The coal industry and their associated front groups like to claim that coal provides more than half of our electricity. This was once true, but has not been the case for several years. As we’ve reported throughout the year, the importance of coal in our national electricity generation is declining at a pretty remarkable rate. EIA just released their numbers for May 2009, and once again coal is down. The year to date numbers are staggering. From January-May 2009, coal produced just 45.4% of our electricity, and the monthly numbers are getting lower and lower. In the most recent recorded month (May) coal was down to 42.6% of electricity generation.

Big Coal wants us to believe that without burning more and more coal, our economy will shrink and we might even freeze in the dark. But a close look at our energy picture tells a very different story: yes, we still burn a lot of coal, but we can burn less of it all the time while cleaner energy sources that provide even more jobs take its place.

Not only CAN we transition to a clean energy future, but it’s already starting to happen. The reason coal is on the decline – even before carbon regulations – is that it simply can no longer compete with cleaner energy sources like wind power and natural gas. For an encouraging contrast, let’s take a look at the increasing power of wind:

We noted recently that Nancy Sutley, President Obama’s Chair for the Council on Environmental Quality, recognized that there are significant impacts from mountaintop removal (you’ve got to start somewhere right?). Sutley also said that stricter oversight of mountaintop removal may or may not result in fewer mountaintop removal projects. Well, EPA chief Lisa Jackson, is now dropping hints that EPA may be stepping up to use their veto power to protect America’s waterways.

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Question: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues more permits for wetlands destruction in Florida than any other state. The EPA has the power under the Clean Water Act to veto those permits, but hasn’t blocked a single permit in Florida since 1988. It has used its veto power nationwide only 12 times since 1972. Now that you’re in charge, will the EPA become more aggressive about using its veto power to protect wetlands — not just in Florida but in places like West Virginia, where the Corps is allowing coal companies to slice the tops off mountains?

Lisa Jackson: That whole process had become a bit toothless. I asked my staff what they did, and they said, “We made our concerns known to the Corps and we didn’t hear back.”

(The corps and the public should know that, instead of just expressing objections, the EPA will once again use its veto power.) We’re likely going to get to the point where we don’t agree and we have to veto. The Corps of Engineers understands when the EPA has concerns, it’s going to raise them. We’re going to do our jobs.

I’ll believe it when I see it, but that is encouraging news. The EPA has initiated their veto authority under section 404(c) provisions of the Clean Water Act very rarely, historically speaking. Recently, they have used veto authority in Appalachia on the Big Branch mine in KY.

Decision opens the door for more destruction in Appalachia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 11, 2009

Contacts:
Janet Keating, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, 304.360.4201
Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512-289-8618
Joe Lovett, Appalachian Center for the Economy & the Environment, 304-645-9006

Charleston, West Virginia – Today the public learned that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Clean Water Act permit last week for Consol Energy’s Peg Fork mountaintop removal coal mine in Mingo County, West Virginia. This controversial decision marks the first time during the Obama administration that the Army Corps approved a mine permit to which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had previously objected, opening the door for many new mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia. The decision to allow this operation to proceed also demonstrates the Department of Interior’s lack of will to enforce the clear mandates of a critical Surface Mining Act regulation.

“We are disappointed that the administration has approved a new mountaintop removal mine without making any commitment to adopt new regulations or policies that would end this destructive practice,” said Ed Hopkins, Director of Sierra Club’s Environmental Quality Program. “While we appreciate that the Obama administration is taking a harder look at mountaintop removal coal mining, unless that results in decisions that end the irreversible destruction of streams, the harder look isn’t going to do the job.”

“We are not willing to sacrifice our homes to the potential of flooding from a mountaintop removal coal mine,” said Mingo County resident Wilma Steele. “The Army Corps should protect our homes from being washed away.”

The permit would violate the Surface Mining Act as well as the Clean Water Act. This mining operation would be impermissible under the Surface Mining Act’s buffer zone rule, which protects intermittent and perennial streams. The Department of Interior, therefore, has the duty to use the buffer zone rule to prevent giant stream destruction projects like those at the Peg Fork mine from going forward.

“The Department of Interior’s continuing failure to force the mining industry to comply with the buffer zone rule is a reminder that it is business as usual at Interior,” said Joe Lovett, of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. Lovett called for Secretary Ken Salazar to “reverse the Bush Administration’s refusal to enforce the Surface Mining Act and to protect our irreplaceable streams.”

Earlier this year, the EPA conducted a review of 48 applications then pending before the Army Corps for Clean Water Act permits to fill streams. At the end of its review, the EPA identified the Peg Fork mine and five other mines as projects of high concern, and instructed the Army Corps to not issue those permits.

