by Joseph Romm
All of us who want to see the world changed for the better struggle
with whether it is better to fight for that change from the inside or
the outside.
But 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. You know that a coal-industry-funded
group is beyond redemption when one of the largest coal utilities in
the country abandons them (see “Breaking: Duke Energy quits coal front group over climate bill — GE and Caterpillar should do the same“). Duke explained in a statement:
“We believe ACCCE is constrained by influential member
companies who will not support passing climate change legislation in
2009 or 2010.”
Duh.
The Center for Public Integrity’s excellent staff writer Marianne Lavelle managed to get GE on record with a truly laughable defense for their refusal to join Duke (and Alcoa):
But some companies that support climate legislation
remain in the ACCCE fold — the largest and most diverse being General
Electric. GE spokesman Daniel Nelson said in an email that ACCCE
does not reflect GE’s views on climate change legislation, which is
that cap and trade would help “drive American technological innovation
and competitive leadership… We advocate that view within ACCCE and have
and will work to make it the majority view in that organization.”
I feel those monkeys trying to fly out of my butt again….
Seriously, GE? Even aluminum giant Alcoa, who quit more quietly, wouldn’t offer up such nonsense:
After the Duke story broke, the blog EnviroKnow confirmed that aluminum maker Alcoa had earlier quit the group.
The aluminum maker decided to quit paying dues to the coal advocacy
group about a month ago as part of its company-wide effort to reduce
costs. “You may have heard of a little thing called the economic
downturn,” Alcoa spokesman Kevin Lowery said in an interview with The
Center for Public Integrity. So it was an economic, rather than a
philosophical decision? “Any kind of economic decision has to have a
business case — whether you invest money and make money at the end of
the day,” Lowery said.
C’mon GE. Do you really want to tarnish the EcoMagination brand? Do you really want to be seen as a have-it-both ways greenwasher? It’s bad enough that one of the members of the uber-disinformer American Petroleum Institute is GE Inspection Services — with a broken link that takes us to GE Energy!
Let’s remember:
ACCCE funded fraudster Bonner, who put out those fake anti-Waxman-Markey letters.
ACCCE hired top GOP voter-fraud company to run massive “grassroots” efforts to undermine climate and clean energy action.
An ACCCE flack said mountaintop removal solves “lack of flat space” in Appalachia.
General Electric has about as much chance of getting ACCCE to change
their position on the climate bill as they do of getting Sen. James
Inhofe (R-OIL) to change his.
Related Links:
‘Localwashing’ in pictures—bogus marketing at its finest
Shake-ups at high-profile coal industry group
