Wonk Room details the unpatriotic Astroturf rallies.
At a “grassroots” rally organized by the American Petroleum Institute in Houston on Tuesday, activists bearing American flags were turned away. Oil company employees were bused in to the “Energy Citizens” gathering to hear billionaire Drayton McLane Jr. attack President Barack Obama’s clean energy agenda as an economy-destroying energy tax. However, grassroots tea-party activists told Public Citizen Texas that they and their American flags were refused entry to the company picnic:
ACTIVIST: They said, “We won’t let you have an American flag either.” They said they won’t let you have this, and then the guy touched this, the American flag.
ANOTHER ACTIVIST: I got an email from Freedomworks saying, “Come, it’s free, free food,” doodah doodah. And then I get here and they say, “Well, it’s against fire code to let people in the door.” And then, they let all these people in. Granted, one of the people was Drayton McLane. He’s got more money than God, so, I guess…
Watch it:
The activists explained that they were invited by Dick Armey’s Astroturf organization Freedomworks, one of the participating organizations in the new Energy Citizens coalition. While the activists were locked out, employees of the public corporations Chevron, Anadarko Energy, Halliburton, ConocoPhillips, and others were “invited to participate” and bused to the event on company time.
At the company picnic, Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane defended his billionaire lifestyle, saying, “We need to preserve this way of life.” Inheriting much of his wealth, McLane made billions by selling his grocery business to Wal-Mart. In January 2008, McLane received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service for showing a “deep concern for the common good beyond the bottom line.” National Black Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Harry Alford, who recently accused Barbara Boxer of racism, was also a featured speaker.
Grist has details on the veterans organizing against these “oil dependence rallies”:
A new coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is hoping to counter the oil industry–backed “Energy Citizens” rallies with its own call to pass a climate bill and end dependence on fossil fuels.
Under the name of Operation Free, the group aims to rally other vets to the cause. “We’re a coalition of leading veterans and national security organizations who recognize that climate change is a major threat, and support fast, bold action,” reads its website. “It is time for Americans to rise to the challenge, and we’re taking on the fight.”
In a call with reporters on Thursday, Operation Free members argued that dependence on foreign energy sources and threats posed by climate change put American military personnel and national security at risk.
“As a former U.S. Army captain and a veteran of Iraq, I understand firsthand how our dependence on foreign oil is a threat to national security,” said Jon Powers, chief operating officer at the Truman National Security Project, a sponsor of Operation Free. “We’re looking to Washington to take this threat seriously and come up with policy that reduces the threat to national security.”
Maine State Rep. Alex Cornell du Houx, an Iraq War veteran and Operation Free’s campaign coordinator, said that his time in Iraq made him realize the hazards of being dependent on other nations and on a single major energy source like oil. He criticized the American Petroleum Institute, which is organizing the “Energy Citizens” rallies: “It is really disheartening how a front group is watering down any meaningful debate,” he said. “The Energy Citizens is making America less secure.”
Operation Free’s first major event will be in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 9 and 10, when 100 veterans will come to the capital to lobby for a Senate climate and energy bill. The group is also spreading its message through the internet and in-person outreach, as well as through partnerships with national security organizations and other nonprofits.
The Operation Free website uses military terminology to try to engage support. “Mission: Secure America with Renewable Energy,” declares the site, asking volunteers to “enlist” in the cause and “deploy in support of Operation Free.” Each page prominently features a photo of a hand holding a gun with an oil fire burning in the distance.
Kevin Jones, an Iraq veteran, student at the University of Missouri, and vice president of the Mizzou Student Veterans Association, said he would see oil and fuel trucks in Iraq “lined up, one right after another.” “It’s disheartening to know that we’re so dependent on a source like that,” said Jones. “There are brand new, renewable sources available right here.”
Operation Free is supported by the the National Security Initiative, VoteVets.org, VetPAC, and the Truman National Security Project.