Following the EPA’s review, the Army Corps revised Consol Energy’s permit for this mountaintop removal mine and issued the permit on Friday, August 7. But the revised permit still fails to satisfy the requirements for permits issued under the Clean Water Act. The original permit application proposed mining over 800 acres of mountainous terrain and dumping mining waste into eight valley fills and over 3 miles of streams. The revised permit that received EPA approval still allows two valley fills immediately, with the potential for up to six additional valley fills if EPA is satisfied with the results of downstream water quality monitoring from the initial fills. Even with these alterations, the Peg Fork mine would still have unacceptable adverse impacts on local waterways and therefore violates the Clean Water Act.

The Peg Fork permit decision comes just as the EPA begins the process of reviewing more than 80 applications for Clean Water Act permits for mountaintop removal mining under the coordinated review process announced by the Obama administration in June. Mining companies have already buried close to 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams beneath piles of toxic waste and debris. Entire communities have been permanently displaced by mines the size of Manhattan.

“The Obama administration needs to commit to ending the devastation caused to our communities by mountaintop removal. The time to make that commitment is now,” said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch. “We can not live through another generation of permits that will bury hundreds more miles of streams and blast apart our mountains.”

“Science and the law are at odds with this permit decision,” said Janet Keating of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “In my opinion, the Corps’ decision to issue this and other permits boils down to political pressure from coal-friendly legislators.”

“A big part of the problem is that the Obama administration is still operating under the failed and broken regulations adopted during the Bush administration,” said Joan Mulhern of the environmental law firm Earthjustice. “The White House and the agencies can and should immediately initiate the process for changing those regulations and restoring the environmental protections that existed prior to 2001.”

“This week, newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy begins to oversee the Army Corps’ permitting divisions, and she has the opportunity to take bold action on mountaintop removal coal mining,” said Cindy Rank of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “The Corps has shown an inexplicable eagerness to permit new mountaintop removal mining, but we hope that Assistant Secretary Darcy’s leadership will mean more protections for the communities, streams and mountains of Appalachia.”

###

Hope.

Having had their astroturfing forgery exposed, this week coal industry front group ACCCE is taking an uber-REAL super-grassrootsy approach to showing us their grassrootability, via Twitter. And this time, rather than making stuff up about random minority groups, womens’ organizations, or seniors, they’re saying that they are promoting coal for…the firefighters? Wait a second, I meant the…tanners?

Their strategy, it seems, is to basically going to any farmers market or county fair and trying to get pictures of “real” people holding up their silly shirts.

For a coal industry group with a long history of fraud, from posing as an environmental organization not affiliated with industry, to knowingly influencing Congressional votes with forged letters, and claiming to be promoting “clean energy” ACCCE has a LOT of tweeting to do before it ever gets its credibility back.

Its just impossible to sell such a stupid idea that continuing to blow up mountains and dump the waste in the valleys is anything but dirty, destructive, and economically unsustainable. CO2 regulation and investment in efficiency will not only be beneficial to coalfield communities, but it may lead to lower electricity prices. Even China is now backing away from CCS technology because it is too expensive.

But the fraud marches on…

…

…

TPM has much more on ACCCE’s long history of fraud and forgery over at the TPMMuckraker.

(Please forgive any misspellings or grammatical errors from this post. Its just SO dern hard to spell without any flat land and my keyboard getting all tilty all the time. – jdub)

Rachel Maddow had another hard-hitting piece on the ACCCE “Unnatural Mail Enhancement” forgery case last night, along with a very special guest, Congressman Frank J. Pallone (NJ-06).

And Maddow was quick to let ACCCE spokesman Joe Lucas have it, for his ridiculous comments to “The Guardian” yesterday, claiming that the people of eastern Kentucky just need a liiiiiiiitle more flatland if they really want to prosper:

Also, [the coal lobbyists are] doing media interviews, including what I honestly believe is the most jaw dropping argument I have seen anyone make about an American political issue all year with a straight face. His name is Joe Lucas, he is a spokesman for the coal industry group that we’re talking about and he told the Guardian newspaper that “I can take you to places in Eastern KY where community services were hampered because of a lack of flat space, to build factories, to build hospitals, even to build schools. In many places, mountaintop-mining if done responsibly allows for land to be developed for community space.

Lets say for just one minute that Joe Lucas really does have a deep burning passion for flattened land. Well, he is in LUCK! Mountaintop removal mining has destroyed nearly 1.3 million acres of some of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and ecologically valuable land this country has to offer. However, according to the EPA’s 2003 draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), right there, clear as day in appendix G, chapter “Land Use Assesment,” page 43, it says:

it is unlikely that any more than 2 to 3% of the future post-mining land uses will be developed land uses such as housing, commercial, industrial, or public facility development.

