grasstops

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</div><div>=
basically sub-national leaders?
frontline 3 part doc some guy boasted about this:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1992<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chapter iii. The Environmental Presidency<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GOV. BILL CLINTON, Arkansas, 1983-1992:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The man standing beside me today has what it takes to lead this nation from the day we take office. Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MARC CHUPKA, White House economist, 1993-94:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Bill Clinton announced that his running mate was going to be Al Gore, that was very exciting.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There was an anticipation of a much greater effort to tackle climate change.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">BILL CLINTON:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We will finally give the United States a real environmental presidency.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AL GORE:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Then President-elect Clinton understood clearly that that's why I was on the ticket. That's why I agreed to run as vice president.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He has won this presidential race, along with Sen. Al Gore, now the vice president-elect.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JANE McMULLEN:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Now you’re in the White House—<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AL GORE:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yeah.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JANE McMULLEN:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">—to tackle it. Did you feel a sense of responsibility?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AL GORE:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oh, absolutely. That was the principal task that I set for myself entering the White House. And I went to work right away to try to get a carbon tax in our first budget plan.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MARC CHUPKA:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sen. Gore asked me to produce some quantitative results of how much various energy taxes would reduce emissions.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Feb. 17, 1993<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Our plan does include a broad-based tax on energy, and it is environmentally responsible. It will help us in the future as well as in the present with the deficit.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MARC CHUPKA:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I was excited that a fairly bold step had been proposed.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It’s called a "BTU tax."<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FEMALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The tax is likely to be levied at the producer or distributor level, though consumers would feel it as energy companies passed it along in their prices.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MARC CHUPKA:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It’s a tax policy. You don’t expect everyone to love it. But the opposition to this particular proposal was very strong, very strident, very aggressive.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Koch Industries has been called the biggest company you never heard of. The sprawling giant includes pipelines, petrochemicals, asphalt plants, trading floors. Based in Wichita, Kansas, it sells everything from gasoline to beef.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT, Comms. Dir., Citizens for a Sound Economy, 1993:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I would say that virtually no one in the early 1990s had ever heard of Koch Industries.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Koch's core business is distribution. It owns 37,000 miles of international pipeline.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They can take the heaviest oil, the dirtiest oil, the hardest to turn into a useful product and refine it. And they became the best in the world at doing that. I think it's still probably the second-largest privately held company in the world.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The two brothers who ran Koch Industries were Charles and David Koch. They had their sights set on how they were going to deal with issues that were existential to their industry. It's the heart of what they do, so they're going to fight and hang on to that till the bitter end.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JERRY TAYLOR, Cato Institute, 1991-2014:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Cato Institute was a public policy think tank. It was founded by Charles Koch. And Charles was heavily invested in energy policy discussions back in that time, particularly the emergence of climate change.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Cato Institute position was that climate change is real, but the climate change that we're seeing today is far, far more modest than what the computer models say we should have seen by now. We need to know a lot more before we should be spending trillions of dollars to address it.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So the Kochs had funding directed at the Cato Institute as a libertarian think tank; they also had funding that went to Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was built for a slightly different purpose, which was to be a quote, grassroots mobilizer.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JERRY TAYLOR:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Coming out of the gate, we then get served up with a proposed BTU tax. It was obvious to us at the Cato Institute that once that tax is in place, it's going to be very hard to get rid of.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We walked over from Citizens for a Sound Economy over to the American Petroleum Institute, and we met with the entire leadership of API. And the meeting was all about, let's just knock out the BTU tax in its infancy.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JERRY TAYLOR:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We would be meeting in various locales in Washington with over 100 people in the room. It was a real war room situation.