GOP ‘Rural American Solutions Group’ Peddles Coal Company Document As Its Own
GOP ‘Rural American Solutions Group’ Peddles Coal Company Document As Its Own
Leaders of a new GOP group, the “Rural American Solutions Group,” are distributing a document attacking climate change legislation as an economic burden to most of the country. As it turns out, the information in the press release was provided to the Republican congressmen by Peabody Energy, a juggernaut of the coal industry. Staffers for GOP Reps. Frank Lucas (R-OK), Sam Graves (R-MO), and Doc Hastings (R-WA) are emailing around a map that purports to detail “how the Democrats’ National Energy Tax unfairly targets rural Americans.”
A closer look at the source of the image reveals the document’s origins:
Two employees of Peabody Energy are listed in the metadata of the map document: Chairman and CEO Greg Boyce and Communications Manager Chris Taylor. The congressmen opposing climate change legislation — Reps. Lucas, Graves, and Hastings — are simply copying-and-pasting information that has been directly fed to them by Peabody Energy.
Peabody Energy’s outsized political influence is well-documented:
– From 2004 to 2008, the Peabody Energy PAC contributed $579,538 to federal candidates including Rep. Sam Graves and Rep. Frank Lucas. In 2008, Peabody contributed $150,290; $180,500 in 2006; $130,250 in 2004; $118,498 in 2002. [Opensecrets]
– Peabody Is An $8.4 Million Lobbying Juggernaut. Peabody Energy directly spent over $8.4 million lobbying Congress in 2008, up 3,200 percent from 2004, as legislation to limit coal pollution became an election-year issue. In addition, the Peabody-supported front groups ACCCE and the National Mining Association spent a further $9.95 million and $4.56 million respectively on lobbying efforts. [OpenSecrets]
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Amazing – more distractions about the lying liars that have lied to us for the last 8 years and not even a peep about how we have just been sold out on healthcare.
THEY HAVE REMOVED PUBLIC OPTION – this is going to be a give away to the insurance industry. Just another example of obama and the dems saying one thing to get progressive votes and then doing exactly the opposite.
Evidently, accountability is only for the right side of the street around here. Way to give them cover…
June 18th, 2009 at 8:23 pmI guess these foolish GOP want America to be another Libby, Montana.
Another Joe Says:
HEY HAVE REMOVED PUBLIC OPTION – this is going to be a give away to the insurance industry. Just another example of obama and the dems saying one thing to get progressive votes and then doing exactly the opposite.
Your COMPLETELY WRONG it’s the GOP that has removed the public option as usual and did you read the blog?
June 18th, 2009 at 8:32 pmThe coal industry owes a huge debt to demoncraps and tree huggers. Imagine what would happen to their industry if this country drilled therefore utilizing our own energy sources rather than buying it from the obammie supporters aboard? But if we did that they wouldn’t have had the money to buy Hussein the oval office.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:35 pmI thought the GOP has been discredited on just about everything. When will they cease and desist?
June 18th, 2009 at 8:38 pmAll of their figures are completely wrong on the map when the bill will actually give credit to those that lower their CO2 emissions. Peabody Energy is full bushshyt.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:39 pmHmm…. passing off as one’s own words composed by another..
what’s the word for that?
Oh, yeah — plagiarism.
Or, in Pee’s case, trolling.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:47 pm[...]the information in the press release was provided to the Republican congressmen by Peabody Energy[...]
Yeah, well, as if anyone still had any doubts about whose interests these people are really looking after.
And barely above computer-illiterate, to boot…
June 18th, 2009 at 8:49 pm“Damn facts and their liberal bias! Give us pseudo-scientific industry propaganda to base our policies and recommendations on!”
June 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pm~The GOP
What’s with Marcy Kaptur joining the Repbulican liars? I wish that these DINOs would just switch to the Republican Party. Quit playing games with Americans DINOs.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pmCheez, now you expect them to be able to do technology? All of this fancy gadgetry is just making it tougher and tougher to lie to the people on behalf of corporations!
June 18th, 2009 at 9:08 pmAs Will Rogers said, we have the best politians money can buy. Pay-offs are protected under free speech, although it’s not really free, kind of ironic.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:21 pmThe meta data says that Greg Boyce created the document on 29 Sept 1998 at 2:34 PM. It was edited last by Amelie on17 Jun 2009 at 2:10 PM. Amelie Hereford works (or worked) for Arch Coal, Inc.of St. Louis, MO. The meta data also shows that the editing time is 327:00:38 (13 days 15 hours and 38 seconds). The meta data shows that the e-mail subject is “Map Regarding Pending Climate Bill”.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:34 pmMore looking into the file, there is a note:
June 18th, 2009 at 9:39 pmCoal is the reason the US electricity prices are low. This map represents the retail electricity prices by state in the US with the green and blue states being those with electricity cost of less than 7 cents per kWh. Those in orange being 7 – 9 cents per kWh and those in red being greater than 9 cents/kWh. The second number for each state is the percentage of state’s generation from coal based generation. What you will note is almost all of the low cost electricity states have a high percentage of generation is coal based. In fact the two lowest cost states are Kentucky and Wyoming and they both have over 95% of their generation from coal based generation. The only exception are blue states are those have over 90% of its generation from hydro. On the other end of the spectrum the high cost states have less than ___ % of the generation from coal based generation.
