September 25, 2009

New Front Group: “CO2 is Green”

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The Washington Post has a piece today on the group behind new anti-climate-bill ads running around the country that are so absurd you might mistake them for parody.

The ads, which have so far targeted the districts of Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), argue that the billions of tons of carbon dioxide we’re spewing into the atmosphere are actually good for the planet.

“There is no scientific evidence that CO2 is a pollutant,” say the ads. “In fact higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth’s ecosystems.”

 

The ads, reminiscent of the “Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution, we call it life” ads that the Competitive Enterprise Institute ran back in 2006, come from a new front group calling itself “CO2 Is Green.” Behind the group are H. Leighton Steward, an oil industry executive, and Corbin J. Robertson Jr., chief executive and leading shareholder of the Texas-based coal company Natural Resource Partners. Natural Resource Partners general counsel Wyatt L. Hogan is also on the group’s board.

They’ve devoted $1 million to the advocacy group, and have also applied for 501(c)(3) status for a “Plants Need CO2” group to work on “education.”

The Post article is good, but here are a few points they missed out on that tie this group to other efforts to thwart climate change legislation. First, Steward isn’t just any former oil executive, but also currently the honorary director of the American Petroleum Institute—the group behind the “Energy Citizen” rallies this summer.

And Natural Resource Partners is also a member of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), the scandal-plagued coal front group currently under investigation for its role in the forged letters sent to members of Congress criticizing the House climate bill.

The group took out a half-page ad in the Post earlier this week. For some more of the greatest hits in climate skepticism, see the CO2 is Green website. Highlights:

Is CO2 a Pollutant? NO: Humans inhale and exhale CO2 with every breath. How could anyone expect you to believe it is a human health hazard?

Is Earth Warming? NO: The Inconvenient Truth: The World is now cooling, not warming.

What is the causing the cooling? If you guessed the sun. You are correct.

You can also check out their TV ad.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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