Barack Obama's emissions plan comes under new line of attack from fossil fuel moguls

These people can afford to live away from the pollution their companies produce.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/02/barack-obamas-emissions-plan-comes-under-new-line-of-attack

Suzanne Goldenberg
May 2, 2014

The central pillar of Barack Obama's climate change agenda has come under a new line of co-ordinated attack from influential lobbying networks involving Republican politicians and big business.

The Guardian has learned that the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a free market group of state legislators funded in part by coal and oil companies such as Peabody Energy and Koch Industries, launched a much broader style of campaigning in 2014 to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Documents obtained by the Guardian offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Alec as the organisation tried to drum up opposition from coal, oil and electricity industry groups and state officials.

The documents showed Alec adopting a new tactic of encouraging state attorney generals to bring lawsuits against the new EPA regulations – and so sink the emissions controls before they come into effect. Alec also encouraged legislators to lobby attorney generals and governors in other states on the EPA rules, the documents showed.

Meanwhile, Alec legislators introduced about a dozen anti-EPA bills in states including Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Virginia.

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The document was obtained through a public records request by the Centre for Media and Democracy (CMD), and made available to the Guardian. Ollison, when asked, did not dispute the accuracy of the document.

"Alec has become quite well known and notorious for promoting model legislation. This is different," said Nick Surgey, director of research for CMD which investigates corporate influence on public policy. "Alec is engaging much more broadly in the campaign against the EPA regulations, and they are doing so by asking their members to advocate for the coal industry with attorney generals.

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The EPA proposed new rules for future power plants late last year, and is due to outline the standards for existing power plants in June.

Power plants are the biggest single source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the proposed EPA rules are at the core of Obama's climate change strategy.

The proposed rules for future power plants would make it impossible to build new coal-fired power plants without investing in new carbon capturing technologies. Republican elected officials and industry groups have accused the EPA of waging a "war on coal".

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Alec also remains active on other environmental issues. The group is tracking some 130 bills in state legislatures to support the Keystone XL pipeline project, block controls on fracking, and make it more expensive for homeowners to invest in solar panels – as well as block the EPA regulations, according to internal documents.

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