Little Green Men and their ‘Indispensible’ Big Green Lobbyists

Today E&E News reports (subscription required) green group faux-rage that industry reps were consulted on drafting an amendment by Sen. Lisa Murkowski to (IMO, rather unwisely) grant the Democrats a one-year reprieve from their looming political nightmare of EPA threatening to actually try and regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources by regulation under a Clean Air Act never designed for such foolishness.

Such unseemly whimpering is about as credible as the greens’ phony “hacked emails!” outrage, over what was from all appearances a whistleblower releasing “ClimateGate” email evidence of dirty green tricks. These are the same crowd whose slimy green tactics include stealing my trash on a weekly basis and working with, e.g., the Guardian to dishonestly cobble together unrelated, out-of-context (unlike ClimateGate) excerpts from emails to paint a false picture. (”Greens involved in journalism process!”; sadly, the Guardian never called me for their “story” about, well, me, so I must confess I wasn’t involved).

Specifically, E&E notes how:

“the Washington Post reported yesterday that [Bracewell & Giuliani's Jeff Holmstead] and another former EPA official, Roger Martella, ‘helped craft the original amendment Murkowski planned to offer on the floor last fall.’…

Environmentalists pounced on the reports as evidence that coal and oil interests are behind Murkowski’s efforts. ‘We now have proof that lobbyists for Big Oil, dirty coal and other special interests are directly involved in recent attempts to bail out big polluters and gut the Clean Air Act,’ said a Sierra Club press release. ‘What’s more, these big polluter lobbyists are the same former Bush administration officials who completely disregarded the Clean Air Act and even disobeyed the Supreme Court for years.’

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: alcoa, Big Business, Big Green, clean air act, climategate
Posted Jan 12th 2010 at 10:37 am in Congress, Environment, News, Politics | 5873823 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/chorner/2010/01/12/little-green-men-and-their-indispensible-big-green-lobbyists/Little+Green+Men+and+their+%27Indispensible%27+Big+Green+Lobbyists2010-01-12+18%3A37%3A29Christopher+C.+Horner

Cap-n-Trade: Now 10% Fraud-Free!

Here’s something to consider for those who wondered why the usual suspects flew up in arms earlier this week over reports that ‘Circle of Commitment’, countries including the U.S., were seeking to wrest control of the Kyoto revenue mechanism to the World Bank (there’s no such move afoot, incidentally; that was merely an overwrought reaction to said suspects finding something that they hadn’t been allowed to write).

That of course would have implications for the “global carbon offset market” if Kyoto II ropes us in and finally begins chugging down the tracks, next stop “Oil for Food on Steroids”.

Today’s Open Europe press briefing includes the following item (in bold in original):

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: cap-and-trade, climate change, Emissions Trading, Enron, European Union
Posted Dec 10th 2009 at 11:19 am in Economics, Environment, Politics | 4416631 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/chorner/2009/12/10/cap-n-trade-now-10-fraud-free/Cap-n-Trade%3A+Now+10%25+Fraud-Free%212009-12-10+18%3A19%3A50Christopher+C.+Horner

Obama Stimulus Numbers: The Return of Enron-Style Accounting

The Sarbanes-Oxley Law was rushed through Congress in the wake of an enormous corporate accounting scandal that shook Wall Street and investors across the country. CEO’s and officers at several large companies were found to have “cooked the books”; i.e. knowingly falsified earnings statements to maintain stock prices or propel them higher. The practice came to be known as, Enron-Style Accounting.

The new law had many provisions, but one of its more sweeping was the requirement that corporate officers and executives assume personal responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of financial reports. In some cases, corporate officers could face civil or even criminal penalties if the numbers they reported to the public turned out to be inaccurate.

If only the law applied to politicians.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: accounting scandals, Enron, federal spending, Franklin Center, GAO
Posted Nov 19th 2009 at 6:47 am in Economics, Featured Story, News, Obama, Politics | 3349082 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2009/11/19/obama-stimulus-numbers-the-return-of-enron-style-accounting/Obama+Stimulus+Numbers%3A+The+Return+of+Enron-Style+Accounting2009-11-19+13%3A47%3A45Mike+Flynn

AstroTurfing and Global Warming: The Testimony You’re Not Supposed to Hear

The Democratic majority objected to my appearing at a House hearing this morning addressing AstroTurfing in the global warming advocacy industry. The majority were not amused by the prospect of a discordant note being struck. As such, the Republicans will have no witnesses. They have agreed to this after being challenged. In Washington, we call times such as these “weekdays”.