Math isn’t my strong suit, but since less than 3% of MTR land is developed, I’d say that leaves about 1 million acres of land (an area about the size of Delaware) that has already been flattened, where Mr. Lucas and his cronies at ACCCE are welcome to build whatever kind of private airport or golf course they like for their own personal use.

Now we can go into how many buildings have had structural failures after being built on mountaintop removal mined land, or the penitentiary built on an MTR site bear Big Sandy which has become the most expensive federal prison ever built because it continually sinks into the unsettled earth. Or we could talk about economic success in other mountainous parts of the country. As Senator Lamar Alexander points out, millions of people come to Tennessee every year to see the natural beauty of Tennessee, which is beautiful (naturally). The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has over 9 million visitors annually and is the most visited national park in the country. Western North Carolina has several flourishing colleges, towns, and industries that will leave our mountains and our economy in tact for many many generations to come. You couldn’t say the same thing about ACCCE or Joe Lucas (IF that is their real name.)

Maddow quipped:

You know it is true, cutting of the tops of mountains does create more flat space, in that horribly hilly part of the world! Maybe its those darn hills that explain why the Appalachian marble shooting team has never won a tournament! They’re also really bad at billiards, everything is really tilty. Don’t West Virginians deserve more flatness?!

Cue Ride of the Valkyries and enter Appalachia’s champion, Congressman Frank Pallone, lead sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310).

Congressman Pallone: Mountaintop mining is a disaster, and it creates pollution, and it has a negative impact on the commuities on peoples health, and I think it’s a disaster for the environment.

Rachel Maddow: Describe what mountaintop removal is. Is it really the full-scale shearing ff of the tops of hills.

Congressman Frank Pallone: Basically, they blast the top of the hill if you will. And then they take the waste and dump it into the rivers or streams nearby, and they pollute those streams.

Rachel Maddow. So you bring the valleys up and the peaks down.

Congressman Frank Pallone: And the water is polluted and people drink it, or use it for other purposes and it affects them in a negative way.

Watch the whole exchange below.

Recieved via email…

WASHINGTON (August 5, 2009) – In a continuation of a Congressional investigation into fraudulent letters sent to several members of Congress, Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter today to the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity seeking answers on their involvement in the incidents.

The letter specifically zeroes in on questions surrounding the lapse in notification of the affected Congressional offices by ACCCE or Bonner & Associates, the group subcontracted by ACCCE to conduct so-called “grasstops” lobbying. Bonner’s group informed ACCCE of the letters a full two days before the vote on the Waxman-Markey clean energy legislation, which ACCCE was attempting to influence, yet none of the Congressional offices were notified about the spurious letters prior to the vote. Additionally, press reports indicate that ACCCE may not have told the other affected Congressional offices that they too had received fraudulent letters until Monday, August 3, 2009.

Because of these delays in notification, Chairman Markey writes in the letter, “The deliberate inaction prior to the House vote and the extended silence after the vote — some 40 days after ACCCE knew what had happened — raises serious concerns.”

The letter asks about the relationship between ACCCE and the Hawthorn Group, the firm hired by ACCCE to conduct “community outreach,” and then subsequently subcontracted Bonner & Associates.

The letter also drills down on the tactics of so-called “astroturfing,” when lobbying efforts are made to appear like a real, grassroots movement. Chairman Markey asks in the letter whether the fraudulent letters were used “in any broadcast ads, direct mail, ‘push polls,’ online ads, blog posts, email outreach, viral marketing campaigns, ‘street teams,’ or any other new media?”

…

August 5, 2009
Sent via facsimile and U.S. Mail
Mr. Stephen L. Miller
President and CEO
American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
333 John Carlyle Street
Suite 530
Alexandria, VA 22314

Dear Mr. Miller:

Recent news reports and other publicly available information indicate that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (“ACCCE”) was the entity that hired Bonner & Associates to engage in “grasstops” efforts that resulted in fraudulent letters being sent to a number of Members of Congress prior to House consideration of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. I am aware that ACCCE has issued a “Background Document” that seeks to address the matter, but frankly it raises as many questions as it answers. Most glaringly, ACCCE apparently learned of the twelve fraudulent letters on June 24, 2009 (two days before the House vote on the Waxman-Markey bill), but did not take any action to make the affected Congressional offices or the public aware of the situation until some time after ACCCE had known of Bonner & Associates’ actions. Press reports indicate that ACCCE may not have told the other affected offices that they too had received fraudulent letters until Monday, August 3, 2009.

