking 41 to rejoin…so who is missing from the Prodigal Son list?

Conspicuously, both the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) are not on ALEC’s secret Prodigal Son list. Not surprising, since an ALEC staffer accused residential solar rooftop owners of being “freeriders,” despite how they feed extra electricity back into the grid and spare utilities the capital costs of installing those solar panels themselves.

The solar trade groupSEIA left ALEC in the fall of 2012. Shortly before that, ALEC’s Energy, Environment & Agriculture task force considered, but didn’t ever approve, the Solar Streamline Permitting Act (*see p. 18*). It’s pretty much what it sounds like–making it faster and easier for state governments to approve solar projects, a concept that you might assume ALEC’s conservative member legislators would embrace.

But ALEC didn’t pass the solar permitting model bill. At the same time, ALEC was incubating its assault on state clean energy incentives through The Heartland Institute’s proposed Electricity Freedom Act, the repeal of state renewable portfolio standards, later introduced in some form in 15 states, according to ALEC.

ALEC’s documents list SEIA among “Lapsed” members, with a note explaining “left because their bill did not pass the task force.” SEIA was ALEC’s only interest dedicated entirely to solar energy at the time, and with both SEIA and AWEA absent from ALEC’s ranks, ALEC has no members predominantly focused on clean energy development.

Check out Rachel Maddow’s recent interview with Guardian reporter Ed Pilkington for more on ALEC’s work against clean energy and other revelations from ALEC’s leaked documents:

ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force: Hostile Territory for Clean Energy

Members of ALEC’s EEA task force include Koch Industries,the engine of climate denial finance, not to mention many groups its billionaire owners fund and even helped create, like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute andThe Heartland Institute.

There’s ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute, the architects of theleaked 1998 master plan to publicly attack climate science and scientists, which included ALEC itself and other ALEC members like DCI Group.

There’s Peabody Energy, which commands its PR spokespeople to deny global warming. There’s Duke Energy and Arizona Public Service, two major utilities fighting to make residential rooftop solar energy more expensive for residents and small businesses owners in their respective regions. ALEC’s utilities are joined by their top trade association, Edison Electric Institute.

And don’t forget the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the heavily advertised “coalition that hates each other.” ACCCE was caught subcontracting groups that forged letters to Congress against 2009′s failed national climate policy.

Mining, petrochemical, utility, & agribusiness interests supporting ALEC:

Many dirty energy interests have recently sponsored ALEC’s conferences, pay to participate in ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force meetings, or both. ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force is currently co-chaired by American Electric Power’s Paul Loeffelman and Wyoming state Representative Thomas Lockhart.

*Companies with membership on ALEC’s national corporate board are indicated with asterisks.*

Koch:

*Koch Industries*–with business in oil and gas exploration, pipelines, refining and trading, coal and other carbon product logistics, timber and consumer paper products, commodities trading and investing, chemicals, fertilizer, ethanol, cattle and game ranching, glass, fiber optics, electronics and plenty ofawkward public relations.

The Charles Koch Foundation and Koch-controlled Claude R. Lambe Foundation both fund ALEC outside of Koch Industries’ membership dues, together giving ALEC hundreds of thousands of dollars. ALEC has longdepended on the Koch brothers.

Oil & Gas:

Atmos Energy
BP
Cheniere Energy
Chesapeake Energy
Chevron
Continental Resources
Devon Energy
EnCana Corporation
Energy Transfer
*ExxonMobil*
Marathon Oil
McMoRan Exploration Company
OXY USA (Occidental Petroleum)
QEP Resources
Shell
Spectra Energy
TransCanada Pipelines
Williams Companies

Oil & Gas Lobby:

American Petroleum Institute (API)
American Gas Association (AGA)
America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA)
Center for Liquified Natural Gas

Coal Mining:

*Peabody Energy*
Cloud Peak Energy

Utilities (primarily Coal, Gas and Nuclear generation):