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JERRY JASINOWSKI, President of the National Association of Manufacturers :<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[Archive] This coalition is one of the fastest growing and strongest that I've seen. We will stop the BTU tax and I believe substitute spending cuts in its place. Thank you very much for coming.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oklahoma<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RON HOWELL, Former consultant, Koch Industries:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We were known, and I think we made ourselves known that way, as the oil capital of the world. Almost everywhere you'd look had behind it oil industry dollars.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I thought that the tax was a bad idea for America, but predominantly a bad idea for Oklahoma. Oklahoma was not in a good spot at that time at all. Oil wells were being shut. That meant a lot of lost jobs, a lot of lost companies. And this was putting the heel of the boot down hard.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I got a call from Koch Industries telling me the industry is very concerned about this, but we're worried that this word isn't getting out. Our particular goal was to focus on Sen. Boren.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">David Boren was a moderate Democrat who chaired the relevant committee that would deal with the Clinton budget.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RON HOWELL:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We were hearing that he wanted to be left to do his own revising of it behind closed doors.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They basically said if we can get David Boren to flip, we win. So they said, we're going to do whatever it takes.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RON HOWELL:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We set about what I would call a grasstops and a grassroots campaign. The grassroots were encouraged to call Sen. Boren and let him know that you do not want a tax, after seeing an ad that showed "take shower, pay a tax; start your car, pay a tax."<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Everybody was given their marching orders out of this playbook. People would stand up behind politicians with signs about no BTU tax. There were rallies.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ENERGY INDUSTRY SPOKESMAN:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">—cost to the average household in Oklahoma is going to be roughly about $500 a year.RON HOWELL:My main role was what I would call the grasstops. You may be a civic leader, you may be a CEO. Often it would be Mr. Koch would call them, or myself, and talk them through "Did you know it does this, this, this and this?" Encourage strongly Sen. Boren kill it.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What they told the public and what the policymakers were led to believe was that there was an army of folks who were ready to march in the streets. Maybe there were a handful of folks who thought, "Oh, gosh, I should call my senator and register my complaint," but they had no such grassroots army. It was funded and fueled by the corporate interests.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CSE says its work isn’t done yet. It’s joined forces with other lobbying groups, stoking the flames of the prairie fire, hoping they’ll spread and burn the BTU tax for good.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RON HOWELL:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I remember a very late night or early morning phone call, and it was actually Sen. Boren's communications guy. "We want those ads to stop. And we want the CEOs to quit calling us, and in return, Sen. Boren’s going to announce his intentions to vote against it."<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SEN. DAVID BOREN, D-Oklahoma, 1979-94 :<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Our proposal is fairer than that put forward by the administration—that is the BTU tax, which is the tax which is a part of the administration's plan that does hit lower- and middle-income Americans.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He folded right away. It’s like wow, this can really work. We can pick our targets strategically and win, even when we’re not in political power.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NARRATOR:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the time, David Boren disputed he was influenced by the oil industry. He said he was responding to concerns from the American public, and he opposed the tax because it would hurt consumers and businesspeople.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Clinton has pulled the plug on his proposed BTU energy tax.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FEMALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Critics said it would cost jobs and devastate the economy, and there weren't enough votes in the Senate to pass it. Besides, who the heck knew what it was?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MALE NEWSREADER:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is after all a nation addicted to its cars and to the idea of driving down the open road.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AL GORE:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It was extremely disappointing to not get the votes. It was just the raw power of all the money that they threw into this. But we just decided to regroup and try to skin the cat a different way.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MARC CHUPKA:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They never proposed another energy tax. It was just considered radioactive.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JEFF NESBIT:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I think some of the leadership of the Koch network were really quite excited that it worked so well. So that's how that playbook first began. It was developed right then. What I didn’t know at the time was that it would become the beginning of something much bigger. And that playbook is still in use today.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I don't feel embarrassed or regretful. In hindsight, I shouldn't have done that. There's no question I shouldn't have done that. But they were my client. I was a contractor. I was paid, I'm going to do my job. And my job was to do that.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NARRATOR:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.725em; hyphens: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Charles Koch did not respond to questions about the campaign against the BTU tax. In 1994, a top Koch executive said, "Our belief is that the tax, over time, may have destroyed our business."<div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">wow api a whole bunch:</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">food & ww</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/who-supports-fracking" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">
</a></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/who-supports-fracking" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/who-supports-fracking</a></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small;"><div class="u-smallText" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 26px;">11.21.14</div><div class="u-smallText" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 26px;"><div class="authors" style="box-sizing: border-box;">By Alison Grass</div></div>The science is in: climate change is a threat, and fracking worsens climate change. Fracking also brings many other well-documented problems, including water contamination, air pollution and adverse health effects. Clean, safe energy solutions are available, such as wind and solar power, energy efficiency technologies and conservation policies. To harness these solutions, we must remake the U.S. energy system -- but the oil and gas industry stands in the way.The oil and gas industry has captured U.S. energy policy. To see that U.S. energy policy continues to serve the industry’s bottom line, it has erected a huge money machine to push a pro-fracking agenda at all levels of government. Whether it’s lobbying the halls of Congress or spreading misinformation in the media, the following groups are helping the oil and gas industry manipulate public opinion so it can continue drilling and fracking for fossil fuels. Here is our list of some of the main players helping to push fracking on the American public.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 52px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Trade Associations</h2><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">America's Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">ANGA was formed in 2009 by a group of 27 independent natural gas companies to lobby for an industry-friendly climate bill.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">ANGA “… <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://anga.us/about-us#.VAdb4GRdX7E" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">works</a> with industry, government and customer stakeholders to promote increased demand for and continued availability of our nation’s abundant natural gas resource … ”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">ANGA lobbies for natural gas interests and spends millions of dollars on advertising and public relations aimed at convincing people to carry out its agenda.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">ANGA spent <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/07/30/30climatewire-stream-of-new-lobbying-money-helped-climate-61474.html?pagewanted=all" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">$300,000</a> on lobbying in the early stages of the failed climate bill in 2009, to push for natural gas incentives.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In 2012, ANGA gave $50,000 to a group called Longmont Taxpayers for Common Sense, the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/10/24/big-oil-weighs-in-big-in-longmont.html?page=all" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">largest donation</a> to help keep a local fracking ban off of the ballot in Longmont, Colorado.</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In one of its most egregious public relations stunts, which can be seen in its 2012 IRS 990 form, ANGA gave $1 million to help fund “<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://blog.littlesis.org/2012/06/13/fracking-industrys-answer-to-gasland-devised-by-astroturf-lobbying-group-and-political-ad-agency/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Truthland</a>,” a short film devised by the oil and gas industry to respond to the 2010 documentary “Gasland.”</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">American Gas Association (AGA)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">AGA is a natural gas utility trade association that advocates for the use of natural gas and “represents companies delivering natural gas to consumers …”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">AGA’s president and CEO, Dave McCurdy, is a former Democratic congressman from Oklahoma. Among McCurdy’s <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.pipelineandgasjournal.com/dave-mccurdy-brings-strong-credentials-aga" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">priorities</a> at AGA is to expand the use of natural gas for transportation, so as to serve the AGA membership’s interests in increasing demand for natural gas.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">AGA is credited with positioning natural gas as a “<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/01/24/407765/natural-gas-is-a-bridge-to-nowhere-price-for-global-warming-pollution/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">bridge fuel</a>” decades ago. This positioning has allowed natural gas to be viewed as part of the solution to climate change, but climate pollution stemming from natural gas dependence is a major threat.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">American Petroleum Institute (API)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">API is “the only national trade association that represents all aspects of America’s oil and gas industry.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">API uses its financial power to back <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.thenation.com/blog/171529/saudi-led-oil-lobby-group-financed-2012-dark-money-attack-ads" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">several</a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.republicreport.org/2012/coalition-for-american-jobs/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">dark money groups</a>, including the Coalition for American Jobs, a 501(c)(6) group, which was set up by API lobbyists and is also supported by the chemical industry to air political ads for supportive candidates.