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So-Called 'Grassroots' Opposition to Clean Energy Reform Bankrolled By Foreign Oil, Petro-Government

Clean energy legislation passed by the House, now pending in the Senate, faces fierce opposition from the proprietors of fossil fuel companies, and much has been reported on how domestic oil and coal companies have flooded the debate with money, lobbying, and misinformation. These opponents of clean energy reform claim to be “standing up” for American jobs and security. However, according to an investigation by ThinkProgress, many of the lobbyists and right-wing operatives engineering the attacks on clean energy reform either work directly for petro-governments, or work for companies in the business of importing foreign oil:

– Nigeria’s Bayelsa State, the region of the country producing much of its crude oil, is registered with the Carmen Group as its representative in DC. The Carmen Group is run largely by lobbyist David Keene, who also manages the American Conservative Union. Keene has lobbied against clean energy reform and used his conservative organization to generate “grassroots” opposition to legislative efforts to move away from a fossil fuel based economy. Although the extent to which the Carmen Group “provide[s] general representation before the United States Congress” is unclear — as Justice Department disclosures indicate — the Nigerian state has lavished Carmen group lobbyists with $903,450 in payments since 2006. According to a report produced Monday by the State Department, Nigeria is at risk of becoming a haven for terror and extremism. In the past, Keene, the coordinator of the CPAC convention, has been caught auctioning off conservative grassroots support to his corporate lobbying clients for as much as $2 million dollars.

– The lobbyist-run front group Americans for Prosperity is perhaps the most active anti-clean energy group in the country. In addition to working furiously to orchestrate anti-clean energy themed tea parties, Americans for Prosperity is running anti-clean energy legislation ads, anti-climate change science ads, and is even barnstorming around the country with anti-clean energy “hot air” rallies. The organization was founded and is bankrolled by David Koch of Koch Industries, a major refiner of oil. Through Koch Industry subsidiaries — Koch Supply & Trading and Flint Hills Resources — Koch imports crude oil from a variety of foreign sources, including from Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

– Currently, FreedomWorks is focusing their energy activism on supporting the status quo reliance on fossil fuels. Throughout 2009, as FreedomWorks leader Dick Armey organized tea party opposition to clean energy reform, he simultaneously worked for the lobbying firm DLA Piper on the account of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. According to disclosure forms filed with the Justice Department, the UAE paid Armey’s lobbying firm at the time to help maintain the “development of UAE energy resources, which represent about 10 percent of global oil reserves.”

– Oil companies have attempted to demonstrate popular support for fossil-fuel dependence by hosting “Energy Citizen” rallies around the country, where employees of oil companies are bused in for large events. The “Energy Citizen” website claims that converting a clean energy economy would mean “less energy independence.” Ironically, the main sponsor of the Energy Citizen effort is the American Petroleum Institute, which is a trade association for companies like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Sunoco. These companies, in turn, are highly dependent on foreign oil imports — from countries including Algeria, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Venezuela. For perspective, Exxon Mobil imports 27%, Valero 29%, and Chevron 36% of its oil from Persian Gulf countries alone

More at the link above:Clean energy legislation passed by the House, now pending in the Senate, faces fierce... more

WeAreChangeKy
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See No Evil, Obama’s Love Affair with America’s Right Wing : Veterans Today

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

America elected Barak Obama for one reason only. We had spent years with a government found to have become utterly corrupt, a pack of criminal gangsters no better than Pinochet in Chile or Pol Pot in Cambodia. We were going to go in, put Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice, Ashcroft, Gonzales along with 2 dozen top military leaders and more senior members of Congress in prison. When we were done, we would go thru the oil companies, banks, defense giants, insurance companies and more, doing the same. We hoped that when we were finally done, whoever was left would know that they were part of a government by and for the people, not employees of a criminal conpiracy.

President Obama, his backers, the Democratic Party and the boys in Congress across the aisle, however, didn’t want anything to change, it was simply their chance to cash in. We are now left with a political debate in America devoid of any public interest at all, only thieves fighting over the remains of a corpse.

The simplest thing to stay would be to demand an investigation over the illegal attack on Iraq and the national disaster to follow. We have 5000 dead Americans, over a million dead in Iraq and hundreds of billions of dollars stolen in cost overruns, missing oil, missing weapons and a cast of criminals who have convicted themselves. This one is a ‘no brainer.’ Mr. Obama, you won’t even look at this? What are you thinking?

The safe bet for the Bush boys is 9/11. They grew up looking at how a cabal in government had killed President Kennedy and managed to push the whole thing on a half wit, Lee Harvey Oswald. With a cheesy investigation run by the conpirators themselves, led by Allen Dulles, shadowy former Hitler crony, witnesses were silenced, evidence destroyed and an implausible cover story was sold to the American people.

All that was needed was a heavily infiltrated terror cell helped along by friendly Israeli airport security, Rumsfeld “standing down” our Air Forces and several black ops attacks like the Pentagon bombing/missile attack coordinated into the time frame and the stage would be set for a second term, national bankruptcy and the overthrow of our democratic government. Even when it all fell apart, films, evidence, witnesses, testimony all led the planning and execution of 9/11 to the Bush Whitehouse, and millions around the world clammored, “COVERUP!!” the perpetrators will still safe.

Too much money had been made, too many were involved and the whole rotten mess, Democrats and Republicans, would all have to rot in prison together if it came to the surface.

What was the lesson of 9/11? Today it seems to be drugs. When we privatized, not only the CIA but rendition flights that never stop at customs and death squads that can name their own victims, we were really building a national drug Mafia to take the place of the CIA and a dozen more agencies.

How can it be gotten away with? As with Iraq, billions of dollars worth of heroin/opium is flowing out of Afghanistan, enough to pay off governments in the region, military leaders, friendly warlords, unfriendly Taliban and hundreds of key players in Washington and elsewhere. Not only can we fly tons of drugs around the world, but we can murder anyone who tries to stop us, law enforcement or competitors as “terrorists.”

Will we ever look into the hundreds of billions of dollars bilked out of the American people, theft going on still, every minute, from rigged gasoline prices? Again, the same answer, a flood of money, enough to buy Congress, enough to own the Whitehouse, enough to buy any newspaper, any network.

We could name a dozen scandals, two dozen. Everything our government touches is corrupt. Nothing is done without payoffs somewhere or it would “die in committee.” We have no government except to steal. More at link above:By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor America elected Barak Obama for one... more

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TAGS

tagged w/ Gasoline

So-Called 'Grassroots' Opposition to Clean Energy Reform Bankrolled By Foreign Oil, Petro-Government

See No Evil, Obama’s Love Affair with America’s Right Wing : Veterans Today

Zero Emissions = Zero Tailpipe

US pays $400 per gallon for gas in Afghanistan

Cost to get one gallon of gas to combat vehicles in Afganistan: $400

Public Citizen-- What a gas

So you don't want to pay taxes?

A Cocktail of Diesel and Gasoline Runs 20 Percent More Efficiently Than Either One Alone

Life goes on

CFTC: Speculators caused 2008 oil price crisis

Hemp the Arthur’s Sword

Kid drinks gasoline to be more like Transformers, gets brain damage instead.

Transformers fan drinks gasoline for "energy", gets brain damage instead

Morgan Stanley to pay $2.3M to Fla. for gas-price gouging during hurricane

Could Chicken Feathers hold the Key to Effective Hydrogen Storage?

Japan's Water/Hydrogen Powered Car

10 Things Gas Stations Won't Tell You

Green Porno

It's Official, 2010 Prius to Only Get 50 M.P.G.

"Car Skins" claim 25% improvement in fuel efficiency

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