Shouldn’t the name of that group be:
Rural
Americans
Pullingtheirpantsdownfor
Energycompanies
??
June 18th, 2009 at 10:01 pmJohn Prine’s “Paradise” comes to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbmW9mvJOrI&feature=related
June 18th, 2009 at 10:05 pmJune 18th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Let me see if I understand this. Coal Plants keep rural America alive? The only people who benefit from the coal industry are the coal executives and politicians. The people who live in these areas are the most impoverished and least educated. Am I wrong?
June 18th, 2009 at 10:30 pmJune 18th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
So is a few pennies per KWH [You would have to run a 1000 watt hairdryer for an hour and it would cost 9-12 cents depending on location] worth it?
June 18th, 2009 at 10:55 pmSorry for the OT, but there doesn’t seem to be much Iran coverage on TP.
The haunting sound of revolution.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:56 pmOT—anyone been solicited by “The Veterans Fund”?
June 18th, 2009 at 10:58 pmHello.. Hello.. hello… Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:10 pmallaho akbar Zooey.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:12 pmHe just keeps hanging up
June 19th, 2009 at 12:15 amDave’s not here man
in my best BC voice.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:31 amallaho akbar
June 19th, 2009 at 12:46 amO/T: beware of FMD (Flyswatters of Mass Destruction)…
June 19th, 2009 at 12:46 amThere is one very important piece of legislation that nobody is talking about and this shows why. That legislation is none other than public financing of federal elections. Right now victory most often goes to the one getting the largest amount of cash from business interests like Peabody Coal. If you want health insurance legislation you first need public financing of federal elections. Same goes for a cleaner environment — and on and on and on… You get the point.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:52 amDallasNE, spot on. Thom Hartmann was discussing this today. President Obama is hamstrung by the corporatist influence in Congress and the government in general. The bullshit theory that corporate donations are free speech is the biggest sackocrap legal theory that ever polluted our democracy.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:04 amThe only problem is the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Let me break that down:
Free speech is political speech. All the other speech we’re allowed, from porn to poetry, constitutionally rides on the back of political speech. Being able to advocate that candidate X should win is your free right – no matter how much it costs you to say so.
Walk it back to the founding fathers – let’s say if you want to print a bunch of broadsheets that say Thomas Jefferson should go to the Constitutional Congress, then however much it costs to print them is “speech.” If you want to send a bunch of Tories, that’s “speech” too, even if you’re just the guy writing the check.
Fast forward to today. Paying for TV ads, robocalls or whatever is merely advocating your political opinion. To say “that guy nobody ever heard of who happens to advocate for unregulated coal mining should go to Congress” is your Constitutional right. It sucks, but as a wise man (Ben Franklin) once said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.”
If we don’t allow people and groups thereof to pay for who they think should win an electoral contest, then we don’t have freedom of speech. Period.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:35 amLook, we knew as Americans that democracy would be messy. That often people would advocate for somethin obviously stupid. Some of the ff’s, such as Hamilton, really wanted to cut the common masses out of the equation. But we decided that the downsides of letting massive quantities of idiots be manipulated by the wealthy few was better than all the alternatives – just putting the wealthy few directly in power. So we put up with democracy, with majority rule, even though we all know that the majority are morons. And you know what? It works out OK in the long run.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:37 amSpeech is free — lobbying is not
June 19th, 2009 at 1:40 amPay to play politics, I say, is not free.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:45 amReally, lets look at the banksters, they give alot of money to politicians and as a investment that worked out great, they made all these WMFD derivatives bets then got bailed out.
Thats not freedom of speech, thats investing in politics under the guise of freedom of speech.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:50 amXisithrus Says:
Speech is free — lobbying is not
Lobbying is speech. Want to go speak to your local Congressperson about an issue you’re concerned with? Congrats, you’re a lobbyist.
.
Xisithrus Says:
Thats not freedom of speech, thats investing in politics under the guise of freedom of speech.
One of the great things about Obama is that his web-enabled campaign made him able to take small amounts of money from a large amount of people. Thus, he is beholden to none of us (yes, I kicked in too). More politicians should push for this campaign finance method.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:00 amSorry, O.T., but…
… The fat elephant in the room says:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00210
.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:31 amMax Anax junius -1 Says:
Sorry, O.T., but…
… The fat elephant in the room says:
What was HR 2346? Description/context please?