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Since 2008, API has been led by its president, oil <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=12412" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">lobbyist</a> Jack Gerard. Under Gerard’s leadership, API has invested heavily in public relations campaigns, like its <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.energyandpolicy.org/american_petroleum_institute_s_vote_4_energy_campaign" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Vote4Energy </a>advertisements that inundated televisions during the 2012 presidential election.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">According to the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/01/15/16596/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-win-american-minds" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Center for Public Integrity</a>, in 2012 API spent $85.5 million to four PR and advertising firms including $51.9 million to just one firm—Edelman, which calls itself “the world’s largest public relations firm.” The API is Edelman’s biggest client.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">A bulk of API’s <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jack-gerard-the-force-majeure-behind-big-oil/2012/04/06/gIQA1hjC0S_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">advertising</a> and lobbying is done under names of its front groups: Energy Nation, Energy Citizens, EnergyTomorrow and America’s Energy Forum.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">API’s front groups aggressively employ <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/GP%20API%20letter%20August%202009-1.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">astroturf campaigns</a> to give the appearance of grassroots support by organizing rallies and spreading misinformation to promote its agenda.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">IPAA is a national trade association that represents companies focused on exploration and production of oil and natural gas.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">IPAA is responsible for creating Energy In Depth (EID), an industry-biased media outlet designed to respond to hydraulic fracturing criticism.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In 2011, DeSmogBlog revealed an IPAA <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/HFUnderFire.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">leaked memo</a> from 2009 that stated: “For months, IPAA’s government relations and communications teams have been working around-the-clock on a new industry-wide campaign — known as “Energy In Depth (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.energyindepth.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">energyindepth.org</a>) — to combat new environmental regulations, especially with regard to hydraulic fracturing.”</li></ul></li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The MSC is a trade association working to promote drilling and fracking for shale gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The MSC comprises a large number of companies and law firms with stakes in expanded drilling and fracking for natural gas in the region, and across the country.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">One of the MSC’s associate members, Aqua America, the second largest U.S. investor-owned water company, sells water to shale drillers.</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The MSC’s <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://marcelluscoalition.org/about/executive-committee/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Executive Board</a> is run by industry employees from Range Resources, Williams, XTO Energy, CONSOL Energy, EOG Resources and numerous other companies profiting from fracking.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The group spends big money on public relations initiatives, has funded <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://blog.littlesis.org/2012/06/13/frackademics-timothy-considine-analyst-or-advocate/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">industry-biased</a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140512/NEWS04/405120303" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">fracking studies</a> and has given money to colleges.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Many of Pennsylvania’s elected officials, regulators, lobbying groups and law firms have direct ties to the natural gas industry and the MSC.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">For example, in 2010, the MSC brought on former <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.prwatch.org/news/2010/08/9321/tom-ridge-joins-marcellus-shale-coalitions-natural-gas-gold-rush" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Department of Homeland Security Secretary</a> and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://marcelluscoalition.org/2011/07/update-on-the-msc-gov-ridge-partnership/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Pennsylvania Governor </a>Tom Ridge for a year as a strategic adviser under a $900,000 contract, shared by his two consulting firms.</li></ul></li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 52px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Astroturf Campaigns and Front Groups</h2><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">American Clean Skies Foundation (ACSF)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">While ACSF benignly describes itself as “an independent nonprofit working for cleaner energy in the U.S. transportation and power sectors,” it is, at best, an astroturf group that works to advance the natural gas industry.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">ACSF was co-founded in <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.cleanskies.org/about/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">2007</a> by Aubrey McClendon, the former Chesapeake Energy CEO who was <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/us-eig-chesapeake-mcclendon-idUSBRE8471H020120509" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">stripped of his chairmanship</a> in 2012 after it was revealed that major financial backers of Chesapeake issued personal loans to McClendon in order for him to take personal stakes in the company’s wells.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Although McClendon stepped down from the ACSF board in 2013, its <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.cleanskies.org/about/board-bios/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">leadership</a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=145507916&ticker=TEXC" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">still</a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.phillipsmurrah.com/attorneys/jim-roth" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">has</a> ties to oil and gas industry interests.