Energy

Newsweek Is Neck Deep in Oil & Conflicts

by Lisa Graves — November 6, 2009 - 1:14am
  • Topics: Advertising, Journalism, Corporations, Energy, Environment

    • TPM Muckraker has exposed the fact that Newsweek is teaming up with the American Petroleum Institute (API) to host a "briefing" for Members of Congress on climate and energy policy. The briefing is timed to coincide with, surprise, the Senate getting ready to take up climate and energy policy in advance of next month's COP15 world conference on global warming policy.

    API's Lobbying Is Up and Against Slowing Global Warming

    According to TPM, API has already spent $3.9 million directly lobbying in the first part of this year, primarily influence "cap-and-trade" legislation regulating the use of "carbon credits" or pollution emission credits, as well as on the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. (During the Bush administration, API spent only about $3 to $4 million a year on directly lobbying Congress.) But, according to Guidestar, API (a registered non-profit) has revenues of around $200 million a year, primarily from oil companies, as of the last public report in 2007. And, it spent over $70 million on advertising that year alone.

    Flooding Chile's Media with Pro-Dam Ads

    by Bob Burton — October 21, 2009 - 5:01am

    With opposition mounting to the proposed US$3.2 billion HidroAysen hydropower scheme in southern Chile’s Patagonia, the project proponents have launched a "multi-million dollar public relations campaign to sell their project to Chile." The HidroAysen project, which involves five major dams, is being proposed by a consortium of the Chilean utility ColbUn and the and Italian-owned electricity utility Endesa.

    Main Source: 
    The Patagonia Times, 19 October 2009

    Attack of the Living Front Groups: PR Watch Offers Help to Unmask Corporate Tricksters

    by Anne Landman — August 28, 2009 - 2:14pm
  • Topics: Astroturf, Front Groups, Corporations, Energy, Health

    • Fake "grassroots" groups have started springing up like toadstools after a rain, and this time they're coming at us from every angle: they're on TV, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube: "Americans for Prosperity," "FACES of Coal, "The "Coalition to Protect Patients' Rights," "Americans Against Food Taxes," the "60 Plus Association," "Citizens for Better Medicare," "Patients First" ... It's making our heads spin! Issues affecting some of the country's biggest industries, like health insurance reform, a proposal to tax sodas and sugary drinks, and the FDA's possible reconsideration of the plastic additive Bisphenol A, have boosted corporate astroturfing up to a dizzying pace. With all these corporate fronts coming out of the woodwork, how can citizens tell true grassroots organizations from corporate fronts operated by highly-paid PR and lobbying firms? Here are some tips to help readers spot this kind of big-business hanky-panky.

    Any Way the Wind Blows at Weber Shandwick

    by Diane Farsetta — June 16, 2009 - 4:15pm

    Weber Shandwick UK counts among its clients Viking Energy, a company "seeking to build a 153-turbine wind farm in the Shetlands." But the PR firm's chair of public affairs, Jonathan McLeod, recently launched an anti-wind power campaign, using his Weber Shandwick email address.

    Main Source: 
    New Energy Focus (UK), June 16, 2009

    The Cato Institute's Love-In with Gas-Guzzlers

    by Bob Burton — May 25, 2009 - 2:13am

    When Barack Obama announced new fuel efficiency standards for passenger vehicles, the Cato Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank, reacted angrily.

    Main Source: 
    USA Today, May 20, 2009

    Climate Lobbying Heats Up

    by Diane Farsetta — May 20, 2009 - 12:18pm

    There's a "crazy quilt of about 140 businesses and organizations that jumped into the climate change debate on Capitol Hill in the first quarter of this year," reports Marianne Lavelle.

    Main Source: 
    Center for Public Integrity, May 19, 2009

    Industry Says Green Is Bad for the Environment

    by Diane Farsetta — April 28, 2009 - 10:02am

    We must destroy the environment in order to save it, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's new campaign against government oversight and what it calls "green tape." "We cannot mandate excessive reductions in greenhouse gases, fuel our future and apply green technologies if we don't address the green tape, excessive permitting requirements, and activist opposition," complained Chamber vice-president for environment, technology and regulator affairs William Kovacs.

    Main Source: 
    Platts Inside Energy, April 16, 2009

    Republicans in Demand

    by Bob Burton — April 15, 2009 - 6:37am

    Former White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush Dana Perino has been appointed as Chief Issues Counselor in the U.S. for the PR firm Burson-Marsteller.

    Main Source: 
    Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2009

    CoalSwarm a Nerve Center for the Green Energy Movement

    by John Stauber — April 5, 2009 - 11:57am

    The San Francisco Chronicle's website profiled "Ted Nace, director of the CoalSwarm website and an important part of the anti-coal movement that has been in the news in recent weeks." CoalSwarm is a "nerve center," a partnership with the Center for Media and Democracy within the

    Main Source: 
    San Francisco Chronicle blog "The Thin Green Line," March 13, 2009
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