TPMMuckraker
Global Warming: July 2009

Former Employee: Bonner "Just Got Caught This Time"

Zachary Roth | July 31, 2009, 5:26PM

Earlier today, we told you about the forged letter sent by a lobbying firm to a lawmaker, urging him to oppose climate change legislation. The letter ran under the letterhead of a local Hispanic group, but really was sent by an employee at Bonner and Associates, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm with a slew of corporate clients.

In response, Jack Bonner said the letter had been sent by a "temporary employee" who has since been fired, and blamed the problem on that one "bad employee." But a former Bonner and Associates employee who spoke to TPMmuckraker significantly complicated that picture, portraying Bonner and Associates as a place where ethical missteps were far from rare. "They just got caught this time," he said.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (39) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (30)
Topics: Astroturf, Global Warming, Jack Bonner, Lobbyists

Global Warming

Congress To Probe Forged Climate Change Letters

Zachary Roth | July 31, 2009, 2:13PM

That was quick.

A Democratic lawmaker has announced an investigation into the forged letters sent by a Washington lobbying firm to a member of Congress. The letters, which purported to come from Hispanic and African-American groups, urged Rep. Tom Perriello to oppose the recent climate change bill.

Rep. Ed Markey, who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, just sent out the following release:

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (15) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (13)
Topics: Astroturf, Global Warming, Lobbyists

Jack Bonner

Lobby Firm Sent Forged Climate Change Letter To Congressman

Zachary Roth | July 31, 2009, 12:24PM

OK, this is a good one...

Via The American Prospect: Freshman Democratic congressman Tom Perriello -- whose Virginia district leans Republican -- faced a tough decision last month over whether to support the climate change bill. As he was weighing the issue, he got a letter from a non-profit group in his district that focuses on issues of importance to Hispanics. The letter urged Perriello to oppose the bill because it could raise low-income members' utility bills. "Many of our members are on tight budgets and the sizes of their monthly utility bills are important expense items," it read in part.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (36) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (36)
Topics: Astroturf, Global Warming, Jack Bonner, Lobbyists

Barack Obama

Rep. Barton: Obama Should Be Worried About "Carbongate"

Pete Martin | July 2, 2009, 12:25PM

Yesterday we wrote about Environmental Protection Agency economist Al Carlin, the author of a report that casts doubt on climate change. Carlin's study wasn't taken as seriously by the agency as he'd been hoping -- perhaps because he's not a scientist, and because his bosses never asked him to produce it.

But his cause has become a favorite of right-wingers, who suddenly believe science to be sacred, and are charging that the Obama administration is "suppressing" a report whose conclusions it dislikes. The anti-regulatory Competitive Enterprise Institute first publicized Carlin's report last week. Since then, Carlin has discussed his "findings" with Glenn Beck on Fox News, and on Monday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for a criminal investigation into the issue.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (21) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)
Topics: Barack Obama, Global Warming, James Inhofe, Right-wing extremism

Global Warming

Climate Skeptic: "I Was Hoping People At EPA Would Pay Attention" To My Work

Zachary Roth | July 1, 2009, 8:43AM

Conservatives are jumping up and down over a report by an EPA analyst expressing skepticism about climate change, which, they claim, was suppressed by agency brass because it didn't conform to Obama administration orthodoxy on global warming. The story has sparked explosive claims, on Fox News and other right-wing outlets, that the EPA censored scientific data for political reasons. And Monday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for an outright criminal investigation into the matter.

But it's hard to blame EPA for not paying much attention to the study. And it's more than a little ironic that DC Republicans have chosen its author as their new standard-bearer in the defense of pure science against politics. Because the author, EPA veteran Al Carlin, is an economist, not a climate scientist. EPA says no one at the agency solicited the report. And Carlin appears to have taken up the global warming topic largely as a hobby on his own time. In fact, a NASA climatologist has called the report -- whose existence was first publicized last week by the industry-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) -- "a ragbag collection of un-peer reviewed web pages, an unhealthy dose of sunstroke, a dash of astrology and more cherries than you can poke a cocktail stick at."