American Electric Power (AEP)
Ameren
Arizona Public Service (APS)
Dominion Resources
Duke Energy
*Energy Future Holdings*
MDU Resources
MidAmerican Energy (all owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway)
- PacifiCorp
- NV Energy

NiSource
PG&E Corporation
Salt River Project (SRP)

Coal, Chemical & Fossil Fuel Product Shipping Railroad Co’s:

Burlington Northern Santa Fe (owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway)
CN
CSX Corporation
Genessee & Wyoming Inc.
Norfolk Southern
Union Pacific

Coal & Utility Lobby:

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE)
Edison Electric Institute (EEI)
Indiana Energy Association
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
- Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives (NRECA member)

Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI)

Chemical, Agribusiness and Paper Industry Interests:

Dow
LyondellBasell Industries
American Chemistry Council
American Plastics Council
Bayer
J.R. Simplot Company
CropLife America (lobbying group for Monsanto & other agribusiness corporations)
International Paper

Uranium Mining & Nuclear Technology:

Virginia Uranium
EnergySolutions

State Policy Network, SPN members & SPN associate members:

State Policy Network (umbrella for 64 state-based orgs and over 250 formally-affiliated allies–see full SPN member list)
Americans for Prosperity
Atlas Foundation
Competitive Enterprise Institute (co-authors ALEC reports against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pollution rules)
The Heartland Institute (IL)
Goldwater Institute (AZ)

ALEC notes show that SPN members the Commonwealth Foundation (PA) and John Locke Foundation (NC) have recently lapsed but would like to rejoin ALEC’s ranks. Each of these SPN groups are part of the the Koch-funded climate denial machine.

Public Relations firms with known Fossil Fuel Clients:

Dezenhall Resources (consulted for ExxonMobil)
DCI Group (climate denial PR for Exxon, API; represents coal companies pushing for exports in the Pacific Northwest)
Harris Deville & Associates (PR work for Koch Pipelines, American Petroleum Institute, Dow, and others)

omorrow, the American Legislative Exchange Council–known as ALEC–will host their 2012 Spring Task Force summit in Charlotte, NC. At tomorrow’s meeting, the corporate front group will round up its various committees and prepare to peddle new state-level legislation to attack clean energy laws, protect polluting industries, privatize education, and suppress voters, among other big business schemes.

Need a refresher on ALEC? It’s the group that brings state legislators to the table with representatives from major corporations in the sectors of energy, healthcare, tobacco, private prisons, and other groups to manipulate state politics to maximize their profits and limit their liabilities. These companies help craft template bills for state legislators to bring home and introduce in their respective statehouses.

Documents obtained and published by Common Cause now give us a roster of specific attendees at ALEC’s environmental meetings, a consortium of state legislators and a who’s who of the most offensive polluting political heavyweights including: Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Duke Energy and Peabody. Participating legislators know well they’re walking into a dirty party, sometimes using state taxpayer money to foot the bill.

The corporations that fund ALEC are well known for their political spending on both sides of the aisle. ALEC funders include Koch Industries, known for itscoordinated political spending against President Obama, and Duke Energy, which is laying down a ten million dollar line of credit to host the Democratic National Convention in their hometown of Charlotte, NC. But these polluting companies are co-conspirators under the banner of ALEC, where partisan politics are set aside to focus on the mission of destroying environmental protections, clean energy competition and liability for crimes against both people and the ecosystems sustaining us.

So what exactly are ALEC and these oil, coal, chemical and public relations companies focusing on tomorrow?

According to their newest meeting memorandum, ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force is going to discuss some pending model laws that ALEC will likely be approved for state distribution:

The “Electricity Freedom Act” (really? Electricity Freedom?!) is a new attack on states with plans requiring companies to get a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. This new bill is similar to other legislation ALEC has already peddled in several states and compliments an “email and telephone campaign” against state renewable energy standards, according to the Guardian.