The deliberate inaction prior to the House vote and the extended silence after the vote — some 40 days after ACCCE knew what had happened — raises serious concerns.

In order to enable us to understand the facts and circumstances relating to this matter, I ask you to respond to the following questions:

1. Describe the relationship between ACCCE and Hawthorn Group. How long has ACCCE or its predecessor organizations used the services of the Hawthorn Group? What services do they provide? How much does ACCCE pay Hawthorn Group on a monthly basis? Please provide a copy of all contracts between ACCCE and Hawthorn Group. To the best of your knowledge, is Hawthorn registered under the Lobbying Disclosure Act?

2. The ACCCE background document that you have circulated on Capitol Hill states that ACCCE was aware that the Hawthorn Group had engaged Bonner & Associates to conduct “community outreach.” Where (by Congressional District) was Bonner & Associates hired to conduct this activity? Please provide a copy of all contracts between the Hawthorn Group and Bonner & Associates to perform work for or on behalf of ACCCE. Did the Hawthorn Group engage other “grasstops” or “grassroots” agents to conduct public or community-based outreach? If yes, please identify the other entities that were engaged and the areas (by Congressional District) in which they were hired to conduct “community outreach.”

3. The ACCCE background document also states that “a total of twelve falsified letters were sent by that firm [Bonner & Associates] to the offices of Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, Congressman Christopher Carney and Congressman Tom Perriello.”

a) Please provide a copy of each fraudulent letter sent to these and any other Congressional offices.

b) Explain in detail for each fraudulent letter i) the organization that purported to send the letter, ii) how the organization’s letterhead or logo was obtained and by whom, iii) whether the name as the signatory on the letter was invented or whether that person actually works for such organization, and iv) who forged the signature on the letter.

4. The ACCCE document states that Bonner & Associates’ internal process first identified the twelve fraudulent letters to Members of Congress. How many letters (fraudulent and otherwise) were sent altogether through the efforts of Bonner & Associates or Hawthorn Group on each day in the period between May 1 and June 26, 2009, breaking it down on a daily basis?

5. The letters to Rep. Perriello were from prominent civil rights groups. Did ACCCE ask the Hawthorn Group and/or Bonner & Associates to generate letters concerning the Waxman-Markey bill from civil rights groups? From veterans, religious or business groups? Are the other fraudulent letters to Members of Congress also from similar groups?

6. Were any of the twelve fraudulent letters or the general fact of any of their existence (such as “civil rights groups express concern about legislation”) shared with a) the members of ACCCE, b) the Hawthorn Group, or c) other “grasstops” or “grassroots” advocacy coalition members? Were these letters or the general fact of their existence discussed during any conference calls or on email distribution lists so that these fraudulent letters could have been used to leverage in a misleading way to enlist support from other civil rights or other organizations? Did ACCCE or its member companies or lobbyists make reference to any of the twelve fraudulent letters in meetings with any Member of Congress or their staff? Were these letters or the general fact of their existence provided to other firms or coalition members as part of a coordinated effort?

7. The ACCCE background document plainly states that your organization knew about the twelve fraudulent letters on June 24, 2009, two days before the House vote on Waxman-Markey, but chose to remain silent. When was the office of Reps. Perriello, Dahlkemper and Carney and any other Member who received fraudulent letters first notified that they had been sent fraudulent letters on the Waxman-Markey bill? Who made the contact?

8. The ACCCE background document indicates that ACCCE had decided to leave to others to notify the affected organizations and the Congressional offices of the fraudulent letters. Did ACCCE inform any person when these Members and organizations should be notified? Or when they should not be notified? Did ACCCE indicate that this information should be communicated in a prompt manner, in light of the upcoming vote? Or did ACCCE leave it to others to decide when was the best time to notify the affected Members and these organizations of the fraudulent letters? Did ACCCE make any inquiry whether the targeted Members had been notified of the fraudulent letters prior to the House vote on final passage on the Waxman-Markey bill, which came well after the working day was over on June 26, 2009?

9. Between the time on June 24, when ACCCE first learned of the fraudulent letters, to the time of final passage by the House of the Waxman-Markey bill on June 26, how many calls did ACCCE, acting through itself or the Hawthorn Group or Bonner & Associates or other contractors, arrange or cause or prompt to be made to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives? Did the script for any of these phone bank efforts make reference, either in specific or general terms, to the existence of these fraudulent letters? For the purposes of answering this question, identify any such script if it included any reference to civil rights groups or other group designations that would describe any of the twelve organizations identified on the fraudulent letters. Please supply a copy of any such script.

