Lobby horse

Majority of ‘Energy Citizens’ rallies organized by oil-industry lobbyists 6

Here’s more evidence that the “Energy Citizens” rallies against climate legislation are anything but grassroots uprisings.  We already knew that the American Petroleum Institute was behind the whole idea.  Now it turns out that even the local organizers of individual rallies are oil-industry lobbyists. 

Grist obtained a copy of API’s list of coordinators for the 21 planned rallies, and 15 of them are registered lobbyists, mostly for API or its state-level affiliates.

There have already been three “Energy Citizens” rallies—in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday; in Roswell, N.M., on Thursday; and in Lima, Ohio, on Friday. Others are planned for cities around the U.S. during the rest of the August congressional recess.

Here’s a list of the lobbyists organizing the “grassroots” rallies:

  • Greensboro, N.C., rally organizer Bill Weatherspoon is a registered lobbyist for API in North Carolina.
  • Lima, Ohio, organizer Terry Fleming is a registered lobbyist for the Ohio Petroleum Council.
  • Atlanta, Ga., organizer Ric Cobb is a registerd lobbyist for the Georgia Petroleum Council.
  • Elkhart, Ind., organizer Maggie McShane lobbies on behalf of the Indiana Petroleum Council.
  • Nashville, Tenn., organizer Mike Williams is a registered lobbyist for API.
  • Bismarck, N.D., organizer Ron Ness is a former registered lobbyist for the North Dakota Petroleum Council.
  • Tampa, Fla., organizer David Mica registered lobbyist for the Florida Petroleum Council.
  • St. Louis, Mo., organizer Ryan Rowden is a registered lobbyist for the Missouri Petroleum Council.
  • Greenville, S.C., organizer Kay Clamp is a registered lobbyist for the South Carolina Petroleum Council.
  • Lincoln, Neb., point of contact Chris Abboud is a registered lobbyist for the Agri-Business Association of Nebraska.
  • Springfield, Ill., organizer Dave Sykuta is a registered lobbyist [PDF] for API.
  • Detroit, Mich., organizer John Griffin is a registered lobbyist for the Associated Petroleum Industries of Michigan.
  • Richmond, Va., organizer Mike Ward is a registered lobbyist for API in Virginia.
  • Philadelphia, Pa., organizer Rolf Hanson registered lobbyist for API in Pennsylvania.
  • Huron, S.D., organizer Tim Dougherty is a registered lobbyist.

And in Farmington, N.M., rally organizer Wendi Schuur is the director of public and community affairs at Devon Energy, an oil and gas company.

Perhaps “Energy Lobbyists” would be a more appropriate name for the movement?

Kate Sheppard is Grist’s political reporter.

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  1. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 10:21 am
    22 Aug 2009

    Today's survey of articles about the emerging HydroNet. 1. My prediction is that mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell cars will cost $30,000 without subsidies in 2015.http://hydrogendiscoveries.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/prediction-mass-produced-hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-will-cost-30000-without-subsidies-in-2015/#comments2. First Drive: Hydrogen-powered Mazdashttp://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posteddriving/archive/2009/08/20/first-drive-hydrogen-powered-mazdas.aspx3. Clean Coal to Hydrogen and West Virginia?4. Enel develop 100 per cent hydrogen-fuelled power plant in Venice5. This is the best of all:Hydrogen-rich Material Promises Advances in Energy Transmission, Fuel StorageResearchers at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science,
    a joint institute of SLAC and Stanford University, have produced a
    hydrogen-rich alloy that could provide insight into the properties of
    metallic hydrogen, according to a study published in the August 17
    issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work
    is a step toward materials with revolutionary implications for energy
    science, enabling lossless power transmission, next-generation particle
    accelerators and even magnetic levitation.http://today.slac.stanford.edu/feature/2009/silane.asp   

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  2. RustyBrown Posted 5:56 am
    23 Aug 2009

    One might think that such information would be pointed out and laughed at by the oldstream news, since they are stuggling so mightily with credibility. But, one would be wrong.

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  3. Kevin Grandia Posted 7:26 am
    24 Aug 2009

    Great work Kate. Yet further evidence that these are nothing more than energy lobbyist events. This is a tried and true public relations technique (read: spindoctoring) to bus in employees and create the impression of a true grassroots citizen uprising.

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  4. skitters Posted 11:06 am
    24 Aug 2009

    Yes excellent findings, good exposure of the lengths energy lobbyists will go to to infultrate the guise of public opinion. The problem is that wind and solar lobbyists do the same thing when they set up wind adfvocacy groups thtat recieve public money and influence politicians. That's what's happening in Ontario where our government just passed an energy act (Green energy ct) that provides huge incentives for wind companies to build farms.the story is here; http://tomadamsenergy.com/?p=74

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  5. kateg Posted 12:44 pm
    24 Aug 2009

    It doesn't surprise me that "energy rallies" are being stacked by Big Oil. I work for an environmental non-profit in California, and I can tell you that we know just how hard it is to fight back against groups that have millions of dollars more in financial resources. Despite this, we are fighting back by trying to pass Triple It!, a bill in California that would triple California's renewable energy standard to 33% by 2020. We only have until September 11th to get it passed. California has more than enough wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass to power the state. We just need to act now. Kate Goltermann, Sacramento CA<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--> <!--
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