On July 15, "an unlikely alliance" rallied in Washington DC to "stop the war on the poor" by increasing U.S. domestic oil and gas production. The rally was organized by the civil rights group Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the pro-drilling front group Americans for American Energy and the conservative group High Impact Leadership Coalition. Rally speakers stressed "the need to expand domestic oil and gas production with the goal of reducing fuel costs for low-income households that feel a disproportionate pinch from rising energy prices," reports Jenny Mandel. Signs at the rally included "My family needs affordable energy" and "Environmental groups don't feed my family." CORE has received funding from ExxonMobil. CORE's Niger Innis said the group favors "government spending on oil shale, coal and drilling on the continental shelf and throughout Alaska," because "when these resources are developed ... that is going to have a direct impact on the price of fuel." While some rally attendees told Mandel about their difficulties "budgeting around today's gasoline prices," others "backed away from a reporter with a notebook. ... One woman, who declined to give her name, said she was demonstrating at her boss's behest."

"The Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a recently created front group for pharmaceutical interests, has been churning out industry-funded propaganda that demonizes evidence-based medicine, universal health care, the government, and all critics of pharma while attempting to portray industry as a selfless provider of cures and education," write Norman Kelley and Adriane Fugh-Berman. CMPI's Peter J. Pitts has written opinion pieces for publications including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, which fail to mention that Pitts is a senior vice president at Manning, Selvage and Lee (MS&L), a leading PR firm for the pharmaceutical industry.

Whitman with Rudy GiulianiAt the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI's) recent conference, Penn, Schoen & Berland pollster Craig T. Smith said the industry would soon be emphasizing the employment opportunities created by building new nuclear power plants. On June 17, the NEI front group "Clean and Safe Energy Coalition" (CASEnergy) released a white paper titled "Job Creation in the Nuclear Renaissance." CASEnergy co-chair Christine Todd Whitman said, "There's a reason why nuclear plant neighbors are so in favor of nuclear plants, and that's because they're economic generators for their communities." The white paper gives figures of "610,000 high-paying jobs," if "the U.S. builds 33 to 41 new nuclear power plants." But NEI estimates (pdf) that -- under favorable conditions -- four to eight new nuclear plants may come online by 2016. A 2004 study (pdf) by the Union of Concerned Scientists estimated that deriving 20 percent of U.S. electricity from renewable sources by 2020 would create 355,000 "high-paying jobs."

The multinational law firm Hunton & Williams -- whose clients include Altria, DTE Energy, General Dynamics and Pfizer -- has launched The Water Policy Institute. The Institute is chaired by former EPA chief turned PR consultant Christine Todd Whitman, who also co-chairs the Nuclear Energy Institute's Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. The Water Policy Institute describes itself as "a nonpartisan consortium bringing together industry leaders, including water suppliers, water users and nongovernmental organizations, to develop initiatives to address water supply, quality and use issues." Institute members include BP, Central Arizona Project and GE Water. Michael Campana, of Oregon State University's Institute for Water and Watersheds, notes that the Institute "is sponsored by a Park Avenue law firm, has corporate members, and has an advisory panel with attorneys for 6 of its 8 members. Ask me why I'm not expecting anything but the SOS."

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) -- a coal and power industry front group -- is busy organizing opposition to America's Climate Security Act of 2007 proposed by Senators Joe Lieberman and John Warner. The Institute for Southern Studies (ISS) reports that Pete MacDowell, an activist with the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, received a phone call from ABEC asking if he would put his name to a fax to Lieberman and Warner opposing the bill. Asked whether ABEC was an environmental group, the caller said "yes" and denied it had any links to power utilities. In response to ISS's revelation, Steve Gates from ABEC's parent group, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, stated that "one new staff member -- who is no longer working on this project – decided to 'wing it' when asked some questions that were off her script. This staff person clearly should have answered 'Yes' when asked if ABEC was related to the utility industry."