10. It is evident that ACCCE uses many mechanisms to communicate its views to the public and policymakers. Between June 24 and August 3, 2009, was the fact that these (fraudulent) letters had been sent to Congress used in any broadcast ads, direct mail, “push polls,” online ads, blog posts, email outreach, viral marketing campaigns, “street teams,” or any other new media? If yes, please identify the time and place of each instance and provide a copy or sample of the relevant material.

Given the seriousness of this matter, I hope this matter has your prompt and full attention. Please respond to these questions by August 13, 2009. If you have any questions, please contact Gerard J. Waldron or Michael Goo with the Select Committee staff.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Markey
Chair

cc: Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., Ranking Member
Rep. Christopher Carney
Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper
Rep. Thomas S. P. Perriello

Congressman Tom Perriello (VA-05) was just on Rachel Maddow talking about Bonner/ACCCE’s fraudulent attempts to get him to vote against climate legislation. The fossil fuel industry has completely destroyed their fragile credibility, and things are heating up for ACCCE and their corporate lobbying partners with increasing calls for action from the DOJ.

Update: Lots more coming out on this story from Pete Aldman at NRDC, Adam Siegel at GetEnergySmartNow, Kate Sheppard at Grist, and Sierra Club head Carl Pope weighs in at Huffington Post.

Update II: Surprise! Bonner and Associates is hiring more temp workers.

(Great story, originally posted by our friend Jeff Biggers at Huffington Post. Thanks Jeff! – jdub)

As the brilliant lights of the White House shine across Pennsylvania Avenue Monday evening, generated by a coal-fired plant that uses coal stripmined from devastating mountaintop removal operations in Appalachia, religious leaders and organizations representing over 45 million Americans from across the country will hold a special candlelight prayer vigil at 7pm in Lafayette Park.

“The purpose of the rally is to remember the nearly 500 mountains already destroyed by mountaintop removal mining,” according to Jordan Blevins, Assistant Director of the National Council of Church’s Eco-Justice Office, and the sponsor of the event, “and to have people of faith call upon the federal government to end this destructive practice.”

This little coal-fired light of mine: Will President Barack Obama be listening to these prayers to end a mining practice that detonates millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives every day in the Appalachian coalfields in order to scoop up only 5-7 percent of our national coal production?

The National Council of Churches is the ecumenical voice of America’s Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches, and represents over 45 million Americans in 100,000 congregations across the country. For more information on today’s event, visit their Eco-Justice site.

August 3rd should be a national day of atonement for our sins against the American mountains and mountaineers.

Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the signing of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977, which President Jimmy Carter called “a disappointing effort” and a “watered down” bill, and unleashed one of the most egregious environmental violations in our nation’s history. Carter’s main concern with SMCRA’s loopholes dealt with the atrocious political compromise engineered by Big Coal sycophants in Congress, which effectively granted federal recognition of mountaintop removal. Nearly four decades later, over 1.2 million acres of hardwood deciduous forests in our nation’s carbon sink have been wiped, historic communities have been depopulated and left in ruin, and over 1,2o0 miles of waterways have been jammed with mining waste.

For more history on Carter, SMCRA and the last 38 years of regulatory machinations and mountaintop removal mayhem, go here and here.

Religious leaders and ecumenical organizations have been outspoken on mountaintop removal destruction for years.

Over the past decade, six major denominations have issued anti-mountaintop removal resolutions of faith, stating that “the sanctity and sacredness of human life and the natural environment should not be destroyed in the name of corporate profit,” and “mountaintop removal coal mining is devastating the environment, economies, people, and culture in Appalachia.” Similar resolutions have been passed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Religious Society of Friends.

The Presbyterian Church of the United States declared:

WHEREAS, mountaintop removal coal mining destroys both the beauty and productive capacity of the land thus eliminating future or alternative economic opportunities for the families of Appalachia WHEREAS, God instructs us to “not defile the land where you live and where I dwell” (Numbers 35:34) […]It is resolved that the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, urges state and federal agencies that regulate mining practices, as well as coal companies themselves, to abandon the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining and work to meet our nation’s energy needs in a manner that is just, sustainable and consistent with Christian values.

Click here for more information on the resolutions

Last spring, the West Virginia Council of Churches published a book of personal narratives about the human costs and human rights violations of mountaintop removal on coalfields residents. The booklet, Mountain Tops Do Not Grow Back, Stories of Living in the Midst of Mountain Top Removal Strip Mining, can be read here.