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Can’t argue with their cause. Veterans carry some political impact I am sure and peak oil is coming coupled to climate change action that is required makes it a good cause. All the best from me.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Operation Free is defamed and the members are called “Phony Soldiers” by people like Rush Limbaugh, who used the excuse that he had a polyinoidal cyst on his, ahem, rear, to get a deferment from military service during the Vietnam war, and called liberal, leftist radical fringe group.
The last line in that video says it all: “Not with an energy company — not invited to be an ‘Energy Citizen.’ “
Consider
If the media would just communicate the full story about ExxonMobil (to use the industry leader as example), readers would have a much better understanding of the Orwellian nature of the whole thing.
For example, as just one point that fits with this thread: One can easily see that the large majority of ExxonMobil’s operations (as measured by capital employed, assets, production sources, etc.) is NOT in the United States, just by looking at basic published statistics in their own reports. In other words, MOST of ExxonMobil (as measured by these key measures, and others) is outside of the U.S. And not by a small margin!
Also, from published sources, one can see that (on central issues) they have told the U.S. Congress (and thus people) one thing while doing something quite different.
Also, just consider employment. Relative to other large companies and industries, the number of people ExxonMobil actually employs is small. For example, Walmart employs over 2 million people. General Electric employs several hundred thousand. ExxonMobil employs about 80,000 people, worldwide. Indeed, General Electric employs more people than are employed by all the leading U.S.-headquartered petroleum production and refining firms ADDED TOGETHER.
Also, there is an interesting pattern in ExxonMobil’s employment, which (you’d think) must reflect their relative priorities between profit and people. In the last eight years, as sales and profits have gone up and up and up — and in some years skyrocketed — what have they done with their employment? They’ve decreased it, consistently. Sales up. Profits up. People DOWN. Again, these stats are plain to see, in their own published reports.
As mentioned in a previous post or two, I’ve sent packets of information that present (on DVD) an examination and analysis of ExxonMobil, to a good number of people in the media and in climate-related causes, in order to help the media “become aware” and “understand” the matter. There is so much that is not being covered. And this sort of information should be covered.
The notion that it is “patriotic” somehow to continue using and pushing oil, and to continue messing up the climate, and to ignore basic science, is SO FAR FROM CORRECT that it boggles the imagination to think that some people actually think this. Again, a large majority of ExxonMobil’s operations are outside of the U.S. They (EM) are probably the largest single corporate funnel, effectively, of money from the pocketbooks of U.S. citizens into the bank accounts of overseas oil-owners (although that’s a calculation that I haven’t done, but it would seem to follow from all of their other statistics). And when sales and profits go up, they keep pushing employment down. They say one thing with their left hand, and then another completely different thing with their right. (If deception is patriotic, then they do get a good grade on that one.)
The group of veterans mentioned in this thread is right — completely accurate — to say “no”.
And this API stuff is irresponsible. I’d like to know, are the units of General Electric still in the API? Have they resigned yet? If not, why not? Can someone call them, and GE corporate headquarters?
Sigh,
Jeff
Here’s more on that rally in Houston:
http://texasvox.org/ 2009/ 08/ 19/ houstons-energy-citizens-company-picnic/
h/t: Tamino.
Jeff,
It just confirms my point that the biggest killer of oil industry jobs is the oil industry. I remember the oil boom of the late 70’s and early 80’s here in Texas. When we moved from Corpus Christi to Houston in 1981 the boom was on and the city was growing beyond leaps and bounds because it was tied to the oil industry. When the boom went bust all those oil industry engineers, geologists, roustabouts and rough neckers ended up in the unemployment lines. People left Houston and businesses were shuttered. On a positive note traffic was never easier as I commuted to the University of Houston and it used to take me 1½ hours back in 82 and by 86 it took 45 minutes. The oil industry jobs never came back from that high point in the late 70’s and early 80’s and now the oil industry has a major problem with an aging work force because fewer people want to go into petrochemical engineering and other related specialties in the oil industry. Matt Simmons, author of “Twilight in the Desert” has pointed out that the oil industry’s work force is getting older and there is no one to replace them in time to address peak oil.