Old Consultant Welcomes New Sucker

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The Philadelphia Inquirer is the latest news outlet to fail to disclose the fact that Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant, is on the nuclear industry payroll. A recent 690-word opinion column by Moore, titled "Old foes welcome clean fuel," promotes nuclear power as a "solution" to global warming. At the foot of the column, the biographical note states that Moore "co-chairs the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy), which promotes the economic and environmental benefits of nuclear power as part of a green energy economy." What it doesn't state is that CASEnergy is a front group created by Hill & Knowlton for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the peak lobby group for the U.S. nuclear industry. Just over three years ago, shortly after Moore's "coalition" was launched, Hill and Knowlton's Frank Mankiewicz insisted in a letter to the Columbia Journalism Review that Moore “has been completely transparent about funding sources and relationships with the Nuclear Energy Institute and the public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton."