Jul 28 2011
ALEC Pushes Right Wing Corporate Agenda on Climate Change
A spate of state-level legislation attempting to curb the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouses gases swept the nation this year. The seed of inspiration that grew into at least 20 separate anti-EPA bills can be traced back to the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. ALEC brings together legislators and corporate leaders who draft model legislation that gets turned into industry-friendly copy-cat bills around the country. Jill Richardson of PR Watch, the organization behind ALECExposed.org, yesterday revealed ALEC’s climate change agenda. Going back at least as far as 1998, Richardson reports that ALEC created a model resolution which state governments could adopt to oppose the Kyoto Protocol. ALEC has been actively opposing environmental protection legislation since. At an ALEC conference last year, the EPA’s effort to regulate carbon emissions was deemed a “Regulatory Trainwreck.” Members of ALEC blamed the Clean Air Act for “higher prices, fewer jobs, and less energy.” Sound bite friendly analysis casting EPA policies as jobs killers found its way out of the mouths of energy industry representatives and elected officials and into the mainstream dialogue. ALEC has branded state-level environmental regulations as “Son of Kyoto” legislation. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, an ALEC Alumnus, pulled her state’s support from a regional Western Climate Initiative after the Council encouraged such action. In further evidence of corporate influence on ALEC’s environmental policy, Jill Richardson reports that their Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force is now chaired by the American Gas Association, likely sparking an enthusiasm for natural gas “fracking” in state legislatures.
GUEST: Jill Richardson at Center for Media and Democracy and PR Watch
Read more at www.ALECExposed.org.
Read Jill Richardson’s analysis of ALEC’s Climate Change legislation here: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10914/alec-exposed-warming-climate-change
Comments Off on ALEC Pushes Right Wing Corporate Agenda on Climate Change
