Environment

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Washington, D.C.-based pro-drilling front group, the Institute for 21st Century Energy, has spawned yet another front group of its own to push for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would expand an existing oil pipeline to carry crude oil from the Athabasca Tar Sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the American midwest and on to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Chamber set up its new sub-front group, the Partnership to Fuel America, in Nebraska to address growing opposition to the pipeline in that state. Nebraska's conservative Republican Governor, Dave Heineman, came out against the project, since 254 miles of the proposed pipeline would run through Nebraska and overlie the Ogallala Aquifer -- a crucial source of water for the state. A Minnesota-based lobbying firm called Public Affairs Company set up the Partnership for Fuel America, and a Minneapolis-based Republican consultant named Stacy Thompson runs the astroturf group. Among the businesses the group lists as "partners" are some that give the group a down-to-earth, grassroots feel, like "Phil's Farm Repair," "Rowdy's Steakhouse" and "Pizza Etc." One of the proposed pipeline's major beneficiaries would be Koch Industries, which is responsible for close to 25 percent of the oil from tar sands imported into the U.S. Koch Industries also owns Koch Exploration Canada, L.P., an oil sands-focused exploration company based in Calgary that acquires, develops and trades petroleum properties.

Almost two years ago, former health insurance PR executive Wendell Potter published his tell-all book, Deadly Spin, about the deceptive media campaigns and PR trickery the health insurance industry uses to beat back meaningful health care reform in the U.S. Potter pointed out the striking similarities between the insurers' tactics and those the tobacco industry applied for decades to delay regulation and confuse people about the health hazards of smoking and secondhand smoke. These manipulative PR tactics held off meaningful tobacco regulation for over 40 years, and also proved highly successful for the insurance industry, which used the same strategies to defeat true health care reform. Now Al Gore is pointing out that the energy, steel and utility industries are applying those same, tricky and time-worn PR strategies to confuse people about global warming and delay efforts to address it.