Why the US doesn’t have a sane energy policy – Oct 31

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The Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by billionaires
By funding numerous rightwing organisations, the mega-rich Koch brothers have duped millions into supporting big business
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The Tea Party movement is remarkable in two respects. It is one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen – and the biggest Astroturf operation in history. These accomplishments are closely related.

An Astroturf campaign is a fake grassroots movement: it purports to be a spontaneous uprising of concerned citizens, but in reality it is founded and funded by elite interests. Some Astroturf campaigns have no grassroots component at all. Others catalyse and direct real mobilisations. The Tea Party belongs in the second category. It is mostly composed of passionate, well-meaning people who think they are fighting elite power, unaware that they have been organised by the very interests they believe they are confronting. We now have powerful evidence that the movement was established and has been guided with the help of money from billionaires and big business. Much of this money, as well as much of the strategy and staffing, were provided by two brothers who run what they call “the biggest company you’ve never heard of”.

… a fascinating new film – (Astro)Turf Wars, by Taki Oldham – tells a fuller story. Oldham infiltrated some of the movement’s key organising events, including the 2009 Defending the American Dream summit, convened by a group called Americans for Prosperity (AFP). The film shows David Koch addressing the summit. “Five years ago,” he explains, “my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start Americans for Prosperity. It’s beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organisation.”

(Astro) Turf Wars trailer from (astro)turf wars on Vimeo.

(25 October 2010)

Coal Industry Spending to Sway Next Congress
John M. Broder, New York Times
The coal industry, facing a host of new health and safety regulations, is spending millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign donations this year to influence the makeup of the next Congress in hopes of derailing what one industry official called an Obama administration “regulatory jihad.”

Political spending by the coal industry is on track to exceed that of the 2008 cycle, when the presidency was at stake and Congress appeared determined to move forward with a national energy policy designed to address climate change by cutting back on the use of coal and petroleum.

Over the last two years, the coal industry, along with its allies in oil and gas, electric utilities, manufacturing and agriculture, effectively killed any prospects for climate change legislation in the near future.
(29 October 2010)

New book confirms greed, power and cover-up are BP trademarks
Lynn Herrmann, Digital Journal
The Deepwater Horizon debacle of 2010 will no doubt lead to a plethora of books being published, each hoping to captivate readers. One of the first on the scene has set a high bar, a hard-hitting behind-the-scenes look written by an industry insider.

Disaster on the Horizon, by Bob Cavnar, shows no partial treatments to either the industry he loves and works in nor to an American political system overflowing with oil industry lobbyists, campaign contributions and the ever-present failed leadership.

While it may be difficult for some on the extreme left to believe anything an oil person writes or says, Cavnar does an excellent job at taking the oil industry to task, taking aim at both sides of America’s corrupt government policy, and sending the country an alarming wake-up call (just in case BP’s Macondo well did not).

In the book, Cavnar repeatedly refers to failed leadership as a major component to where America currently stands in regards to its need for more oil. As a result, greed and profit have become the norm. Safety, health and the environment aren’t even on the radar screen.
(29 October 2010)