As was shown in the Energy-in-Depth (EID) series, EID is a public relations campaign managed by FTI Consulting and supported by Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA).
Vote-4-Energy (V4E) follows a similar path. V4E is a public relations campaign managed by Edelman, (Public Relations firm) and supported by the American Petroleum Institute.
Per Vote-4-Energy website:
“… a project of the American Petroleum Institute representing more than 490 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $85 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested more than $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.”
Per Polluterwatch: “The American Petroleum Institute (API), and their PR firm Edelman, were filming a new series of TV commercials that we learned API plans to air nationally on CNN starting in January.”
Let’s look at the API Energy rallies. A 2009 API confidential memo was obtained by Greenpeace (see page 2) which outlines plans for rallies:
“As I have outlined in the past few editions of the weekly “Executive Update,” API is coordinating a series of “Energy Citizen” rallies in about 20 states across the country during the last two weeks of Congress’s August recess. Most of these will be held at noontime, though some may be at different times in order to piggyback on other events. Thanks to the leadership of API’s Executive Committee, I am pleased to report that we have strong support for this first-ever effort moving ahead. Now we are asking all API members to get involved.
The objective of these rallies is to put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy and to aim a loud message at those states’ U.S. Senators to avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill and the Obama Administration’s tax increases on our industry.”
2009 Houston Rally – with Paid Human Faces
Oil Industry Backs Protests of Emissions Bill
NY Times | By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JAD MOUAWAD | August 18, 2009
Excerpts: (Emphasis added)
“The event on Tuesday was organized by a group called Energy Citizens, which is backed by the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s main trade group. Many of the people attending the demonstration were employees of oil companies who work in Houston and were bused from their workplaces.”
“A public relations firm hired by a pro-coal industry group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, recently sent at least 58 letters opposing new climate laws to members of Congress. An investigation by the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming found that a total of 13 letters sent by the firm, Bonner & Associates, were forgeries. The committee is currently investigating another 45 letters to determine whether they are fakes. The letters purported to be from groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Hispanic organizations.
Bonner & Associates has acknowledged the forgeries, blaming them on a temporary employee who was subsequently fired. The coal coalition has apologized for the fake letters and said it was cooperating with an investigation of the matter by a Congressional committee.”
Per SourceWatch: (Emphasis Added)
“Energy Citizens is a front group backed by the American Petroleum Institute, the main trade group and lobbying arm of the oil industry, to fight climate change legislation currently working its way through Congress”
“In January, 2012, Energy Citizens launched a new national ad campaign in advance of the 2012 elections to try and make it sound like public support exists for increased drilling. The print and TV ads, coordinated by the Edelman PR firm, were titled “I’m an Energy Voter.” They feature supposedly average people looking into the camera and saying “I vote …for American domestic energy ” and promoting the industry’s goals of opening up more land to oil and gas drilling. The ads linked increasing drilling to job creation, economic prosperity and national energy security, and drive people to the website Vote4Energy.org. The homepage of the website gave no indication that Energy Citizens is a creation of the oil industry. API CEO Jack Gerard insisted the effort is “not an ad campaign…It’s a conversation with the American people.”
In July 2012, Vote-4-Energy held a rally in New York City, according to Energy-in-Depth (EID) “thousands” attended.
EID explains: “What you didn’t see in these videos were the thousands of others who shared their stories in casual conversations throughout the day.” EID offers the above photo of the thousands of others who casually shared stories.
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So fracking lame . . .
A generation ago this would have been a “smoke -in” of tobacco growers and cigarette company employees
free food for the fracked masses!!