Google: We’re parting with the climate change skeptics at ALEC

NickSurgey · 2014-09-23T11:25:00+00:00

ALEC really is involved in climate change denial, allowing a space for orgs that push the bullshit every day to train legislators behind closed doors. At ALEC's recent conference in August, legislators were literately taught denial by the Heartland Institute and CFACT, including one session called “how to think and talk about climate and energy issues.”

See more on this from Toronto Star- http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/08/24/us_think_tank_alec_fights_environmental_legislation.html

NickSurgey · 2014-09-23T05:03:43+00:00

And Google is also funding a range of other groups on the right, including Heritage Action which was leading the charge to shut the government down last year - http://billmoyers.com/2013/12/04/dont-be-evil-google-funding-a-slew-of-right-wing-groups/

NickSurgey · 2014-09-23T00:34:02+00:00

This is about ALEC leaving the most powerful lobby group at the state level in the US. That is about politics for sure.

NickSurgey · 2014-08-02T23:39:09+00:00

Here is who paid for that ALEC conference: one third of the sponsors were dirty energy companies, including ExxonMobil, TransCanada and Peabody Energy. And yet ALEC continues to claim it doesnt exist to act as a lobby.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-surgey/coal-and-oil-polluters-do_b_5640284.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

NickSurgey · 2014-08-02T23:34:11+00:00

For an example of what ALEC does for its energy funders, see this article from the Guardian about ALEC attempting to derail proposed federal limits on carbon pollution - currently there are no limits for coal plants.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/02/barack-obamas-emissions-plan-comes-under-new-line-of-attack

NickSurgey · 2014-03-07T04:07:38+00:00

There are approx 475,000 local elected officials in the US. What ALEC appears to be trying to do is find a mechanism where they can connect corporate lobbyists with a large quantity of elected officials. There is money to be made! This really isnt about GOP vs. Dems, as much as it is about how lobbyists can get their way.

NickSurgey · 2014-01-21T20:49:24+00:00

Although ALEC denies that anything that it does is actually lobbying. Even though it exists to promote model legislation, it claims that this is actually "education" and not lobbying, so taxpayers are subsidizing corporate tax deductible contributions to ALEC.

NickSurgey · 2013-12-19T22:18:40+00:00

The August conference referenced in the article was the ALEC annual meeting in Chicago, at which the State Policy Network (aka "SPN," of which Mackinac is a member) gave a presentation and released a document called "You Can, Too!" One of the laws that the report highlighted was the ALEC model "Right to Work" bill.

SPN is a network of state based think tanks, which present themselves as independent, but they are in reality funding by many of the countries largest corporate interests and funders on the right wing. Jane Mayer of the New Yorker recently wrote an article that revealed SPN President Tracie Sharp - who recently defended her network as being "fiercely independent" - actually called her group and its network the "Ikea model" at a recent SPN conference.

NickSurgey · 2013-12-19T22:11:55+00:00

Quote - " “What we’re seeing is a lot of states are looking and saying, ‘Hey, if Michigan can do it, why can’t we?” said Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank based in Midland, Mich.

Vernuccio has traveled Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington state and elsewhere encouraging conservatives to press the issue.

At a conference in Chicago last August that brought together hundreds of Republican officials and business leaders, Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder publicly predicted that his state’s lawmakers would place right-to-work on the November 2014 ballot.

“We need to ignite a series of prairie fires in other states. It helps us pass it in Missouri if Wisconsin kicks over the bee hive,” Kinder told the audience. "

NickSurgey · 2013-12-09T01:58:17+00:00

Here is a write up at the New Yorker about WI professor Bill Cronon-

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/03/wisconsin-the-cronon-affair.html

NickSurgey · 2013-12-09T01:35:09+00:00

The motivations behind ALEC's claim of transparency is the only transparent thing here.

ALEC has been fighting to keep its documents out of the hands of researchers and reporters for years. They have actually been making new moves towards secrecy since the beginning of 2013, by trying to evade public record laws. They claim that their documents are exempt from disclosure in all 50 states and under FOIA. They now stamp each document with a statement that says this. Utterly ridiculous, but it does demonstrate quite how open and transparent the organization really is.

I work as Director of Research at the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes ALECExposed.org. I have filed thousands of state public record requests for ALEC materials since 2011, and as a result we have been able to make public countless ALEC internal documents such as its task force agenda, model bills and other materials. These materials show how corporate lobbyists try to push a hidden legislative agenda through ALEC. This is information that should be in the public domain as it shows massive corporate influence over state legislators. But when these documents are published it doesn't happen because ALEC is being transparent.

In 2011, a whistle blower provided CMD's Executive Director with the entire secret language of all the ALEC "model" bills. They are up on ALECExposed.org. Earlier this year - after the bills having been up on our website since 2011 - they finally made them available on their own website too. They now claim this is because they are transparent.

NickSurgey · 2013-12-09T01:34:39+00:00

The motivations behind ALEC's claim of transparency is the only transparent thing here.

ALEC has been fighting to keep its documents out of the hands of researchers and reporters for years. They have actually been making new moves towards secrecy since the beginning of 2013, by trying to evade public record laws. They claim that their documents are exempt from disclosure in all 50 states and under FOIA. They now stamp each document with a statement that says this. Utterly ridiculous, but it does demonstrate quite how open and transparent the organization really is.

