Blog & news round-up July 27: right-wingers fake their way through Waxman-Markey debate

Opponents of clean energy sank pretty low while whipping up opposition to the Waxman-Markey bill -- we just didn't know they'd sunk this low:

Today's big news is reported by the Charlottesville Daily Progress, which reports that opponents of the ACES climate bill hired a DC lobby firm to manufacture grassroots opposition to the bill, using tactics that include writing fake letters ostensibly from real organizations, as the board member of one such organization said:

"They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization."

The firm in question is Bonner and Associates, a long-time presence in DC known for its capacity to manufacture constitutencies for its clients.

The forgeries were discovered at the office of Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA), who received fake letters from Creciendo Juntos, a Hispanic nonprofit in Charlottesville, and the Albemarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP. The story is moving fast: via Blue Virginia, we've just learned that Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) has announced an investigation of the fake letters. When you keep in mind what a certain utility company has been asking its customers to do, or how right wingers of the Glenn Beck variety have been mobilizing agains the bill -- including lying about their residency during calls to congressional offices -- this episode is just another reminder of what we're up against to pass a strong clean energy bill this year.

In other news, several organizations (including 1Sky) are already starting a full-court press on the Senate to pass a strong clean energy and climate bill this year that will facilitate a global climate deal in Copenhagen:

Oxfam America, 1Sky, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and Nature Conservancy are among the groups pressing for a greater share of allowances on two issues they consider as critical for the United States to demonstrate leadership at international climate negotiations scheduled for December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The groups want the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to initially dedicate 3 percent of the cap-and-trade program's allowances -- estimated at about $2 billion per year -- toward helping poor countries cope with the inevitable affects of global warming. They also requested starting with a 2 percent earmark -- worth around $1.3 billion -- for research, development and deployment of energy technologies.

Among other things, the letter (PDF) makes the point that dealing effectively with climate change is a bona fide national security issue. From the letter:

As you know, international investments are also essential to furthering global security. As the Military Advisory Board of the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) has noted, climate change is a “threat multiplier” that poses serious challenges to our national security due to migration, humanitarian disasters, and conflicts over scarce resources, and requires an international response by our nation.

Speaking of the Senate climate/energy bill, Joe Romm at Climate Progress argues strongly this week for the merits Waxman-Markey bill as an energy bill:

As a climate bill, Waxman-Markey is at best a B-, but as a clean energy bill, it is a solid A — though both sides of the bill should be improved. Together with Obama’s other climate and clean energy efforts, it would, as I’ll explain, very quickly bring U.S. investments in clean energy technologies and industries close to the record-smashing levels now being set by the stimulus bill, nearly $100 billion a year.

. . . . .

So if we enact something like Waxman-Markey (preferably stronger) into law and if Obama is a 2-term president and thus sticks around long enough to fulfill his promises, then I expect by the 2020s, U.S. investments in clean energy technologies and industries would come close to the record-smashing levels now being set by the stimulus bill, roughly $100 billion a year.

Finally, via It's Getting Hot in Here, check out this video from Rainforest Action Network documenting an action they took recently against the financing of tar sands, the dirtiest and most damaging type of oil extraction, in Canada:

For information visit PleaseHelpUsMrsNixon.com.