The “Intrastate Coal and Use Act” serves to prevent EPA from overruling state permits for coal mining and producing dirty coal products (like liquid coal for fuel) if all the coal operations are conducted within the borders of a single state.

The “Resolution on U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement Accountability” mandates a report be filed on cities and states that have fallen short of their goals to reduce greenhouse gases through the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which has over 1,000 signatories. ALEC’s new resolution then demands that any program that hasn’t met its goal be canceled out right, voiding the Climate Protection Agreement altogether. Keeping in mind that ALEC’s members like Koch and Exxon have fought greenhouse gas programs at every turn for years, it is obvious that this ALEC bill is meant for one thing, attacking programs that address carbon emissions.

A resolution demanding the passage of the notorious federal REINS Act, which would give Congress the power to block the enforcement of just about any federal protection–clean air and water laws, safeguards for mine workers, prohibiting tobacco sales to kids, protection from discrimination, you name it. It’s the ultimate gift from Congress to their corporate fundraisers who would like to avoid responsibility for…everything.

The exhaustively-titled “Resolution Supporting a Reasonable Compliance Timeline and Economy-wide impact study of EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Rule” has a simple purpose: delay when coal-burning utilities have to reduce mercury pollution and other severely hazardous emissions. For major mercury polluters like Energy Future Holdings, American Electric Power, and Duke Energy, this is likely to be a popular item tomorrow.

Documents obtained and published by Common Cause also show us what ALEC’s focal points have been for other meetings in the last two years. Here are a few examples:

A resolution urging Congress and the State Department to push through TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. ALEC recycles a lofty jobs lie in their reasoning for this resolution, ignoring State Department KXL job estimates under 2,000 and a Cornell study warning that “There is evidence to suggest that the effects of KXL construction could very well lead to more jobs being lost than are created.” How many jobs does ALEC assume? 120,000 — see Greenpeace’s letter to the SEC to understand how they were calculated by politics rather than reality. Go figure–the American Petroleum Institute and its largest members were in the room when this resolution was forged.

A deceptive ALEC bill pushed by ExxonMobil that “discloses” chemicals used by the oil industry in fracking operations, but actually inserts loopholes to avoid disclosure of certain fracking chemicals. This bate-and-switch comes at a time when doctors are concerned about signing confidentiality agreements if they ask for disclosure of fracking chemicals when treating people who are exposed to chemicals from gas drilling.

A resolution that would prevent EPA from recognizing coal ash as a hazardous substance (it contains neurotoxins, carcinogens and radioactive elements). This may well have served as the model for the coal ash amendmentthat is currently being tacked on to the federal transportation bill by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV). Coal ash was a repeated topic of discussion at ALEC’s energy task force meetings over the last two years, according to their meeting documents.

Who exactly attends these events? Beyond ALEC staff and dozens of corporate representatives, industry front groups are also represented. Tomorrow will feature John Felmy of the American Petroleum Institute in a presentation on gas prices (spoiler alert: this crowd will probably blame the President). Next up: presentations from representatives of the Edison Electric Institute (utility trade group) and the Nuclear Energy Institute (nuclear industry lobby).

Perhaps most intriguing will be a chat about “The Dirty Truth Behind Reusable Bags” led by Charles Gerba, who will warn attendees that reusable bags will give them “projectile vomiting and diarrhea.” Gerba may not mention this dramatic and messy sickness can be avoided by simply washing one’s reusable bags, since Mark Daniels of Hilex Poly (a plastic bag company) regularly attends these meetings, and Gerba serves as an advisor to Hilex Poly.

ALEC always gets some of industry’s most interesting mouthpieces to set the rhetorical tone for those attending ALEC’s anti-environmental jamborees. Looking back to last August at ALEC’s Energy, Environment, and Agriculture task force meeting in New Orleans, presenters included:

Robert Bradley of the Institute for Energy Research, which made press recently when its sister group the American Energy Alliance spend $3.6 million on ads blaming the President for high gas prices. IER has a former Koch lobbyist on staff and has received $175,000 from Koch foundations in recent years as part of the climate denial network.

