New Oil and Coal Fronts Greenwash Global Warming [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
Television ads from a new Montana-based group called CO2 Is Green claim: "There is no scientific evidence that CO2 [carbon dioxide] is a pollutant. In fact higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth's ecosystems." The ads [3] urge voters to contact their Senators and Representative, "and remind them CO2 is not pollution." The ads are meant to stoke opposition to climate change legislation [4]. Not surprisingly, the man behind the ads, the lobbying group CO2 Is Green and a related "educational" group called Plants Need CO2 [5] is "a veteran oil industry executive." H. Leighton Steward [6] was a director at EOG Resources, which was previously named the Enron Oil and Gas Company, and is an honorary director of the American Petroleum Institute [7]. "Now retired, [Steward] says he wants to 'get the message out there' that carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled a pollutant and which most [sic] scientists regard as a dangerous greenhouse gas, 'is a net benefit for the planet.'" Steward co-founded the new groups with Corbin J. Robertson Jr., the "chief executive of and leading shareholder in Natural Resource Partners, a Houston-based owner of coal resources."