June 27, 2014
With much fanfare and political photo-ops, the media was flooded with stories about a new pro-natural gas “grassroots” group back in march 2014. The name of the group is United Shale Advocates (USA). As was pointed out in GASROOTS – United Shale Advocates is far from being a grassroots organization. It’s gas-roots, or more to the point ASTROTURF. Astroturf groups are industry backed groups posing as “Grass”roots. In other words, just as Astroturf is fake grass, Astroturf groups are fake grassroots groups. More proof was found today in the form of a “Robo-email Blasts” urging members to write their legislators. They even tell the members what to write. Many gas-roots Astroturf groups, industry spokespeople, and supporters have accused Fracktivist groups of using Robo-email Blasts in the past. Somehow, when a […]
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April 4, 2014
Last month the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), a fossil fuel funded lobbying organization, launched a “grassroots” advocacy program. “The goal of United Shale Advocates (USA) is to give a voice and a platform to those who support shale development in Pennsylvania but who are not directly involved in the industry”, said Steve Forde, vice president of communications and outreach for the Pittsburgh-based Marcellus Shale Coalition. What does that mean? It means we have yet another fossil fuel funded public relations campaign masquerading as grassroots. The term “grassroots” implies that the creation of the movement and the group happens at the local level, as many volunteers in the community give their time, energy and resources to work on an issue which concerns them. A true grassroots organization does not typically have […]
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