Yesterday the Public Citizen Texas team drove down to Houston to crash the American Petroleum Institute’s Energy Citizen event. Billed as a “grassroots” rally against the cap and trade bill currently before Congress, this event was nothing more than a company picnic.
About 2500 energy employees were brought by charter bus to the Verizon Wireless Theater, a private location that could be easily secured to keep undesirables out. David, Ryan, and Andy were all denied access, but stealthily dressed in Banana Republic and spectator pumps, I was able to blend in with the crowd and slip into the hot dog line.
Inside the theater it became evident quickly what a polished, professional event this was. Right at the door you could pick up a bright yellow t-shirt with a clever slogan on it like “I’ll pass on $4 gas”, “I’m an Energy Citizen!”, and “Congress, Don’t Take Away My Job!” The same lines could also be found on bumper stickers and the same kinds of cardboard signs you would wave at a football game.
In the middle of the arena was a giant action center where employees could voice their disapproval of climate change legislation through a variety of mechanisms. Six or seven computers were cued up with petitions to Sens. Hutchison and Cornyn, and attendees were invited to text JOBS to 363749(ENERGY) to get involved. Drop boxes for postcards were also positioned in the corners of the room, and “activists” could sharpie their signatures to 8 foot tall “shame on you” or “thank you” letters to Congressmen that voted for or against the American Clean Energy and Security Act.
My favorite aspect of the rally by far, however, was the high school marching band and star spangled dance team. When I asked one of the teenage dancers what she thought the rally was about, she told me she thought that it was about conserving energy.
I was able to interview several rally attendees, but the majority of folks regarded me with suspicion or didn’t want to talk to me. Others clearly didn’t have much of an opinion on the bill other than what they’d been told, but one gentleman I spoke to was actually concerned about the special interest carve-outs in the bill for dirty coal. Stay posted for the video of these interviews later today, with the working title “Energy Workers Say the Darndest Things.” Teaser:
After about an hour I started to run out out of room on my camera, so I moved toward the front doors to see if I could trade off cameras with Andy, who was still stationed outside. Big mistake. Once the chief security guard saw me make eye contact with a marked man, I was out of there. He grabbed my shoulder and asked “what energy company do you work for?” When I said I wasn’t with an energy company but was a member of the media, he said I was misrepresenting myself and summarily kicked me out.
I was a little disappointed to miss out on the great list of speakers, especially rodeo man Bill Bailey, who was master of ceremonies (irony, irony, irony, seeing as this rally was all hat and no cattle). But speaking to other individuals who had been denied access was even more enlightening than listening to Big Oil preach their sermon.
This was such a fake, Astroturf event that they didn’t know how to handle legitimate grassroots support. A couple of women who had been to some of the teabagger events and townhalls came down, armed with American flags and excited to protest “crap and tax” — but even THEY weren’t allowed in. Several others who had heard about the rally through Freedom Works, on right wing radio, or in the paper were also locked out.
Yesterday’s rally was the first of about twenty rallies that will be staged nationwide over the next few weeks. Thanks to Greenpeace, we already knew Big Oil’s game plan: rally up a bunch of Astroturf support to kill cap and trade. But now we know the full story — they don’t even want to hear the voices of their real grassroots. These events are by invitation only, and all other members of the public — for or against climate legislation — will be shut out. If you don’t work for the company, you’re not invited to the picnic.
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Excellent post! Pretty much confirms everything you’d suspect about these astroturfers…
For instance, not surprised to hear there were folks present who had absolutely no idea what they were there for, since they were pretty much all there because their boss told them to go.
But I’m still surprised that they didn’t allow anyone not from an oil company in… ha! What a sham.
Seriously, really great post. Drop me a line when you get the full video put together, I’ll happily post about it on the Greenpeace blog.
When I said I wasn’t with an energy company but was a member of the media, he said I was misrepresenting myself and summarily kicked me out.
OMG! They should appreciate someone “misrepresenting themselves,” seeing as how they sent phony letters and petitions to Congress pretending to be minority and senior citizens groups!!
[...] Cross-posted from TexasVox.org. [...]
[...] Read more about it at our sister blog, TexasVoxorg. [...]
great work! i’ve seen “friends for coal” outside of a senate hearing on mountain top removal…i don’t know who paid them to be there, probably some front group for the coal industry, but they had t-shirts and they all looked the same, but some said “friends” and some said “citizens for coal”. i guess they couldn’t figure out what to call their rent-a-mob before they started printing out shirts.
i volunteer for 1Sky, and we’re all trying to brace ourselves for the upcoming craziness…astroturf is getting way out of hand. i’ll pass this blog on to them, if they haven’t seen it already. thanx for all u do!
ah, never mind, it’s on their front page! cool!
[...] Citizen Texas crashed the American Petroleum Intitute’s “grassroots” rally of 2500 oil employees against clean energy [...]
Nice work TexasVox! You have given us new insight about what it means to work for an old-guard energy company. Clearly, sharing (or at least agreeing with) the corrupt politics of your employer is a requirement for employment at these dinosaurs of industry. This really shows how the corrupting influence of Big Oil works both ways, toward Washington by unduly influencing our elected officials and into the rank and file by demanding lock-step support of their policies.
Keep up the great work!
[...] Since then, I have received a lot of emails from oil company employees who know these fake rallies are wrong. Members of the Texas Public Citizen group attended the rally, and as they rightly report these were more of a company picnic than a spontaneous uprising of citizens. [...]
[...] then there’s the astroturf lobbying event our Texas team uncovered earlier this week. On Tuesday, they drove down to Houston to crash the American Petroleum [...]
[...] groups backed the event. Similar rallies are expected in 19 states in the next few weeks. An NGO sneaked around the grounds, concluding the event was a large “company [...]
Houston has suffered its hottest summer on record http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/climate/reviews/080109pns.txt . I would imagine even the strongest of faith are feeling the global warming heat…
[...] So, the Houston energy companies had their big company picnic yesterday in opposition to the climate change bill. The event was closed to everyone but energy company employees (or as the signs said, “Energy Citizens”). But Sarah McDonald, of Public Citizen, managed to sneak in and posted this report. [...]
[...] groups backed the event. Similar rallies are expected in 19 states in the next few weeks. An NGO sneaked around the grounds, concluding the event was a large “company [...]
[...] Public Citizen Texas managed to sneak into the rally, and they have excellent reports and video here, here, and here. Check out this small snippet from Sarah McDonald’s [...]
[...] to break the dweller Petroleum Institute’s Energy Citizen event. Original post: Houston's Energy Citizens Company Picnic « TexasVox: The Voice of … Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: and-trade, bill-currently, crash-the, energy, event, [...]
[...] disagree with Public Citizen’s take that the industry folks attending were not knowledgeable or motivated about [...]
[...] also disagree with Public Citizen’s take that the industry folks attending were not knowledgeable or motivated about cap-and-tax. [...]
[...] ground-up movement against a federal climate change bill. But it turned out that the event was more of a company picnic than a grassroots campaign; they blocked our entry and wouldn’t even let in the “real” anti-cap and trade [...]
[...] was Sarah McDonald, a staff member of Austin-based Public Citizen Texas. On that group’s TexasVox blog, she said the rally reminded her of a “company picnic” and confessed that her favorite [...]