Coal Industry Pays Fake Activists $50 To Wear Pro-Coal Shirts At Public Hearing

[kristopher]

Coal Industry Pays Fake Activists $50 To Wear Pro-Coal Shirts At Public Hearing
By Rebecca Leber on May 25, 2012 at 11:38 am



"Activists" offered $50 to wear pro-coal shirts.



Apparently unable to find real activists, the coal industry paid astroturfers $50 to wear pro-coal t-shirts at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing yesterday.

The EPA hearings, held yesterday in Chicago and Washington, D.C., were focused on the agency’s first-ever carbon standards for new power plants. The industry has adamantly opposed these standards, as well as standards on mercury — a pollutant that even Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) admits is harmful.

This year, coal is throwing around its weight by spending tens of millions of dollars on media advertising and political contributions.

Coal is also engaging in fake advocacy campaigns, known as astroturfing. In a Craigslist ad found by the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, a coal group promised participants $50 to “wear a t-shirt in support of an energy project.” Upon further digging, the Sierra Club blog pieced together much of the deleted Craigslist ad:

People needed to attend a public meeting (Tinley Park /Chicago)

Reply to: [e-mail] (email address no longer valid)

Looking for people THIS THURSDAY, MAY 24 who want to make a couple of dollars for a few hours of your time.

All you need to do is wear a t-shirt in support of an energy project for two hours during the public meeting. We will be departing the Tinely Park convention center at 8:15 am for the meeting and we will be back by 1:30 pm. For your time we will pay you $50 cash and provide you lunch once we return to the convention center.

...

See screenshot of ad at: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/05/25/490340/coal-astroturfing-epa-hearing/

[freshwest]

1. Because the American people don't know the difference between 'free speech' and 'paid for speech.'

[patrice]

2. 1+

[kristopher]

3. Well, if *I* don't have to pay for it, doesn't that make it free?

my header is the ballon I imagine over the head of the character in a cartoon wearing an Elephant button.

[WriteWrong]

4. What ELSE will these people do for $50?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Multiple prior threads in other groups/forums

[kristopher]

6. Good! The more coverage of what the coal/nuclear complex is up to, the better.

[AllyCat]

7. It's like the GOP paying WI residents to put pro-Walker signs in their yards

They can't find supporters, they have to pay them.

[kristopher]

8. that's a backhanded way of buying votes.