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">One way that ACSF exerts its influence is through its financial backing of academic studies — funding so-called “<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://public-accountability.org/wp-content/uploads/industry_partner_or_industry_puppet.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">frackademia</a>” — such as the high-profile 2011 MIT study, The Future of Natural Gas, led by Ernest Moniz, now U.S. Secretary of Energy.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In 2011, before the report was released, Moniz was appointed to a profitable position on the Board of Directors of ICF International, a consulting firm with strong ties to the oil and gas industry.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Moniz also served on the NGP Energy Technology Partners advisory board for several years (although it is unclear whether or not he was compensated), in addition to his many other professional <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.propublica.org/article/wealth-of-business-connections-ernest-moniz" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">ties</a> to the energy sector.</li></ul></li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">America's Energy Forum</h3><ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">America’s Energy Forum, launched in 2008 by the American Petroleum Institute (API), is a lobbying group.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In a presentation by API, the target audience of America’s Energy Forum is described as: “Politically influential third parties — 'grasstops' — including ‘political family’ members of local, state, federal lawmakers and federal candidates.”</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">API says that the mission of America’s Energy Forum is to: “Orchestrate new public policy outcomes for the industry by surrounding lawmakers with the most politically persuasive grass-top constituents supporting energy issues.”<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">For <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20140127/ARTICLES/140129695?tc=ar" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">an example</a> of how the group operates, in early 2014 America’s Energy Forum managed to write, and have a North Carolina mayor sign, a letter of support for oil exploration off the state’s coast.</li></ul></li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Big Green Radicals</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">On March 6, 2014, Big Green Radicals, an industry front group, launched an attack on Food & Water Watch, and two other activist groups, with a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.biggreenradicals.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/BGR-WSJ-Ad.jpg" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">full-page ad</a> in The Wall Street Journal, a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRzVnPuZT8Q&feature=youtu.be" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">90-second commercial</a> online and a website calling us a “big green radical.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Big Green Radicals is led by PR flack/lobbyist <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://bermanexposed.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Rick Berman</a>, a man nicknamed “ <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://bermanexposed.org/broadcast-clips" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Dr. Evil</a>.” He has been the force behind many industry front groups pushing the interests of tobacco companies, payday lenders and casinos, and is often hired by companies to attack consumer and public interest groups.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Berman runs an advertising firm, Berman and Company, which shares office space with many of his industry-driven nonprofits, devised to appear like <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/hidden-interests-dr-evils-payday" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">grassroots</a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.architectmagazine.com/architecture/astroturf-organization-turns-to-green-building-leed-exposed_o.aspx" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">advocacy</a> groups or independent research institutions.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Big Green Radicals is a project of Berman’s Environmental Policy Alliance.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Center for Sustainable Shale Development (CSSD) greenwashes the public with the delusion that widespread drilling and fracking can be done safely and sustainably, as long as the industry follows the CSSD’s drafted voluntary guidelines and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://037186e.netsolhost.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/CSSD-Performance-Standards-3-13R.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">performance standards</a>.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">These “standards” are the basis for the CSSD’s <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/https://www.sustainableshale.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Master_News_Release.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">certification scheme</a>, which it <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2014/01/21/what-leed-did-for-buildings-this-could-do-for-shale-gas-production/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">shamelessly</a> likens to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program for recognizing green building design. For $30,000, applicants that meet certain standards are rubberstamped and the company can flaunt that it has met certain “sustainability” criteria.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Launched in March 2013, the CSSD was formed by a group of 11 companies, foundations and nonprofits: Chevron, CONSOL Energy, EQT, Shell, PennFuture, Group Against Smog and Pollution, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Clean Air Task Force, Environmental Defense Fund, The Heinz Endowments and William Penn Foundation.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In reality, the CSSD is a portal for the oil and gas industry to exert its influence and help “<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://public-accountability.org/2014/08/anatomy-of-an-industry-front-group/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">scrub the image</a>” of drilling and fracking.