TPMMuckraker
Steve Miller

Global Warming

Could Coal Lobby Chief Be Probed For Perjury?


CEO of ACCCE Steve Miller

Could apparently false statements made by the head of a coal-industry lobby group before Congress this morning end up being referred to the Justice Department for a criminal perjury probe? Congressional investigators aren't ruling it out.

As we reported, Steve Miller, the director of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), appears to have twice misled Congress while under oath during his testimony this morning over those forged letters sent on the coal lobby's behalf by Bonner and Associates.

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Topics: ACCCE, Alberto Gonzales, Astroturf, Bradley Schlozman, Global Warming, Justice Department, Lobbyists, Perjury, Steve Miller, U.S. Attorneys

Global Warming

Did ACCCE Chief Mislead Congress Again?

Did Steve Miller of ACCCE just mislead Congress for the second time this morning?

Miller just told Rep. Ed Markey's committee that his group did not lobby the federal government until April 2008.

But online records show lobby spending by Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) -- the name that ACCCE previously used -- going back to 2001.

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Topics: ACCCE, Astroturf, Global Warming, Lobbyists, Steve Miller

Bonner & Associates

Bonner To Testify On Forged Letters


Jack Bonner

Astroturf lobbyist Jack Bonner will testify tomorrow in front of a Congressional panel investigating the forged letters his firm sent this summer, according to a witness list for the hearing obtained by TPMmuckraker. Also testifying will be Steve Miller, the CEO of the coal industry group that had hired Bonner to gin up opposition to climate-change legislation.

This summer, Bonner & Associates sent forged letters to several lawmakers, urging them to oppose the legislation. The letters, sent on behalf of Bonner's client, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, purported to come from local minority, senior, women, and veterans groups. Bonner has blamed the letters on a temporary employee, but as we've shown, his firm's modus operandi makes such occurrences all but inevitable.

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Topics: ACCCE, American Association of University Women, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, Astroturf, Bonner & Associates, Jack Bonner, NAACP, Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Steve Miller, Tom Perriello