Accountable.US
AAF
2010-2012: American Action Network Received $285,000 In Contributions From Oil And Gas Industry
Organizations
2010: American Natural Gas Alliance Contributed $35,000 To American Action Network. [Opensecrets,
Accessed 3/11/21]
2012: American Petroleum Institute Contributed $250,000 To American Action Network. [Opensecrets,
Accessed 3/11/21]
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new analysis out Friday makes clear the wide gap between corporations' stated commitments to fighting the climate crisis and the lengths they are currently going to in order to stop the passage of the biggest climate action spending package in U.S. history.
The research by the progressive advocacy group Accountable.US examined statements and pledges made in recent years by companies including American Airlines, Amazon, Apple, and Google regarding the corporations' plans to end carbon emissions, shift to fleets of electric vehicles, and take other steps to help combat the climate emergency.
Those stated commitments mean little, Accountable.US said, considering the companies' close ties with lobbying firms that are actively working to kill the Build Back Better Act, the spending package which would invest $3.5 trillion over 10 years to transition towards renewable energy and bolster the wellbeing of working Americans.
"Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future, but behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever," Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, told The Guardian.
Microsoft,for example, said last year it would be carbon negative by 2030, emphasizing that "the scientific consensus is clear" about the human-caused climate emergency and the danger planet-heating carbon emissions pose to humanity.
The company also unveiled a plan to establish a $1 billion climate innovation fund "to accelerate the global development of carbon reduction, capture, and removal technologies."
The analysis by Accountable.US showed that despiteMicrosoft's claimed commitment to climate action, some of the company's executives are among the board members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the largest lobbying group in the United States—which has made no secret of its goal of tanking the Build Back Better plan, which progressives hope to pass through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process.
The Chamber said in August that it was prepared to "do everything we can to prevent this tax raising, job-killing reconciliation bill from becoming law."
On social media, Accountable.US pointed to other examples of large corporations whose stated concerns over the climate emergency are inconsistent with their involvement with powerful lobbying groups.
The group responded to a tweet fromAmerican Airlineson helping to "accelerate the technologies needed to reach net zero emissions" by pointing out that the aviation company is opposed to the reconciliation bill, which would invest in electric vehicle infrastructure, create millions of good-paying clean energy jobs, and reduce emissions from transportation, among other measures[twt]
executives at retail giant Walmartare among the board members of the Business Roundtable, which is also fighting the passage of the spending bill, saying it is "deeply concerned" about the tax increases progressives have called for to fund anti-poverty measures as well as climate action.
On Twitter, Accountable.US scoffed at a recent call for "strong climate policy" by the company's chief sustainability officer.
"Let's be clear: Walmart, one of the biggest companies in America, says they support the climate initiatives in the Build Back Better Plan," said the watchdog. "But the company is actively fighting its passage."
The Business Roundtable's members also include executives at Alphabet—Google's parent company—and Amazon. The latter company has pledged to cut its own emissions to net zero by 2040 while Google was lauded last year for announcing what The Verge called "one of Big Tech's most ambitious environmental commitments... to run its operations purely on carbon-free energy by 2030."
Some of the lobbying firms fighting against the spending plan are bombarding the airwaves with ad campaigns attacking the legislation, claiming its provisions will hurt working families.
In a memo published Thursday, Accountable.US noted that right-wing corporate Democrats including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) "banked over $150,000 in campaign donations from corporate interests—including those that are helping lead business groups opposing the bill."
"Corporate interests will say or do anything to preserve the broken status quo, including lie to families that overdue investments in child care, education, and climate change are somehow not in their interest," wrote Herrig in the memo. "Democrats in Congress are the last people who should be saying and doing it for them."
https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/epa-chiefs-former-lobbying-clients-are-getting-a-long-list-of-favors-from-agency
At least three former lobbying clients of Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler have received favorable decisions from the EPA under his leadership.
Wheeler spent years as an energy lobbyist at the law firm Faegre Baker Daniels, where he represented companies like the coal giant Murray Energy, whose owner RobertMurray is a major Trump donor. Wheeler signed a pledge in May 2018 to recuse himself from matters related to former clients after he replaced embattled former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. But the two-year pledge expired earlier this year and he has been repeatedly accused of violating the agreement by approving rules that he lobbied for as a lobbyist for Murray Energy and others.
At least three of Wheeler’s former clients have pushed for rules that the EPA has proposed or implemented under his leadership.
“Andrew Wheeler is overseeing policies that damage the air we breathe and water we drink while his associates benefit,” Chris Saeger, a spokesperson for the progressive watchdog group Accountable.US, told Salon. “This is a clear abuse of his taxpayer-funded position and ethics agreement."
in April, the EPA weakened regulations on the release of mercury and toxic metals from oil and coal-fired power plants, which experts said was aimed at “potentially constraining or handcuffing future efforts by the EPA to regulate air pollution.”
