By their fruits ye shall know them...

August 24, 2009

Ex-Enron Speechwriter Starts New Anti-Climate Action Group

by Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 08.24.09

BUSINESS & POLITICS

Add another name onto the growing list of dubious groups rising to

combat the effort for clean energy reform: the American Energy

Alliance. It's touring the country with the tired 'nonpartisan'

message that passing the climate bill would cripple the economy. But

this one's got an exceptionally sleazy pedigree--it was founded by a

think tank run by Bradley, who's the ex-speechwriter for Enron.

What's especially shady about the American Energy Alliance is its

nondisclosure of its origins--at least the oil industry mainstay

American Petroleum Institute was forthright about its sponsoring the

'Energy Citizen' rallies (or company picnics, depending on where

you're standing ...). First, the group is hush hush about its being

funded by the think tank Institute for Energy Research, which is

helmed by Bradley. The climate change-denying think tank has received

hundreds of thousands of dollars from Exxon alone, and if that wasn't

bad enough, Bradley was the speechwriter for Enron CEO Lay--

and has to this day expressed no qualms with shilling for the

despicable man who shattered the lives of thousands.

Second, I placed 'nonpartisan' in quotes up in the first paragraph

because though the American Energy Alliance claims to have no

allegiance to any political party, literally every single one of its

employees are ex House Republican staffers, as Climate Progress points

out.

And now this group is driving around the country in a tour bus, called

the " American Energy Express, " on a campaign to halt progress on

energy reform. What they're doing is completely legal. But a group

that's funded by a climate change-denying think tank (which is in turn

funded by Exxon) and staffed entirely by GOP operatives, can hardly be

said to have 'no political allegiance.' And their message, which is in

favor of protecting oil and coal interests, must be taken with a grain

of salt (at the very least).

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