Two years ago, the Catholic Committee of Appalachia and the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth sponsored a tour of mountaintop removal sites for several national evangelical leaders in the United States, and announced their intent to “pledge voice and vote against mountaintop removal. Our voices will retell the testimony we have heard and the destruction we have seen through our sermons, writings, and conversations.” More information on the tour can be found here.

In 2004, Catholic Bishop Emeritus Walter Sullivan from Richmond, Virginia, the corporate home of mountaintop removal giant Massey Energy, toured the coalfields and released a statement:

The Church needs to stand with those who live lives of hopelessness and helplessness. The mountain culture and its way life are being destroyed. Thankfully, the Catholic Committee of Appalachia (CCA), under the direction of Sister Robbie Pentecost and the many Church workers in the area, are willing to stand up and be counted. “Mountain top removal” is just another example of profit taking preference over the lives of people, where the powerful wage a different kind of war against the powerless.

The Christians for the Mountains (CFTM) organization was founded a few years ago as a a “network of persons committed to advocating that Christians and their churches recognize their God-given responsibility to live compatibly and sustainably upon this earth God has created.” CFTM has been active in organizing in events and campaigns in the coalfield region.

Here’s a clip from the Christians for the Mountains role in “Mountain Mourning,” in the Mountains Don’t Grow Back film documentary by B. J. Gudmundsson:

At Least 3 Members of Congress Received Forged Letters from Disgraced Firm

There have been some very interesting developments since we first posted about Bonner and Associates fraudulent attempt at influencing votes on climate legislation. There is a great rundown at Enviroknow and I suggest you check out the whole thing, but the bottom line is that things have really taken a turn for the worst for Bonner. Sierra Club has been absolutely relentless, doing doing a major beltway ad buy, and asking Attorney General Eric Holder and the DOJ to look into the case in the event that further forgeries took place. MoveOn has an online petition encouraging action by the DOJ.

It has also come to light that on behalf of “c@$#n coal” industry front group ACCCE (of singing coal caroler fame) that the former Bonner employee sent at least 12 letters asking members to oppose climate legislation. Six of those letters were to Congressman Perriello (D-VA-05), but Perriello eventually voted for the bill. The other letters went to Pennsylvania Blue Dog Chris Carney (D-PA-10) and freshman Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA-03), who each of them voted against the bill.

Enviroknow notes:

This raises the very real possibility that Members of Congress were influenced by fraudulent letters paid for by the coal industry, and voted against environmental regulation as a result of this influence. Given the razor thin margin and last-minute negotiations surrounding the House vote, this was a clear attempt by both Bonner and Associates and ACCCE to subvert the Democratic process. Now, we can’t say for with 100% certainty that fraudulent letters persuaded any particular Member of Congress to oppose the legislation, but that was certainly the intent. To make matters worse, the background document includes ACCCE’s less-than-inspiring “belief” that the fraudulent letters were limited to the three congressional districts mentioned previously

NRDC meanwhile, is hot on the tail of “c@#$n coal” industry front group ACCCE, who admitted yesterday to being the offending clients of Bonner and Associates. NRDC notes that ACCCE made a $10.5 milion amendment to their lobbying report forms for the 2nd quarter, and Pete Altman wonders aloud if that change had anything to do with Bonner.

Congressional allies are pursuing the case as well. Senator John Kerry posted at DailyKos yesterday about the incident, and not only has Representative Markey sent a harshly worded letter to Jack Bonner with 14 poignant questions, but Markey’s Subommittee stands at the ready with subpoena powers.

ACCCE comes clean, admits to being Bonner client

ACCCE Statement Regarding Falsified Constituent Contacts Made to Congressional Offices by Bonner and Associates
August 03, 2009
Contact: Lisa Camooso Miller, 703/302-1228

ALEXANDRIA, VA – Statement on behalf of Stephen L. Miller, President and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), in response to falsified constituent contacts made to congressional offices by Bonner and Associates:

“We are outraged at the conduct of Bonner and Associates. Bonner and Associates was hired by the Hawthorn Group – our primary grassroots contractor – to do limited outreach earlier this year on H.R. 2454. Based upon the information we have, it is clear that an employee of Bonner’s firm failed to demonstrate the integrity we demand of all our contractors and subcontractors. As a result, these egregious actions led to falsified letters being sent to Members of Congress.

…

“ACCCE has always maintained high ethical and professional standards. In this case, the standards and practices that we require for grassroots advocacy outreach were not adhered to by Bonner and Associates. In this sense, the community groups involved, the Members of Congress who received the fraudulent letters, as well as ACCCE, were all victimized by this misconduct.

