ALEC's private-sector chair of its Energy Committee is also a federal lobbyist for the gas industry

[highplainsdem]

Found this, while googling, in the bio for this contributor to the American Gas Association's True Blue Natural Gas blog:

http://www.truebluenaturalgas.org/thomas-l-moskitis/

Thomas L. Moskitis

Tom Moskitis has spent over three decades as an ardent advocate for natural gas. He joined the Washington Gas Light Company in the nation’s capital in 1973 shortly after graduating from the University of Maryland with a BA degree in political science. He earned an MBA in Marketing from the same school and joined the American Gas Association in 1980. Mr. Moskitis represents America’s Natural Gas Utilities before the United States Congress as a federal lobbyist, concentrating on gas supply and financial issues, and is also involved in many of the association’s marketing and communications programs. Tom is the current Private Sector Chair of the Energy Committee of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and is on the Board of Advisors for the Consumer Energy Alliance.

-snip-

ALEC's activities supposedly don't involve lobbying. An ALEC press release in March, first discussed in this topic
'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x777851

included a complaint about NPR supposedly misrepresenting the nature of ALEC by describing it as back-door lobbying.

ALEC had responded to that NPR story last October with a convoluted "explanation" of why what it does supposedly isn't lobbying:

ALEC is a private organization similar to membership organizations such as the YMCA. Federal law allows non-profits to protect the privacy of non-profit donors, but requires all non-profits to publicly disclose annual financial reports. ALEC fully complies with all federal and state requirements. ALEC’s public and private membership brochures are available on ALEC’s web site. ALEC is supported by hundreds of non-profits, corporations, foundations and individuals. Members can bring draft legislation before task forces to become ALEC policy. The policies are debated and voted on by all members. Public and private members vote separately on policy. It is important to note that laws are not passed, debated or adopted during this process and therefore no lobbying takes place. That process is done at the state legislatures.

ALEC meeting agendas are made public on the web site at www.alec.org . Meeting schedules are packed with education seminars on industry and public policy. If legislators are to establish laws to regulate business, they should be provided opportunities to learn from industry and policy experts how laws and regulations affect the economy. In the U.S., we are fortunate to live in a free-market, free-speech society where citizens, organized groups and businesses can have a voice in the development of their laws and regulations. It is the U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses and working Americans that will lead our country in sustainable economic growth and stability. Just like teachers, farmers and ranchers, senior citizens, and other groups, businesses have the right to representation and to inform legislators about their industry.

Emphasis added.

ALEC's position seems to be that since "all" the group does is prepare model legislation it would like its legislator members to introduce and pass (model legislation that HAS to be approved by private-sector ALEC members before getting final approval), and it does this at national meetings instead of at a state legislature, this is NOT lobbying.

Most people would disagree. And according to the Wikipedia article on lobbying

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying

even the narrow definition of lobbying by the IRS includes "asking policymakers to take a specific position on a specific piece of legislation, or that ask others to ask the same."

ALEC not only provides the legislation, it sends out "issue alerts" to legislators, as mentioned in reply 118 in the compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council. That post is about legislation ALEC was pushing to get rid of the capital gains tax in Arkansas. The bill's sponsor put the "issue alert" from ALEC on his Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150105062378004

So it's not surprising that the private-sector chair of ALEC's Energy Committee would be a federal lobbyist -- while via ALEC he's also in effect a lobbyist influencing many state legislatures at once.

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