It isn't every day that a state's largest polluter gets honored, let alone receives a national environmental prize. But odds are better when the polluter -- and its buddies -- start and sit on the board of group giving the award. The Maryland-based Wildlife Habitat Council gave biodiversity conservation awards to 21 companies, including the Lafarge cement plant in Ravena, New York. The award was given to Lafarge for it's 150-acre Deer Mountain Nature Preserve and was awarded six months ago. But the honor was not publicized until the company came under fire for mercury contamination from its plant that is affecting a local high school. Federal reports show that the smokestack at that plant was New York state's largest mercury emitter for three years running. Environmentalists smell a case of greenwashing. "'At first I thought it was a joke. Then I was astonished and horrified,' said Laura Haight, an analyst with the New York Public Interest Research Group who has called on the state Department of Environmental Conservation to clamp down on the plant's mercury emissions." Joining Lafarge on the Wildlife Habitat Council's board of directors are representatives from Monsanto, Exxon Mobil, DuPont, ConocoPhillips and Waste Management. The conservation group Ducks Unlimited, which is funded by both Exxon Mobil and Anheuser-Busch, also holds a seat. The Council also awarded "Signatures of Sustainability" to DuPont and Anheuser-Busch Companies, both of which had a role in founding the group.

"AngryRenter.com looks a bit like a digital ransom note, with irregular fonts, exclamation points and big red arrows -- all emphasizing prudent renters' outrage over a proposed government bailout for irresponsible homeowners," writes Michael M. Phillips. In fact, however, "the people behind AngryRenter.com are certainly not renters. Though it purports to be a spontaneous uprising, AngryRenter.com is actually a product of an inside-the-Beltway conservative advocacy organization led by Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, and publishing magnate Steve Forbes, a fellow Republican. It's a fake grass-roots effort -- what politicos call an AstroTurf campaign -- that provides a window into the sleight-of-hand ways of Washington."

Columnist Dimitri Vassilaros received a news release about a grassroots "petition to stop climate alarmism" and attacking Al Gore's work. He checked it out and found that "for an organization that claims 'we are grassroots to the core,' Grassfire.org acts as if it is hiding a lot of Astroturf. The politically conservative nonprofit is happy to talk about its worthy online petition campaigns," but is "very tight-lipped about talking about itself. ... The Maxwell, Iowa, address for donations to the grassroots organization is clearly displayed on its Web site. But its 2006 IRS 990 form states its address is Bethesda, Md., near Washington, D.C." The SourceWatch article on Grassfire revealed its relationship to Craig Shirley and his "slick Washington-area PR firm, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs. ... When asked a few times about the organization's finances, [Grassfire's] Mr. De Jong first said he didn't know the size of the organization that he speaks for. He also said he 'could ask around' about that 990 form. When I offered to ask the bookkeeper for him, De Jong said, 'She will call, dude. Relax. I'll take care of it for you. I am a man of my word.' As of Thursday noon, no one had called this dude."

"Prozac Nation: Revisited," a show that aired on U.S. National Public Radio member stations, "featured four prestigious medical experts discussing the controversial link between antidepressants and suicide. ... All four said that worries ... have been overblown." But the show did not disclose that all four "have financial ties to the makers of antidepressants," or that the series that produced the show, "The Infinite Mind," has received "unrestricted grants" from drug companies including Eli Lilly, the makers of Prozac. One guest, Peter Pitts, heads the industry-funded Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and is "senior vice president for global health affairs at the PR firm Manning Selvage & Lee," which counts among its clients Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and "more than a dozen other pharmaceutical companies." In other drug news, Congressman Bart Stupak held a hearing titled "Direct to Consumer Advertising: Marketing, Education or Deception?" Stupak said "he wants to lay the groundwork for future legislation to tighten controls on drug marketing," reports the Wall Street Journal. The hearing addressed such "recent controversies" as ads for Pfizer's Lipitor, where artificial heart inventor Robert Jarvik "appears to be giving medical advice," and ads for Johnson & Johnson's anemia treatment Procrit that promote off-label uses for the drug.

Who could blame them if they sent the Mounties to the border? CMD reported previously on the Heartland Institute's climate change skepticism, and its efforts to cast doubt on the overwhelming evidence of global warming. The Chicago-based, ExxonMobil-funded think tank has taken its case north of the border, sending out "more than 11,000 brochures and DVDs to Canadian schools urging them to teach their students that scientists are exaggerating how human activity is the driving force behind global warming." While Heartland says that the outreach effort is an attempt to introduce "balance" into the discussion, the Sierra Club of Canada disagrees. Spokesperson Emilie Moorhouse said, "It's alarming that an American think tank is distributing misinformation on the most important issue of our time in Canadian schools, to actually create an illusion that there is a scientific debate." Ignoring the consensus reached by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that climate change is "unequivocal" and caused by human activities, "the brochure and DVD said that scientists were 'deeply divided' about 'the notion that climate change is mostly the result of human activities.'" Heartland also sent the information packets to 200 Canadian policymakers.