Image Credit: Harlequin_colors/Flickr
AlterNet is reporting that a coalition of ultra-conservative organizations and thinktanks are banding together to turn the American public against wind and other renewable energy projects. Named the American Tradition Institute (ATI), member groups include Americans for Prosperity (think Koch brothers), the American Legislative Exchange Council (in the news lately for member groups quitting them), and the Heartland Institute, which recently put up billboards equating climate scientists to mass murderers. Documents accessed by accountability group Checks and Balances “show for the first time that local Nimby anti-wind groups are co-ordinating and working with national fossil-fuel funded advocacy groups to wreck the wind industry,” said co-director Gabe Elsner in speaking with AlterNet.
Proposals in the documents sent to group members include setting up fake companies to create PR campaigns and to pay for anti-renewable billboards and advertisements. Opponents to wind and other clean-energy projects claim that Obama’s energy plan costs too much and isn’t supportive enough of the oil, gas, and coal industries. They hope to use the his support for alternative energies against him this fall as a divisive election-year issue. Their mission is to turn the American people against wind farms and most of President Obama’s “all of the above” energy policy. Greenpeace’s Kert Davies adds that conservatives want to spread the belief that “this is a type of energy that never works and requires massive government handouts.”
Just this morning it was announced that President Obama was adding “clean coal” onto his list of energy priorities after much complaining by GOP members of Congress. Time will tell if it’s enough to appease them or the ATI.
[via AlterNet]