October 29, 2009
Contact:
Virginia Cramer, 804-225-9113 x 102
Congress Shines Light on Dirty Coal Dealings
Sierra Club Will Tweet on Tricks
Lobbyist Jack Bonner of Bonner & Associates and Steve Miller, CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), are among those scheduled to testify today before a Congressional investigative committee. Both groups are at the center of a widening scandal involving forged letters and lobby spending discrepancies. The letters, purported to come from veterans, senior, minority and women’s groups, wrongly urged members of Congress to vote against clean energy legislation.
The Sierra Club will be covering the revelations at the hearing using the Twitter feed @NoNewCoal. Tweets will feature the #nocoal hashtag.
In anticipation of the hearing, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope issued the following statement:
"The very fact that this investigation is being held is another reminder of how dirty politics can get when industry puts its own interest above the public interest. Big Oil, Big Coal and other special interests have already spent millions to defeat clean energy legislation, and in doing so have managed to undermine the tradition of public involvement on which our government is built.
"We cannot let polluters get away with their dirty business-as-usual ways. This week the Senate is holding hearings on a clean energy jobs bill that will ensure we have less pollution, more jobs and greater security. It is an important step toward a clean energy economy that works for everyone.
"But Big Coal and Oil are fighting against this progress, spending tens of millions of dollars in an attempt to drown out the calls for a clean energy economy that are coming from real citizens across the country. These polluters are fighting hard for billions in giveaways that would encourage the construction of more dirty coal-fired power plants.
"The Senate must fight back against the old polluting industries and pass a strong clean energy jobs bill that will create jobs, boost the economy, switch to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, and fight global warming."
(For live coverage of the Senate hearings on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, follow the Twitter feed @SierraClubLive or visit the Sierra Club Compass blog at www.sierraclub.org/compass.)
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