“ACCCE has initiated an extensive review to gather all relevant facts pertaining to this situation. Additionally, we are evaluating all possible measures – including potential legal action – as a part of our commitment to ensure that high ethical standards are followed when conducting outreach to community groups, elected officials, and other members of the public.

“Over the past ten years, ACCCE’s public outreach program, as managed by the Hawthorn Group, has enabled more than 100,000 constituents to legitimately communicate with their elected and appointed officials on behalf of energy and environmental policies that sustain economic growth. We are proud of this work, and will continue to promote policies that will advance environmental progress, greater energy security, and economic prosperity in the United States.

Because of Bonner and Associates’ misconduct, we apologize to the community groups and the Members of Congress involved. There is no place for this type of deception. We applaud efforts to ensure that everyone involved in the public policy dialogue lives up to the highest ethical standards.”

In wake of “soft market, high costs” Patriot Coal will be closing the gigantic Samples MTR mine in Boone County

New production numbers from the Energy Information Administration, coupled with the news that Patriot Coal will be ceasing operations at one of West Virginia’s largest mountaintop removal mines paints a bleak economic picture for Central Appalachian coal.

For the Appalachian region as a whole, production is down 7.1% from this point in 2008. However, as you can see on the chart below, the decline in production is much starker in Central Appalachia. In eastern Kentucky, for example, production for January-June is down 8.6% from 2008. In southern West Virginia, production is down 10.9% from the same time last year.

Its important to note that monthly data is just a snapshot, and not as useful at looking at all the production data as a whole. Nevertheless, its startling that Central Appalachian production in May 2009 is down 21.5% from May 2008.

With a continued reliance on a declining resource, we are going to see a lot more mine closings like the one that was announced at the Samples Mine in Boone County. In a statement,Patriot CEO Richard Whiting explains:

“As we continue to balance our production levels with the soft thermal coal demand, our strategy is to concentrate production at lower-cost mining complexes. By ceasing operations at this higher-cost surface mine, Patriot will keep valuable permitted reserves in the ground until the market yields more favorable pricing and margins.

We appreciate the contributions of the employees at the Samples mine over the years and regret that these challenging markets have required us to take this action.

You can read more about Kayford Mountain on iLoveMountains.org, and if you’ve never visited, here’s an interactive panorama from one vantage point on the mountain.

Kayford in 1985

Kayford now

Our best wishes are truly with the families of the 314 employees of the Samples mine in Boone County. Although we don’t agree with mountaintop removal, it is never ideal when someone loses their job, and we hope that elected officials invest in new economic opportunities in Appalachia such as energy efficiency and clean energy.

Polluting Industries Caught Forging Support

When you are a small non-profit working to reform billion dollar industries, you can take some solace when the other side is damaging their own case far more seriously than regular citizens ever could. The last few days have been a highlight reel of the fossil fuel lobby tripping over their own feet, culminating in a buffoonish failed attempt at forging opposition to the climate bill.

Specifically, Washington, D.C. based lobbying firm Bonner and Associates has been found to have forged letters of opposition to the climate bill under the names of Charlottesville area non-profits. Bonner and Associates then sent those letters to a targeted Congressional office in hopes of influencing votes on climate legislation. Appalachian Voices opposes these tactics because they undermine the public trust upon which democracy is ultimately built.

More than that, Appalachian Voices is also a non-profit with an office in Charlottesville, and could have just as easily been one of the victims of this fraudulent behavior. It is a shame that our neighbors who work so hard in our community have to deal with this corporate identity theft. It is wrong and sad that the industry felt as though it had to resort to these underhanded and dishonest tactics.

By misrepresenting themselves, the fossil fuel industry is doing the same thing to their own fragile credibility that they are doing to the Appalachian Mountains. But, their actions become even more appalling when put in context.

The recession has even reached the corporate lobbying world, which saw its own spending decrease last quarter (by a whopping one percent.) However, today’s Wall Street Journal notes that the fossil fuel lobby seem to be the only ones bucking the trend and upping their spending in this time of crisis:

Debate over a broad-ranging climate and energy bill prompted more spending by energy interests. Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, BP PLC and other oil-and-gas companies increased spending on lobbying by 30% to $37.7 million in April, May and June of this year, compared with the same quarter in 2008.

Lobbying expenditures, campaign contributions, and the resulting public policy from the last several decades has shown us time and time again that we are not exactly on an even playing field as the coal, oil, and gas lobby. When it comes to Congressional influence, environmental groups aren’t even playing the same game as the fossil fuel industry. For comparison, the “blue-green alliance,” a coalition of labor and environmental groups and the second largest labor lobby, spent just 2% of what the aforementioned oil and gas giants did during the same time period.