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">CEA poses itself as a grassroots organization, claiming that it works as “<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://consumerenergyalliance.org/about-consumer-energy-alliance/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">the voice of the energy consumer</a>” and that it “provide[s] consumers with sound, unbiased information on U.S. and global energy issues.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">However, HBW Resources — an oil and gas lobbying firm — formed CEA in the late 2000s, and an IRS 990 form shows that CEA is run out of <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2012/261/658/2012-261658339-096be961-9O.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">HBW Resources’ Houston office</a>; many of the listed CEA staff are also employed at HBW Resources.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">CEA has been a staunch advocate of the Keystone XL Pipeline, of drilling offshore from Florida to Maine and of fracking.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In 2011, CEA funded a public relations <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.celdf.org/community-organizing-pennsylvania-organizing-campaigns-peters-township" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">campaign</a> that helped defeat a fracking ban ordinance in Peters Township, Pennsylvania.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">More than once, CEA president David Holt, also a managing partner at HBW Resources, has written articles attacking Food & Water Watch, alleging without support that we are misrepresenting the risks and harms from fracking. Science makes clear the significant risks and harms.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">However, CEA is misleading the public by claiming that it is a grassroots group. Its <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://consumerenergyalliance.org/about-consumer-energy-alliance/members/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">members</a> consist of industry trade associations and oil and gas companies, while it receives funding from oil and gas industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Energy Citizens</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Energy Citizens is one of the American Petroleum Institute’s (API’s) front groups and has a presence in every congressional district in the United States.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Energy Citizen’s mission is to “identify, recruit, educate, engage, and mobilize citizens to voice support, participate in the energy-policy debate, and affect change at all levels of government” in order to fulfill oil and gas industry interests.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">API describes its Energy Citizen membership base as mostly males with “nationalistic tendencies,” who consider themselves “eternal pragmatists,” “very religious” and “right of center,” and who “Love Sports — in particular Motorsports.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">According to a 2012 presentation by API’s Director of External Mobilization, the target audience for Energy Citizens is “Voters without a direct connection to the oil and natural gas industry.”<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">A leaked memo, however, exposed that in 2009, Energy Citizens planned <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/5922:energy-in-depth-counterinsurgency-tactics-and-astroturf-energy-citizens" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">astroturf rallies</a> against climate change legislation that year, rallies that were fully organized from the top down and paid for by API, other industry lobbyists and API member companies, so that employees of those companies would participate.</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/GP%20API%20letter%20August%202009-1.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">memo</a> noted: “API will provide the up-front resources to ensure logistical issues do not become a problem. This includes contracting with a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns, corporations and interest groups. It also includes coordination with the other interests who share our views on the issues, providing a field coordinator in each state, conducting a comprehensive communications and advocacy activation plan for each state, and serving as central manager for all events.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Energy Citizens propagates its agenda by using the web to “educate, activate, and organize,” while also attending Vote4Energy rallies, holding roundtables and participating in hearings.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Energy In Depth (EID)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">EID acts as a PR arm for the oil and gas industry.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">EID uses <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/5922:energy-in-depth-counterinsurgency-tactics-and-astroturf-energy-citizens" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">pseudo-grassroots</a> tactics to build opposition against fracking activists, and it aggressively attacks any group, person or media outlet that displays concerns about or objections to fracking, in order to discredit them.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Among its tactics, in 2011 <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/10/gas-lobby-bribery-public-meeting_n_874903.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">EID bribed citizens</a> into testifying at public hearings in Pennsylvania on the industry’s behalf by offering free Pittsburgh Pirates tickets, paid airfare or bus transportation, and meals, in an effort to fill the space with pro-industry members of the public.</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In response to “Gasland,” IPAA and EID spearheaded the pro-fracking short documentary “<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://blog.littlesis.org/2012/06/13/fracking-industrys-answer-to-gasland-devised-by-astroturf-lobbying-group-and-political-ad-agency/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Truthland</a>.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">EID’s “Contact Us” page on its website <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-created-major-oil-and-gas-companies-according-industry-memo" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">used to</a> describe itself as, “… a project of America’s small, independent oil and natural gas producers…” Conversely, major fracking companies have <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11921/%E2%80%9Cenergy-depth%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-reporters%E2%80%99-guide-its-founding-funding-and-flacks" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">heavily funded EID</a>.