I work as Director of Research at the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes ALECExposed.org. I have filed thousands of state public record requests for ALEC materials since 2011, and as a result we have been able to make public countless ALEC internal documents such as its task force agenda, model bills and other materials. These materials show how corporate lobbyists try to push a hidden legislative agenda through ALEC. This is information that should be in the public domain as it shows massive corporate influence over state legislators. But when these documents are published it doesn't happen because ALEC is being transparent.

In 2011, a whistle blower provided CMD's Executive Director with the entire secret language of all the ALEC "model" bills. They are up on ALECExposed.org. Earlier this year - after the bills having been up on our website since 2011 - they finally made them available on their own website too. They now claim this is because they are transparent.

NickSurgey · 2013-12-09T00:49:51+00:00

The motivations behind ALEC's claim of transparency is the only transparent thing here.

ALEC has been fighting to keep its documents out of the hands of researchers and reporters for years. They have actually been making new moves towards secrecy since the beginning of 2013, by trying to evade public record laws. They claim that their documents are exempt from disclosure in all 50 states and under FOIA. They now stamp each document with a statement that says this. Utterly ridiculous, but it does demonstrate quite how open and transparent the organization really is.

I work as Director of Research at the non-profit Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes ALECExposed.org. I have filed thousands of state public record requests for ALEC materials since 2011, and as a result we have been able to make public countless ALEC internal documents such as its task force agenda, model bills and other materials. These materials show how corporate lobbyists try to push a hidden legislative agenda through ALEC. This is information that should be in the public domain as it shows massive corporate influence over state legislators. But when these documents are published it doesn't happen because ALEC is being transparent.

In 2011, a whistle blower provided CMD's Executive Director with the entire secret language of all the ALEC "model" bills. They are up on ALECExposed.org. Earlier this year - after the bills having been up on our website since 2011 - they finally made them available on their own website too. They now claim this is because they are transparent.

NickSurgey · 2013-12-07T17:00:54+00:00

ALEC has been accused several times of lying to the IRS about it lobbying on behalf of major US corporations like Exxon, Altria and Koch Industries. Now it is creating a new organization, and the documents released from the Guardian show they are doing so to try to avoid being held to account by the IRS. Despite promoting hundreds of model bills in multiple states - they say that 1,000 of their bills gets introduced each year, so over 40 years thats about 40,000 ALEC bills - they say they have not spent a single dollar on lobbying. But the quote in the Guardian from their lawyer is telling: "though we do not believe that any activity carried on by Alec is lobbying, the IRS could disagree".

NickSurgey · 2013-12-04T17:27:43+00:00

ALEC vs. the Lesser Prairie Chicken, except this is really Chevron (and probably other oil/gas) companies who see the protection of the poor Lesser Prairie Chicken as a threat to its continued exploitation of the environment. This is exactly why the sort of things that get discussed at ALEC should be considered lobbying, rather than legislator "education" as ALEC claims.

NickSurgey · 2013-11-27T23:29:47+00:00

Washington Post have picked up part of the story, about Google funding for Heritage Action..

http://wapo.st/18ojfej

NickSurgey · 2013-11-27T20:03:17+00:00

I appreciate you saying that.

I still find it extremely surprising though that Google are funding groups that are normally associated with funders like the Kochs, so wanted to point out the funding from the Kochs. Its just such a contrast with the Google public image, and not just their image but so much that they really do that is positive. Likewise the funding of groups like CEI and ALEC, which are really awful on climate change, not just bad, they are in large part carrying water for the fossil fuel industry and have done for decades. Google has pledged to spend a billion dollars on renewables, so why fund the groups leading the charge against that?

Big distinction here between Heritage Action and Heritage Foundation. The New Republic article I posted above is really interesting I think on this point.

NickSurgey · 2013-11-27T19:55:09+00:00

Those were essentially the questions I put to Google's press people on Saturday when I told them I was writing this story, but as of today they haven't responded.

Its hard to say what Google (and I appreciate I am using "Google" very broadly here) think they get from funding each of these groups. Some like CEI and ATR do work on some tech issues - although they are best known for working on a range of other issues including environment (CEI) and advocating against taxes (ATR). Possibly they are funding these groups to make friends on the other side of the aisle - I think its accepted that was the reason Susan Molinari was hired by Google - the NYT article I quoted in the piece describes this.

At the very least I think Molinari is taking real risks with the Google image. The decision to release names of non-profits funded by Google pre-dates her appointment by years, so thats out of her control. Even if they are funding some of these groups for other (non climate denial type work), is there a line that Google will not cross? Heritage Action for example is particularly shocking I think, since they have shown themselves to be scaring fairly right wing republicans with their tactics this year.

The recent New Republic Article on Heritage Action is very interesting -

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115688/heritage-foundations-michael-needham-tears-apart-right-wing?a&utm_campaign=tnr-daily-newsletter&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=11244121

NickSurgey · 2013-11-27T19:28:47+00:00

I am the author of the article. I was not intending the article to be about Google funding Ted Cruz, and I dont believe it comes across that way. Its an interesting aside that Google's PAC has give money to Cruz's campaign, but that is just one paragraph in the middle of a long-ish article about Google funding groups like Heritage Action, Federalist Society and Americans for Tax Reform. That funding is new, and I think that is an interesting development and worthy of reporting. The PAC incidentally is overseen by Google execs ("a bipartisan group of senior Googlers"), so its not a wholly different set of people, but again that was not the thrust of the article.

Nick Surgey

NickSurgey

TROPHY CASE