June 19th, 2009 at 3:15 amWe don’t have smog in maine. but we can’t eat more than 2 fish a year because of the mercury. Which comes from out west. We get none of the industry, but all the pollution. hooray jet stream. Which also means we will get the fallout if they bomb NYC or something like that. Man, wind sucks. err. blows.
June 19th, 2009 at 3:20 amElBruce,
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR02346:@@@L&summ2=m&
From original link…
June 19th, 2009 at 3:35 am
These diamond abortionist must be stopped!
June 19th, 2009 at 4:19 amThis is a very important point.
Equally important is the fact that candidate Obama ruined our chances for publicly-financed elections, so that he could spend his head off during the campaign.
Thus, even before he was elected, Obama dealt progressives a crippling blow.
Rupert Murdoch in Pain
June 19th, 2009 at 5:50 amFreedom of speech does not include the right to enforce your freedom of speech on any private enterprise — for example, billboard companies have refused to take money and put up signage for issues that they did not agree with, same with television advertising. And just because you have the money to pay their fees for the ad space does not mean that they have to accept your money and run your ad — and they can refuse because they simply do not agree. Freedom of speech in the constitution does not apply in those instances. It is not a free speech issue, and a part of that is because it is not “free” (not conflating the “free” in these instances, but what I said is still true).
So — pay to play for politics under the nominal guise of freedom of speech is a load of $hit.
Yes, a “lobbyist” is, technically, anyone who goes to talk to a politician about an issue. But “The Lobbyists” that we have today are high-paid corporate types, and they do not “just talk” to politicians — they offer campaign funds and other items — they BRIBE the politicians. If they JUST talked, that would be Jim Dandy, but they do not “just talk”. Offering free dinners, ballgames, cvampaign contributions, ads to smear opponents, etc., are ALL BRIBES. As soon as a lobbiest offers bribes they are no longer acting under the free speech of the constitution. And as an aside to that, if you are not a professional lobbiest paid by one of these bigwigs, with perks and goodies to offer the politicians, your chances of gaining ANY access to any of these politicians is slim to none. Thus, in theory anyone has access to the politicians to lobby an issue, but in practice only those who can offer something to the politicians will ever gain real access and consideration of their issues.
Free speech is free. As soon as it costs, it is no longer free speech.
Freedom of speech in the constitution protects everyone’s right to go into a public place and publicly announce thier political beliefs. It does not protect any “rights” to advertising in any media — unless that media is considered public property. You can protest in the streets (with reasonable limits — like not blocking traffic), but it is not at all legal for you to protest ON someone’s private property (without their express permission). The former is constitutionally protected, the latter is not.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:18 amThe commercials tell us that coal keeps the lights on by powering more than 50% of our domestic energy needs. Now you know why. Bribes once again.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:25 amI am glad that several of you agree with the need for public financing of federal elections. There is no validity to those who call this a freedom of speech issue. Money is not speech. Money it is property. It rightly has all of the protection of property. Besides, if money is speech then why are caps on donations legal? The answer is obvious. People simply need to think in order to avoid looking like fools being used by others. That is the plight of those that insist that this is freedom of speech.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:38 amThere once was a placed called Centralia, PA. Now it is a burning pit. The people from this part of the Pennsylvania coal region won’t be fighting for more coal mining.
We do need public financing of campaigns. The lobbyist usually wins and we lose. Just look at the commercial food industry. Monsanto GMO monster foods are killing Americans and yet the corn, wheat and soybean industry is federally subsidized.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:11 amAnother Joe…
President Obama wants a public plan. So far this week, I have received two telephone calls requesting help with promoting President Obama’s public health plan in my locality. He wants it done. The Republicans are so against insuring all Americans except themselves. They want us to keep paying for their health insurance and to h*ll with the rest of us.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:15 amIf a single individual approached a legislator with a proposal to exchange campaign contributions for consideration of some legislative item in which the citizen had a financial interest, it would (rightly) be regarded as bribery.
But when a Company or a consortium of corpoRats do it, it’s “lobbying.”
Distinction without ‘difference.’
June 19th, 2009 at 9:02 amThe way to end the lobbyists hold over Congress is to bar all gifts to Congress, government employees and their families. In addition, campaign contributions should be limited to $200 per candidate and political party and only by people eligible to vote. That means the end of PAC’s and other organizations political activities. Only individuals can contribute to candidates in the state where they reside, so the corporations and unions will be out of the picture as well as all the lobbyists. These measures are draconian but they will be effective in eliminating a good number of lobbyist jobs since they won’t have the ability to a lot of spread money on Capitol Hill.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:07 pmen son videolar
June 21st, 2009 at 5:46 amen son videolar
kigedGüzellik ve bak?m
en son videolar
June 21st, 2009 at 5:47 amen son videolar
kiged
Güzellik ve bak?m
Thank you..
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