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">As an IPAA memo noted: “The ‘Energy In Depth’ project would not be possible without the early financial commitments of: El Paso Corporation, XTO Energy, Occidental Petroleum, BP, Anadarko, Marathon, EnCana, Chevron, Talisman, Shell, API, IPAA, Halliburton, Schlumberger and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.”</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">EID’s influence is extensive. For example, former EID spokesperson John Krohn is now employed with the U.S. Energy Information Administration.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Energy Nation</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Energy Nation, one of the American Petroleum Institute’s front groups, is a fleet of fracking advocates made up of current and former oil and gas industry employees, vendorsand their families.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Although backed by major oil and gas interests, Energy Nation attempts to rally itself like a grassroots organization. As illustrated in this <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/API%20on%20Empowering%20Employee%20Advocates.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">presentation,</a> the group strongly fosters employee mobilization to get current and former employees to be active “brand ambassadors.”</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Energy Tomorrow</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Energy Tomorrow is <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/jack-gerard-the-force-majeure-behind-big-oil/2012/04/06/gIQA1hjC0S_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">central </a>to the American Petroleum Institute’s misinformation projects.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">A key method of disseminating its propaganda is through TV advertisements, in which Energy Tomorrow spokesperson Brooke Alexander — a former soap opera actress — hypes the “benefits” of natural gas jobs.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Environmental Policy Alliance</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Environmental Policy Alliance — “EPA”! — is a project of the Center for Organizational Research & Education, formerly known as the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/BermanCORECCF.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Center for Consumer Freedom</a>, and has the same registered address as Rick Berman’s PR firm Berman and Company.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Environmental Policy Alliance says it is “ … devoted to uncovering the funding and hidden agendas behind environmental activist groups and exploring the intersection between activists and government agencies.” In reality, the group is operating on its own financial interests, not the public interest:<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In July 2014, the Environmental Policy Alliance launched a snarky and misleading advertisement in Colorado to counter fracking activists who have been campaigning to get anti-fracking ballot measures on the November ballot.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wuKMID3Gq4" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">ad spot </a>mocks, insults and ridicules fracking activists, claiming that activists’ opposition to fracking is rooted in asinine assumptions, ignorant of science — even though science makes clear the significant risks and harms.</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In June 2014, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://bermanexposed.org/node/482" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Anastasia Swearingen</a>, who works for Rick Berman and the Environmental Policy Alliance, published two pro-fracking <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/58061863-82/lands-blm-energy-federal.html.csp" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">newspaper</a> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/nevada-being-denied-right-join-energy-boom" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">op-eds</a> attacking the Bureau of Land Management for not yet opening up federal lands to fracking and drilling.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Swearingen’s op-eds are based on findings from a University of Wyoming study authored by Timothy Considine, a notorious figure in the world of frackademia, who has led industry-skewed studies funded by the Marcellus Shale Coalition and American Petroleum Institute.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In March 2014, five days after Swearingen published an op-ed attacking LEED certification in USA Today, the paper added <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/03/09/environment-carbon-climate-change-pollution-column/6027923/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">an editorial update</a> stating that it found out that she was “… employed by public relations firm Berman and Co., not the Environmental Policy Alliance.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The editorial update went on to say: “The Environmental Policy Alliance, a tax-exempt group, has no employees and is housed at the same address as Berman, which controls the recently created group, according to Berman spokeswoman Sarah Longwell.”</li></ul></li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">United Shale Advocates (USA)</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">On March 20, 2014, the Marcellus Shale Coalition launched a new initiative in Pennsylvania, United Shale Advocates, “focused on ensuring that [they] advance common sense, predictable policies that encourage investment and job growth across the Commonwealth.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">This group, with its noticeably patriotic abbreviation (USA) is billed by the MSC as “a movement to tie together those interested in Pennsylvania energy and it’s a platform for them to engage further.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">As previously mentioned, the MSC is a consortium of major oil and gas industry players and their special brand of “grassroots” organizing, which should really be called “gasroots” organizing.