Thanks to a few sharp staffers for Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello, we are able to see how far the other side is willing to go. The following letter is one of six forged documents that were sent to Congressman Perriello in opposition to the climate bill, which Congressman Perriello ultimately voted for. This letter is purportedly from “Creciendo Juntos“ which is a Hispanic advocacy organization in his district.

[See 5 other forged letters here]

However, it turns out that these letters were forged by DC based “Bonner and Associates,” who dismissed the incident as a “mistake.” Needless to say, the groups who were victims of the forgery strongly disagreed:

This was not a “mistake,”…This was a deliberately and carefully forged letter…They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization,” said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville’s Hispanic community.

But this may not be the first time. A former employee of Bonner and Associates says differently, via TPM:

A former Bonner and Associates employee who spoke to TPMmuckraker significantly complicated that picture, portraying Bonner and Associates as a place where ethical missteps were far from rare. “They just got caught this time,” he said.

After a similar incident in Maryland in 2002, Bonner and Associates founder Jack Bonner dismissed their behavior, calling it “…a great exercise in the first amendment.”

This is inexcusable. Appalachian Voices disagrees with these tactics and applauds Congressman Ed Markey’s call for Congressional investigation into the case. Congressman Markey, who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Climate Change, said in a statement:

This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress.

This is an appalling abuse, and Congressman Tom Perriello deserves great credit for seeing through it and casting a vote that will create clean energy jobs in Virginia and throughout the United States. I encourage all Members of Congress to be on the lookout for other suspicious and illegal materials.

My Select Committee will immediately begin an investigation of the extent and scope of this activity.

…

But it gets better. Nearly simultaneously, ICG coal executive Eugene Kitts declared “war” on Appalachia, going so far as to claim that the coal industry is a victim. Mr. Kitts asserted that local mountain communities are, in fact, the aggressors in this “war” on the poor coal industry, saying:

We are in a war…I believe that mining is going to survive this attack. I think when the public is informed and their political representatives are informed that this assault on surface mining is based on such a strenuous type of basis, that we will prevail in this battle. We are in a war, and that war will continue…

Part of this “war,” has been to try and punish places that want to keep their mountains in tact. Coal industry leaders have recently been pushing with all their might to have their employees and other miners boycott the state of Tennessee because of Senator Lamar Alexander’s exemplary leadership on the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696.) To me that sounds like someone saying, “Let us destroy your kitchen or we’re not coming over to your house.” Hmmm…I wonder how Tennessee will react to that?

Of course, the coal executive boycott has been a pathetic joke, with several industry leaders already pulling out. A TECO spokesman explained why his company was “out” of the boycott just as soon as they had been “in,” saying:

We regret our previous action, which was an emotional response that doesn’t benefit our 1,200 employees, the eastern Kentucky communities we support, the environment we work to protect or our neighbors in Tennessee.

Over the weekend, the coal executive boycott of Tennessee was wildly lampooned by the two largest newspapers in east Tennessee. But the Chattanooga Times-Free Press was especially brutal, saying:

Among the most destructive environmental abuses in this nation, the most deliberate, unconscionable and widespread has to be the form of coal-mining known as “mountain-top removal” mining. Indeed, “mining” is hardly the word for this premeditated, callously calculated, man-made catastrophe.

The Times-Free Press lets the coal industry have it for their behavior, while praising Senator Alexander’s push for responsible mining via introduction of the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696.)

That has riled coal company executives, who, in turn, have rounded up West Virginia miners to sign petitions pledging to retaliate against Sen. Alexander’s legislation by mounting a boycott of Tennessee’s tourism industry. That’s akin to hostage-taking, of course. The state’s tourism industry, particularly the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge-Dollywood areas around the Smokey Mountains, is an innocent bystander in the miners’ dispute.

The campaign, and its nasty component of threatening calls to tourism facilities, should be rejected. People who love visiting our mountains should be appreciative of Sen. Alexander’s efforts. Indeed, tourism is far more lucrative to mountain communities than mining.

Mountain-top removal mining should be banned. It employs far fewer miners than traditional mining practices, and its environmental costs are vast. It has already destroyed scores of mountain tops and over 2,000 miles of valley streams and the communities they support. It should be banned as soon as possible.

In case this long list of incidents has left you scratching your head in confusion, don’t worry. Massey CEO Don Blankenship, as he often does, inanely fills in the blanks for us with his deep thoughts at the anti-science “American Thinker”. Here it is, your moment of zen:

A religion is a belief in a supernatural being, a system of faith or worship. Obviously, global warming does not fit this definition.