Kate Sheppard

Reporter

Kate Sheppard is a staff reporter in Mother Jones' Washington bureau. She was previously the political reporter for Grist and a writing fellow at The American Prospect. She can be reached by email at ksheppard (at) motherjones (dot) com.

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Her work has also been featured in the New York Times' Room for Debate blog, the Guardian's Comment Is Free, Foreign Policy, High Country News, The Center for Public Integrity, the Washington Independent, Washington Spectator, Who Runs Gov, In These Times, and Bitch. She was raised on a vegetable farm in southern New Jersey (yes, they do exist), but has adapted well to life in the nation's capital. She misses trees and having a congressional representative with voting power, but thinks DC is pretty great anyway.

Republicans Threaten to Boycott Climate Bill Markup

—By Kate Sheppard

| Fri Oct. 30, 2009 1:37 PM PDT

After three days of hearings on the climate bill this week, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee planned to start marking up the legislation on Tuesday. Or, at least the Democrats on the panel intended to do so. The Republicans are now threatening to boycott the session—which could prevent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Ca.) from moving the legislation out of her committee.

Boxer doesn't need Republicans to actually vote for the bill—Democrats hold a 12-7 majority on the panel. But she does need two GOP senators present to hold a markup, according to committee rules. The proposed boycott is apparently being lead by Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Voinovich says he wants extra time so the EPA can produce a more comprehensive assessment of the bill (read: an assessment that he agrees with).

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

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Bonner's "Legal" Astroturfing Activities Also Extremely Dubious

—By Kate Sheppard

| Fri Oct. 30, 2009 1:28 PM PDT

The congressional investigation into the forged Bonner letters has exposed a number of clearly or potentially illegal activities conducted by or on behalf of the coal industry in its fight against the Waxman-Markey climate bill. But the documents released by the investigation also made plain that even the ostensibly legal astroturfing activities of the industry and its contractors are at best really, really questionable.

The documents show that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) hired contractors who reached out to community groups representing vulnerable constituencies and blatantly mislead those groups about their motivations. ACCCE paid a PR company, the Hawthorn Group, nearly $3 million in 2009 for "outreach to individuals and groups representing the interests of minorities, seniors, business, and veterans." Hawthorn in turn hired Bonner and Associates to drum up letters from those groups. The plan, as an email between Hawthorn and Bonner confirms, was to send the letters to politically weak Democrats who were still on the fence about their vote on the climate bill.

The investigation shows that even the 45 supposedly "legit" letters that Bonner managed to generate from these groups were elicited under false pretenses. Bonner employees were provided with a script that directed them to identify themselves as "working with seniors" or "working with vets"—without ever mentioning that they were actually calling on behalf of the coal industry. Callers were then instructed to play on the economic anxieties of the constituency in question:

"Hi xyz, I am working with seniors/retirees to help stop their utility bills from doubling," reads one script offered to Bonner employees.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Bonner's Five Point Plan for Quality Control

—By Kate Sheppard

| Fri Oct. 30, 2009 6:21 AM PDT

Jack Bonner, head of Bonner and Associates, insisted in congressional testimony on Thursday that the forged letters his company sent to lawmakers were the work of a single "rogue" employee, not the result of any deeper problems at his firm. The incident, Bonner's lawyer wrote in a letter to the committee, "was an anomaly in the lengthy and honorable operation of this business."

Regardless, Bonner has now developed a "five point action plan" which it believes will prevent dishonest conduct and help the company "earn the reputation as the industry leader for the highest quality standards." Unfortunately, the big plan reads more like a list of very basic procedures that should have been in place all along, such as checking the resumes of employees, introducing an ethics policy, and making sure employees don't lie. The full plan is below the jump:

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Should the DOJ Take Up the Letter Fraud Case?

—By Kate Sheppard

| Thu Oct. 29, 2009 3:25 PM PDT

Will the coal industry representative who may have lied under oath to Congress on Thursday face legal repercussions?

Steve Miller, CEO for American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a major coal industry lobby group, said under oath that his organization "has never opposed the Waxman-Markey bill," when in fact the group both publicly opposed the House climate bill and funded campaigns to convince legislators to vote against it.

Mother Jones contacted the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming to see whether they plan to pursue the issue. "We are currently reviewing the testimony and we will make any assessments on steps going forward after we review the testimony," said Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for the committee.

If the committee decides that there's cause to believe that Miller perjured himself, the matter would be turned over to the Department of Justice for investigation.

Activist groups are already hoping that the DOJ will get involved. After the details of the forged letters broke in August, the Sierra Club asked the DOJ to look into the case as potential wire fraud and MoveOn urged its members to sign a petition asking for a DOJ investigation.

Did Coal Lobby CEO Lie Under Oath?

—By Kate Sheppard

| Thu Oct. 29, 2009 10:41 AM PDT

In testimony before Congress on Thursday, Steve Miller, CEO for American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a major coal industry lobby group, stated under oath that his organization "has never opposed the Waxman-Markey bill."

But ACCCE's previous statements indicate otherwise. On the day that the House passed the legislation, Miller himself issued a press release stating, "ACCCE cannot support this bill, as it is written because the legislation still does not adequately protect consumers and the domestic economy."

In addition, documents released Thursday by a congressional investigation into 13 forged letters sent to Congress by an ACCCE subcontractor show that ACCCE spent nearly $3 million this year on so-called grassroots efforts to persuade vulnerable legislators to vote against the Waxman-Markey bill. (Miller did tell the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming that ACCCE "supports federal carbon legislation that could include a mandatory cap-and-trade.")

An email exchange between ACCCE's contractor, the Hawthorn Group, and its subcontractor, Bonner and Associates, identifies seven House Democrats to be pressured to oppose the bill. The email describes Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.) as "a potential/probable 'no' vote on here so we're doing a little more intel to determine whether or not to keep him on our target list." The goal was clearly to convince members to vote against the measure. Once they were known to oppose it, they could be taken off the list.

Carney did indeed go on to vote against Waxman-Markey, along with five of the other targeted members. Yet ACCCE testified on Thursday that they did not actively campaign to get members to vote against the bill.

The coal industry group wasn't the only one making questionable claims in the hearing. Jack Bonner, head of Bonner and Associates—the ACCCE subcontractor that sent the forged letters—testified that his organization made a sincere effort to reach out to the community organizations whose names were misappropriated, as well as the lawmakers who received the forgeries. But the written and oral testimony from both Bonner and the community groups makes it clear that Bonner took its time. The Waxman-Markey vote was on June 26, and ACCCE, Bonner and Hawthorn all knew about the forgeries at least 48 hours before that. "Our immediate reaction to the fraud was to advise our client and reach out to the organizations," Bonner told Congress. Yet Bonner staffers didn't actually begin reaching out until June 29 (to one of the community organizations) and July 1 (to members of Congress). They didn't speak to the staff of two forgery recipients until July 13, and never contacted Carney's office at all. Lisa Maatz, director of public policy and government relations for the American Association of University Women, said she only learned about a fake letter bearing her organization's name by reading about it in the newspaper. Hilary Shelton, senior vice president for advocacy and policy of the NAACP, said his group found out when contacted by the media.

By the end of Thursday's hearing, only Select Committee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wa.) were present to grill the witnesses. But they evidently weren't satisfied with the answers they received: After the hearing, Markey indicated that his committee will continue looking into the case.