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">On May 6, 2014, “USA” hosted a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to oppose any efforts to impose taxes on the oil and gas industry in the state, and in support of fracking jobs and further development of the Marcellus Shale in Harrisburg.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Vote4Energy</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Launched on January 1, 2012, Vote4Energy is another American Petroleum Institute astroturf campaign, which staged fake citizen support with commercials that highlight “real Americans” who are “energy voters.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Activists <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/upcoming-american-petroleum-institute-vote-4-/blog/38291/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">revealed</a>, after responding to the Vote4Energy casting call sent out on behalf of API, that the campaign initiative was an election-related advertising package with CNN, tied to the network’s political coverage for maximum political influence.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://checksandbalancesproject.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/apicommercialcasting.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">casting call</a>, sent on December 1, 2011, stated:<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">“We are writing to you because we need all ages and races to express their views in a Commercial Spot on American Made Energy!”</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The call listed five qualifications that they were seeking, including:<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">“You are willing to go on camera and state your beliefs” and;</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">“You are comfortable portraying YOURSELF! They want REAL PEOPLE not Actors!”</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Yet several people were kicked out if they didn’t agree to read API’s script verbatim.</li></ul><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 52px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Astroturf Propaganda</h2><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">"Truthland"</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Truthland” is a short film conceived by the oil and gas industry as a rebuttal to “Gasland.” Its name, however, is an oxymoron, as the film is rather misleading.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The film, released in 2012, initially had its web domain registered to Chesapeake Energy Corporation.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">It was eventually changed so that it was registered to MFL Holdings, ATTN TRUTHLANDMOVIE.COM, care of Network Solutions, but LittleSis (a project of Public Accountability Initiative) was able to save a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://blog.littlesis.org/2012/06/13/fracking-industrys-answer-to-gasland-devised-by-astroturf-lobbying-group-and-political-ad-agency/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">cached screen shot</a> of its domain when it was registered to Chesapeake.</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">According to the movie’s website, it is a project of Energy In Depth and IPAA, and according to an EID document acquired by LittleSis, Fred Davis, a Republican media strategist, produced “Truthland.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Biased appearances were also made by: Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission member and fracking advocate, Terry Engelder; former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary, John Hanger; and former Pennsylvania DEP Deputy Secretary for Mineral Resources Management, J. Scott Roberts.</li></ul><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">“FrackNation”</h3><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">“FrackNation,” a pro-fracking documentary, was released in 2013 in response to “Gasland 2” — with its public debut at the same time as Matt Damon’s “Promised Land.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">The people behind “FrackNation” claim that it is an independent, grassroots-funded film, free from financial backing from the industry. But that doesn’t mean it is <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/06/03/exposed-fracknation-deploys-tobacco-playbook-response-gasland-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">without its biases</a>.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Once described as “stars of the Republican Party,” the producers/directors of “FrackNation” are climate change-denying couple Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, who have significant ties to powerful right-wing entities.<ul style="box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">McAleer and McElhinney’s first two films received money from <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/05/28/fracknation-part-two-koch-industries-ties-bind" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Donors Trust/Donors Capital</a>, a nonprofit that siphons money into the climate change denial agenda and has financial ties to the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-billionaires-secretly-fund-attacks-on-climate-science-8466312.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">Koch Brothers</a>.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">In a 2012 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, McAleer referred to environmentalism as “outsiders coming in and treating people like children.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">McAleer and McElhinney are reportedly “proud” that film critics compared one of their early films, “Mine Your Own Business,” to “pornography” and “Nazi propaganda.”</li></ul></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">“FrackNation,” endorsed by countless oil and gas groups, also spotlights several industry persons, a former Big Tobacco champion, and climate change deniers, dubbed as “independent experts.”</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">DeSmogBlog has described how “FrackNation” <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160220093132/http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/06/03/exposed-fracknation-deploys-tobacco-playbook-response-gasland-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s;">takes a page from the Big Tobacco playbook</a> and tries to turn clear scientific concerns into a matter of opinion, or into a “he-said, she-said” debate.</li></ul></div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div>=
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