A new line of intrigue in the Energy Citizen astroturf events: turns out that, on top of being funded by the American Petroleum Institute and stocked with (at the Houston event, exclusively) energy company employees, the majority of them are also being organized by oil-industry lobbyists.
Kate Sheppard from Grist reports:
Here’s more evidence that the “Energy Citizens” rallies against climate legislation are anything but grassroots uprisings. We already knew that the American Petroleum Institute was behind the whole idea. Now it turns out that even the local organizers of individual rallies are oil-industry lobbyists.
Grist obtained a copy of API’s list of coordinators for the 21 planned rallies, and 15 of them are registered lobbyists, mostly for API or its state-level affiliates.
There have already been three “Energy Citizens” rallies—in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday; in Roswell, N.M., on Thursday; and in Lima, Ohio, on Friday. Others are planned for cities around the U.S. during the rest of the August congressional recess.
