Oil lobby to fund campaign against Obama’s climate change strategy

The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama’s climate change strategy, according to campaigners.A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 ”energy citizen” rallies in 20 states. In an email obtained by Greenpeace, Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), outlined what he called a “sensitive” plan to stage events during the August congressional recess to put a “human face” on opposition to climate and energy reform.After the clamour over healthcare, the memo raises the possibility of a new round of protests against a key Obama issue.”Our goal is to energise people and show them that they are not alone,” said Cathy Landry, for API, who confirmed that the memo was authentic.The email from Gerard lays out ambitious plans to stage a series of lunchtime rallies to try to shape the climate bill that was passed by the house in June and will come before the Senate in September. “We must move aggressively,” it reads.The API strategy also extends to a PR drive. Gerard cites polls to test the effectiveness of its arguments against climate change legislation. It offers up the “energy citizen” rallies as ready-made events, noting that allies – which include manufacturing and farm alliances as well as 400 oil and gas member organizations – will have to do little more than turn up.”API will provide the up-front resources,” the email said. “This includes contracting with a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns.”However, it said member organizations should encourage employees to attend to command the attention of senators. “In the 11 states with an industry core, our member company local leadership – including your facility manager’s commitment to provide significant attendance – is essential,” said the email.Greenpeace described the meetings as “astroturfing” – events intended to exert pressure on legislators by giving the impression of a groundswell of public opinion. Kert Davies, its research director, said: “It is the behind the scenes plan to disrupt the debate and weaken political support for climate regulation.”The rally sites were chosen to exert maximum pressure on Democrats in conservative areas. The API also included talking points for the rallies – including figures on the costs of energy reform that were refuted weeks ago by the congressional budget office.The API drive also points to a possible fracturing of the US Climate Action Partnership (Uscap), a broad coalition of corporations and energy organizations which was instrumental in drafting the Waxman-Markey climate change bill that passed in the House of Representatives in June.Passage of the legislation is seen as crucial to the prospects of getting the world to sign on to a climate change treaty at Copenhagen next December.Five members of Uscap are also in API, including BP which said its employees were aware of the rallies. Conoco Phillips, which was also a member of the climate action partnership, has also turned against climate change, warning on its website that the legislation will put jobs at risk, and compromise America’s energy security. The company is also advertising the energy rallies on its website, urging readers: “Make your voice heard.”However, Shell, also a member of both groups, said it did not support the rallies. Bill Tenner, a spokesman, said: “We are not participating.”

Once again it will remain to be seen how many of the blind followers will jump on Corporate America’s bandwagon? Your interests ARE NOT theirs!

Contact @ ONCE for Impeachment

VOTERS, WELL THEY SCREWED YOU AGAIN!

You keep electing the same people to office and then you keep complaining how you don’t like the way your being treated, especially in regards to your property taxes, what’s wrong with this picture? If you can’t realize that these people you put into office are the pawns of big business, aka, lobbyists then your going to forever be treated this way! The lobbyists are the ones who pay for those commercials that you see ever 5 minutes, more or less, on T.V., that basically make you brain dead so that when you enter the voting both your mind just sees the name that you have been listening to for the last year and a half,  guess who you vote for?

The legislation that was passed last year that took effect this year that was suppose to give you a big discount on your tax bill only amounted to around 1.9% deduction on your tax bill. For the average homeowner, probably, a twenty to thirty dollar savings. These owners are not happy, and even the owners of half million dollar, or more, estates are not happy, of course their savings are more because their tax bills are higher, so they can save several hundred dollars on their tax bill. So WHAM, they got you again!

But wait, that’s not all, the legislation states that if your Market value decreases, your Assessed value WILL NOT, IF YOUR HOMESTEADING, unless the Market value should go down below your Assessed value! This fundamentally makes your Homestead a liability under this scenerio. Which amounts to defeating the whole purpose of why the homestead law was orginally passed, and that was to protect homeowners who make Florida their permanent residents from the dramatic increases in property values being reflected in their property taxes. WHAM, they got you again!

Oh, but it gets even better, FOR THEM, if your Homesteading and you add someone to your property and then to your Homestead, your CAP comes off, and the property rolls up to the fair market value, resulting in a much higher tax bill and WHAM, they got you again!

So the question remains, how long will you put up with this?

Dave “For the People” Gregory

I hope to have weekly newscast, of the real news, on this site in the near future! Anyone interested in participating in this endeavor please email me. The more the better.