The hearing actually has devolved into something of an effort to rehabilitate certain Members who are now imperiled by their vote for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, particularly Tom Periello of Central Virginia (my Congressman, who has been hoodwinked by someone into stating, in defense of his vote, that the reason we are losing jobs to India and China is because they’ve already passed Waxman-Markey-type laws. Really. I agree we need to find out who is spreading such scurrilous tales to our lawmakers).

So, Rep. Periello will open the proceedings with a statement. The hearing was already delayed once because he refused to let anyone see what he was going to say in advance. They might ask questions. I don’t think that’s much of a threat.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: astroturf, cap-and-trade, climate change, Craigslist, David Axelrod
Posted Oct 29th 2009 at 8:30 am in Congress, Environment, Politics | 2223838 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/chorner/2009/10/29/astroturfing-and-global-warming-the-testimony-youre-not-supposed-to-hear/AstroTurfing+and+Global+Warming%3A+The+Testimony+You%27re+Not+Supposed+to+Hear2009-10-29+15%3A30%3A49Christopher+C.+Horner

Fool Me Hundreds of Times: Who Gets to Clean Up ACORN?

Imagine: In the days following the public revelations of the accounting scandal at Enron, then-CEO Ken Lay convened a news conference. He forcefully expressed his disgust with the actions of his subordinates and vowed to begin “cleaning house” at the company. Taking a few turns to slam the company’s critics and the reporters who had uncovered the scandal, he stressed that, this time, there would be a thorough revamp of the company. He even said that people would be fired! Reassured, reporters, lawmakers and regulators shrugged and went back to their daily lives.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis and Former Enron CEO Ken Lay

Substitute Bertha Lewis for Ken Lay and ACORN for Enron, in this hypothetical situation, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what was asked of us at Lewis’ tour-de-force theatrical performance at the National Press Club earlier this week. She alternated between attacking her critics, expressing disgust with the actions of her employees caught on tape by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles and vowing to pursue a lawsuit against the filmmakers for capturing on film her employees’ misdeeds. Oh, and by the way, she really, really—she means it this time—intends to “clean house” at ACORN.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank captured the surreal tableau best:

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, ACORN Czar, ACORN embezzlement, acorn scandal, ACORN video scandal
Posted Oct 9th 2009 at 6:00 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Featured Story, Politics | 1467842 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2009/10/09/who-gets-to-clean-up-acorn/Fool+Me+Hundreds+of+Times%3A+Who+Gets+to+Clean+Up+ACORN%3F+2009-10-09+13%3A00%3A26Mike+Flynn

ACORN’S Enron-Style Accounting: Playing Musical Chairs with Big Money

The activities of the radical, corrupt to the core, left-wing Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which has tangled itself up in an infinitely complex web of deceit, thuggery, and questionable financial dealings, are long overdue for a RICO probe.

Recent well-publicized events that I need not recount here show ACORN’s criminal propensities. In a moment I’ll explain how ACORN’s financial affairs ought to raise a red flag for investigators at the U.S. Department of Justice, but first some background.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which was created to prosecute organized crime, allows the federal government to go after individuals who commit any two RICO-related crimes over a decade. The law allows courts to convict persons if it can be shown that they committed those crimes as part of an illegal enterprise and can order disgorgement of their ill-gotten gains from the enterprise.

RICO is the right tool for the job.

Perhaps it’s the only tool for the job because the ACORN network is deliberately structured to deter scrutiny. Its nebulous legal status and opaque corporate structure allow it to keep its activities largely hidden from public view.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, ACORN International Inc., Affiliated Media/Foundation Movement, American Institute for Social Justice Inc., American Spectator
Posted Sep 25th 2009 at 7:10 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama | 797431 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/09/25/acorns-enron-style-accounting-playing-musical-chairs-with-big-money/ACORN%E2%80%99S+Enron-Style+Accounting%3A+Playing+Musical+Chairs+with+Big+Money2009-09-25+14%3A10%3A22Matthew+Vadum