Lobbying | Grist

Toward a stalemate in Copenhagen

How industry pressures and competing national agendas dim prospects for a climate treaty 0
Posted 1 day, 23 hours ago Global attempts to craft a pivotal new climate treaty in Copenhagen this December are being stymied by a far-reaching, multinational backlash led by fossil-fuel industries and other heavy carbon emitters, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
climate bill forecast: cloudy, with a chance of lobbying

Flurry of lobbying cash obscures U.S. climate debate 2
Posted 4 days, 23 hours ago When it comes to the debate in the United States over what to do about climate change, cash has clouded the issue.
Swagga, bitchez!

Greens have finally got the Big Mo 1
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago It looks like greens pushing for clean energy legislation finally have the wind at their back, with a streak of positive media stories about new friends and very stupid enemies.
James Hansen on Obama, climate legislation, and the scourge of coal 8
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago A recent New York Times article pointedly asked whether NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen still matters. The subtext to the story was, has Hansen been too vocal and too unconventional in his criticism of Washington’s response to climate change to be taken seriously?
firing chamber

Corporations call off the old green battle, but Chamber of Commerce soldiers on [UPDATED] 4
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago Still more trouble for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the 97-year-old business advocacy group that has been courting controversy by questioning climate change and fighting a clean energy bill. Here are the companies that have quit the Chamber.
Nearly 1,800 interest groups lobbying on transportation bill 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
food reform DOA?

When lobbyists cheer, the news can’t be good 1
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
There's a new chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Alas, the giant sucking sound you're hearing is agricultural reform rushing down the drain.
Newly confirmed regulatory czar needs to close OIRA’s backdoor for special interests 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
After weeks of sustained attack from the right-wing on issues that are marginal to the job the President asked him to do, Cass Sunstein has emerged from the nomination process bloody but apparently unbowed.
General Electric fights for change from the inside … of a coal industry front group! 0
Posted 2 months ago
You can’t fight for change from inside an organization dedicated to stopping change, like, say, the scandal-ridden front group American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy.
Herbicide maker asks that lobbying be excluded from class action lawsuit 0
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Lawyers representing the maker of the herbicide atrazine are asking that documents related to the company's lobbying and trade association activities be excluded from a class action lawsuit being filed by some Illinois water utilities.
CoC block

Chamber of Commerce keeps stepping on rakes 2
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce can't catch a break these days. It has pretended to agree with the goals of climate legislation while recommending changes in the means so drastic that they would gut the bill. But there's a problem: many, many business see enormous opportunities in the shift to clean energy. And many of those businesses happen to be members of the CoC.
Boucher: "Industry needs and wants a bill to pass"

Could Waxman and Markey have used the EPA threat more effectively? 28
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Should Waxman and Markey have kicked off House climate bill negotiations with a stronger ask?

The bill they introduced was effectively the USCAP proposal, which already reflected years of negotiation and compromise. The idea was that the difficult work of negotiations had already been done -- enviros and business both on board! -- and it would be easy for conservative Dems (and a few Republicans) to sign off on it.

Of course that's not what has happened. Republicans are balking en masse. Conservative Dems have compromised the bill down further, and by all indications will further weaken it in the Senate. Could the bill have ended up in a stronger place if it had started in a stronger place?
350 or bust

Push is on to strengthen climate bill 3
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
A coalition of more than 300 organizations will deliver letters to the local offices of U.S. senators this week calling on them to strengthen climate legislation narrowly passed by the House of Representatives in June.
FAHRENTHOLD 451

Washington Post gives polluters a free pass on dirty money and lies 5
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
In today's Washington Post, David Fahrenthold's front-page story spends its first 15 paragraphs detailing Big Oil's massive campaign against clean energy while incredibly avoiding any mention of one little detail: money.
Notable Quotable

Coal lobby claims their grassroots support is “more organic” than green groups’ 3
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Big Coal interests continue to pretend their fake grassroots efforts are real.
Grown up talk from Big Oil

This “Energy Citizen” also wants a word 1
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
As an employee of the energy sector for nearly 30 years, this "world Energy Citizen" also wants a word.
Lobby horse

Majority of ‘Energy Citizens’ rallies organized by oil-industry lobbyists 6
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Most of the folks organizing "Energy Citizens" rallies against climate legislation all around the country also happen to be registered lobbyists for the oil industry.
Or perhaps just wank about it inconclusively

Should greens ally with natural gas against coal? 16
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
The politics of natural gas are extremely interesting. In a nutshell, the interests of coal utilities and natural gas executives are at odds. To the extent carbon is penalized and coal is phased out, natural gas wins. The question for enviros: Is it worthwhile to ally with the natgas industry to reduce the influence of coal and strengthen the climate bill?
More on those forged letters 0
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
A FARCE TO BE RECKONED WITH

Families not allowed in ‘families for coal’ group 0
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Families Organized to Represent the Coal Economy (FORCE, naturally) is a Pennsylvania-based pro-coal organization. Oh, and by the way, by "families" the group doesn't actually mean families.