Oil Industry Front Group Rallies for Global Warming [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
"Taking a cue from angry protests against the Obama Administration [3]'s health care restructuring, the oil industry [4] is helping organize anti-climate bill rallies around the nation," reports Ian Talley. The rallies are being organized under the name "Energy Citizens [5]," an effort led by the American Petroleum Institute [6] (API) and including the National Association of Manufacturers [7], American Farm Bureau [8], American Highway Users Alliance, National Black Chamber of Commerce, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, FreedomWorks [9], American Conservative Union [10], Americans for Tax Reform [11] and Council for Citizens Against Government Waste [12], according to Greenwire [13]. Rally fliers warn, "Climate change legislation being considered in Washington will cause huge economic pain and produce little environmental gain." The fliers also claim that the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill [14], which passed the House of Representatives in June, would "cost 2 million American jobs, raise gasoline and diesel prices up to $4." In contrast, the Environmental Protection Agency [15] estimates that the bill would cost U.S. households "about a postage stamp a day," while the Energy Information Administration projects that annual "energy bill costs could rise between $26 per household to to $362 by 2020." API's "EnergyCitizens [16]" plans to hold rallies in about 20 states during August, targeting states "whose Democratic Senators aren't strong supporters of a stringent bill, such as ... Sherrod Brown [17] of Ohio and Mark Begich [18] of Alaska."