Debunking the Right's False Notions of Energy, Environment, and Economics
Summary
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been quietly operating in the statehouses of America for years pushing the agenda of some of the nation's largest corporations, including Enron, ExxonMobil and Phillip Morris.
Name the issue and corporations have created public-spirited sounding research front groups and astroturf lobbying outfits to aid the legislative onslaught. And ALEC is there to help coordinate and bless their lobbying efforts through their legislative network. Progressive States Network's Governing the Nation from the Stateshouses outlined how ALEC has acted as a front group for corporate lobbying outfits like the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), a coalition of more than 300 major corporations and trade associations working for “tort reform” restrictions on consumer rights or on behalf of groups like the National Association of Home Builders and others in fighting for corporate urban policies and lower wages for working people.
In the case of energy policy and climate change, ALEC has been the handmaiden of big oil companies, receiving a whopping $712,000 from ExxonMobil along during the 1990s. Dupont, Dow and Edison Electric are among other companies that have paid millions to support ALEC's campaign to dismiss global warming as an unimportant problem. The unsurprising result is ALEC's Energy, Environment, and Economics, which claims to be "A Guide for State Legislators" but is really an instruction manual for obstructing needed clean energy reforms.
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