The New York Times described the change as a “particular victory” for Murray, who pressed for the change in a “wish list” of environmental regulation rollbacks he handed to President Trump just weeks after his inauguration. Murray donated $300,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee.
The Trump administration and federal agencies “have completed or are on track to fulfill most of the 16 detailed requests” in Murray’s wish list, the Times reported in 2018. But Murray had “unsuccessfully pressed the administration in 2017” to roll back the mercury emissions rule, E&E News reported, before it was rescinded under Wheeler.
The government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington filed an ethics complaint against Wheeler last yearover his involvement in the rule change, noting that he “participated in the matter less than a year” after signing the pledge.
“It is becoming more and more clear why coal and energy companies are happy to have their former lobbyist Andrew Wheeler in charge of the EPA,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said at the time. “Administrator Wheeler’s apparent failure to abide by ethics obligations and to avoid the reality or appearance of conflicts continues to undermine the EPA’s integrity and weakens public confidence in our government.”
Earlier this year, the EPA also finalized a rule that would extend deadlines to start closing unlined coal ash ponds. Coal ash from coal plants is dumped into excavated holes in the ground, where it mixes with water to create “coal ash ponds,” which can leak if they are not properly lined. The proposed rule would allow some coal plants five more years before requiring them to close the unlined ash ponds.
One of the major backers of the rule is the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG), a secretive trade group whose members include Xcel Energy, a longtime former Wheeler client. Xcel Energy called for the rule change and the USWAG petitioned Pruitt for the rule in 2017. The USWAG praised the EPA for proposing the change under Wheeler last year.
Accountable.US criticized the EPA for rolling back regulations on coal ash at the behest of Wheeler’s former client.
“Administrator Wheeler is part of a corrupt pattern in the Trump administration, putting the interests of his allies above the public he is supposed to serve,” Saeger said last month. “This administration is abusing its power to hand out favors to corporate lobbyists, selling out Americans’ health and the environment in the process.”
In May, the EPA proposed no additional measures to mitigate negative air quality impacts associated with renewable fuel standards as required under the Clean Air Act. The proposed rule has been open for public comment ever since but has only received 16 thus far, including one supporting the rule from Growth Energy. The company has been one of the biggest supporters of the rule.
Growth Energy was one of Wheeler’s clients before he joined the EPA, according to his financial disclosure, which said he provided the company “strategic advice and counseling.” Wheeler had pledged to recuse himself from matters related to Growth Energy until shortly before the proposed rule was published.
The trend has played out in other agencies whose heads were appointed by the president. The Interior Department has made at least 15 policy changes or proposals that benefited Secretary David Bernhardt’s former energy industry clients. Several of acting Homeland Security SecretaryChad Wolf’s former lobbying clients have also**received millions in government contracts** while he held senior positions in the department. More than 280 of Trump’s political appointments have been former lobbyists, according to an analysis by ProPublica.
CREW has repeatedly called for the EPA’s inspector general to investigate whether Wheeler violated his ethics pledge in connection to rules that benefited his former clients.
“Administrator Wheeler has repeatedly used his government position at EPA to benefit the former clients that made him rich, and to the detriment of the agency’s critical mission,” CREW Deputy Director Donald Sherman said in a statement to Salon. “Administrator Wheeler’s continued lobbying on behalf of industry from within EPA, is clear evidence that patronage is a feature, not a bug, of the Trump administration.”
ref
https://www.accountable.us/news/breaking-wheeler-weakens-epa-coal-ash-rules-for-former-client/
JULY 30, 2020
BREAKING: Wheeler Weakens EPA Coal Ash Rules For Former Client
EPA Administrator Issues Rule Deregulating Harmful Pollutant, A Move That His Former Client Xcel Energy Had Been Pushing For
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the EPA finalized a rule that would extend the closure initiation deadlines of unlined coal ash ponds. The rule comes following requests from the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG), an industry coalition that includes Xcel Energy, a former client of EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s. Coal ash is a dangerous pollutant that contains arsenic, boron, lead and mercury, which are known carcinogens and damage organs.
In response, Accountable.US spokesman Chris Saeger issued the following statement:
“Administrator Wheeler is part of a corrupt pattern in the Trump administration, putting the interests of his allies above the public he is supposed to serve. This administration is abusing its power to hand out favors to corporate lobbyists, selling out Americans’ health and the environment in the process.”
Background on Xcel Energy and Coal Ash Rules Rollback
In 2019, the EPA– under Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s leadership–proposed a rule that would extend the closure initiation deadlines of unlined coal ash ponds, allowing some plantsfive more years before they would need to close unlined coal ash ponds.
The Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG)applauded the proposed changes. Relaxing coal ash rules has been a big priority for USWAG– the trade grouppetitioned then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to roll back coal ash storage regulations back in 2017.
Xcel Energy is amember of USWAG, and has alsosupported EPA’s proposed coal ash rule. Andrew Wheelerlobbied for Xcel Energy from 2013- 2016, and has promised torecuse himself from matters related to Xcel Energy until August 28, 2020.
Read the full report here.