Gerry Angevene of the Fraser Institute, another longtime player in the Koch- and Exxon-funded climate denial machine

James Taylor of the Heartland Institute, which has helped champion ALEC efforts to confuse K-12 students about climate science. Heartland is currently in the middle of a crisis as corporate funders are distancing themselves from itscomparison of terrorists and serial killers to those who recognize the reality of global warming. Seriously, they put the Unabomber on a billboard saying, “Do you still believe in global warming? I do. www.heartland.org”

Craig Idso, whose nutjob Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change has been paid by the coal industry and the Heartland Institute to tell people that global warming is good for the planet. Craig Idso explained this nonsense to state legislators in August. As is the pattern here, see the Center’s history of Koch- and Exxon-funding, as well as Idso’s former employment at Peabody and work for the Western Fuels Association.

Stephen Miller of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which spends big on national advertisements promoting the idea that perhaps coal isn’t inherently dirty, dangerous and deadly (it is). Miller, who is resigning from ACCCE this year after serving as a dilligent coal apologist for the last decade, came under Congressional fire in 2009 when it was revealed that ACCCE contractors forged letters on behalf of groups “representing senior citizens, minorities and veterans,” including the NAACP.

Likely due to the publicity of ALEC Exposed and the recent mass migration of16 companies and 34 state politicians away from ALEC (in response tocontroversial bills on voter suppression and Stand Your Ground laws that protected Trayvon Martin’s killer), ALEC no longer includes the specific members of its task forces in the documents it mails to participants beforehand. ALEC’s Energy task force as of June, 2011 shows the nefarious people who run this dirty operation, by name. People representing the following groups have been consistently present at recent ALEC meetings over the last couple years:

note links gone below:]

Oil and gas industry:

Koch Industries

ExxonMobil

Shell Oil

Chevron

American Petroleum Institute

Occidental Petroleum

Marathon Oil

Continental Resources

American Gas Association (trade association)

Coal mining

Peabody Energy

Cloud Peak Energy

Coal-burning utilities:

Duke Energy & Progress Energy (which are merging into the nation’s largest utility company)

Energy Future Holdings

American Electric Power

PacifiCorp (a MidAmerican subsidiary, owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway)

Alliant Energy

Pinnacle West

MDU Resources

NiSource

NV Energy

Edison Electric Institute (trade association, membership includes all utilities above)

American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (membership includes AEP, Peabody, and Energy Future Holdings subsidiary Luminant)

Salt River Project

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (an aggressive lobbying group for electrical utility cooperatives and top political donor in the energy sector)

Nuclear Industry:

EnergySolutions

Nuclear Energy Institute (trade association)

Duke, Progress, AEP, and Pinnacle West all have notable nuclear generation capacity

Other major polluters:

Dow Agrosciences

International Paper

American Chemistry Council (top trade association for chemical companies)

Bayer Healthcare (Bayer is the country’s top air polluter according the Political Economy Research Institute at U-Mass, Amherst)

Honeywell (#31 on PERI’s toxic air polluters list)

General Motors (GM has a history of climate denial, although GM Foundation just dumped the Heartland Institute)

LyondellBasell Industries (third largest chemical company in the world)

Front groups, all involved in climate science denial (Koch funding since 2005):

Americans for Prosperity ($5,760,781)

Atlas Economic Research Foundation ($152,600)

Commonwealth Foundation ($84,532)

Goldwater Institute ($70,427)

John Locke Foundation ($47,472)

Heartland Institute ($25,000)

Public Relations Firms

Dezenhall Resources (What Businessweek calls the “Pit Bull of Public Relations,” Dezenhall Resources is currently included in a Greenpeace lawsuit due to its role in hiring spies on behalf of chemical companies to track Greenpeace’s internal campaign plans)