Anti-wind movement in VT has taken quite a few pages from the already vigorous nationwide & global campaign which has maintained a presence of a high level of visiblity for several years, at least.
Aided by ALEC – which links lawmakers & corporations to policy models conveniently created by ALEC to aid them in crafting corporate-friendly legislation which they so helpfully provide handy-dandy blank models for to assist the lawmakers. How kind of them to idiot-proof the model legislation.
*all emphasis added
Environment, Energy, and Agriculture
Rewriting the Rules about the Environment, Energy, and Agriculture
Environment, Energy, and AgricultureThis page shows how bills pushed by ALEC corporations work to undermine environmental protections, limit the ability of local government to manage land use, and protect corporate polluters.
These “model bills” and resolutions thwart efforts to address climate change, streamline siting of nuclear power plants, and oppose efforts to address hazardous coal waste.
Through ALEC, corporations have both a VOICE and a VOTE on specific changes to state laws on these issues through these model bills. Do you?
http://www.alecexposed.org/wik…
http://www.sourcewatch.org/ind…
Industrial Wind Action Group
http://www.sourcewatch.org/ind…
SPN: Aiding ALEC & Spinning Disinformation in the States
Click here to check out our new SourceWatch resource on the 59 “mini-Heritage Foundations” in the states.
http://www.alecexposed.org/wik…
http://www.prwatch.org/node/11909
A few facts:
– Money: ALEC Is Funded Almost Entirely by Corporations
– ALEC Has Corporate Leaders and Members who Vote on Bills Behind Closed Doors
– Almost All of ALEC’s Legislative Leaders are Republicans
The above is info was used solely to highlight the notable characteristics of ALEC, which says plenty & very telling as to who supports their policy goals – and their “sponsors”, are taken from a comparison of ALEC & NCSL.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may appear on the surface to mimic the bipartisan educational archetype of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL
)
http://www.prwatch.org/news/20…
Conservative thinktanks step up attacks against Obama’s clean energy strategy
– Confidential memo seen by Guardian calls for climate change sceptics to turn American public against solar and wind power –
Suzanne Goldenberg US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 May 2012 21.44 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi…
Highlights from the leaked “memo” obtained by The Guardian:
Conservative plans to oppose wind power – memo
Strategy document calls for a national PR campaign aimed at causing ‘subversion … so that it effectively becomes so bad that no one wants to admit in public they are for it’– Be FOR something (e.g. Science), not AGAINST something (e.g. wind energy). Be proactive vs reactive
In this case, our VT bunch is for other renewables & wind power – just not in VT or on ridgelines which just happen to be the best place to produce the amount of power necessary to make the projects efficient & worthwhile
– Create a grass-roots ground swell from which the clamor for change will reach the elected officials and policy-makers.
– A) Cause the targeted audience to change its opinion and action based on the messages. B) Provide credible counter message to the (wind) industry. C) Disrupt industry message with countermeasures. D) Cause subversion in message of industry so that it effectively becomes so bad no one wants to admit in public they are for it (much like wind has done to coal, by turning green to black and clean to dirty). Ultimate Goal: Change policy direction based on the message
– Consider joining forces w some already established organization where there is substantial commonality and commitment (e.g. ATI, Heartland, IER, CEI, Marshall, Brookings, Cato, Manhattan, AfP, FW, CFACT, ALEC, NA-PAW, etc.).
– Develop a list of experts for testimony to government agencies, etc. Identify key topics (e.g. health) and get volunteers to act as a clearing house for information and posting timely information for activists on a website.
– connect with like-minded groups such as tax, tea party, true environmentalists, business organizations, property rights advocates, etc.
– Create a “think-tank” subgroup to produce and disseminate white paper reports and scientific quotes and papers that back-up the message.
– include community activity and participation with sponsorships for science fairs, school activity etc. with preset parameters that cause students to steer away from wind because they discover it doesn’t meet the criteria we set up (poster contest, essays etc).
– Setup a dummy business that will go into communities considering wind development, proposing to build 400 foot billboards– Write expose book on the industry, showing government waste, harm to communities and other negative impacts on people and the environment. Meme (self-replicating messages) Response Coordinator (This will help slow the meme effect of the industry, for instance when a company places a seal showing wind power was used to produce the product, we automatically assign a tax wasting symbol to the product and recommend a boycott on the website.
When a company uses wind power as marketing tool, or illustration such as a toy manufacturer showing turbines on the box, we automatically contact them to tell them we will list them on the web as actively participating in disinformation by favorably showing wind turbines) Legal Department for contract review and guidance on communication efforts, and also taking developers (etc.) to court on various issues to cause media exposure.
Maintain a comprehensive collection of court cases on this subject. Also to provide legal voice for those who have none in this issue. Develop legal strategies that can be copied in other areas. Take zoning boards to court to rezone as industrial land to create chilling effect on signing contracts. Also sue for property value loss to small land holders, and use all legal cases to create media poster child effect. Sue states regarding RPS. Sue state utility commission who don’t do their job. Etc.
National Organization: Details and Narrative The minimum national PR campaign goal is to constructively influence national and state wind energy policies.
– A broader possible goal might be to constructively influence national and state energy and environmental policies. The goal will be realized by coordination of a focused message along many channels and with multiple voices. The intent is to target three audiences with consistent messaging to create the change. Public opinion must begin to change in what should appear as a “groundswell” among grass roots.
– The media committee is responsible for implementing the message in a variety of media resources including traditional media, new media, social media and networking.
– The science committee will be responsible for assembling a directorate of scientists with the proper credentials to be accepted by main stream media. Those credentials are also important in making the scientific material harder to target and more difficult to tear down by the opposition. This committee will coordinate with the directorate to develop a highly respectable collection of scientific white papers and reports that are consistent in their approach
– respected scientists for media and political symposiums to be conducted to further establish the messages. They will coordinate their efforts with other committees whose duties will include dissemination of the science.
– The networking committee will be responsible for coordinating the response of networked groups with like-mind on our message. These will include the tea party, anti-tax leagues and utility rate groups as well as government watch-dog, anti-waste groups. This committee will help spread our message to the network groups.
p.8 of the leaked memo is a blow-by-blow example of the “action plan” & how the “commitees” coordinate with one another – quite an expose of their tactics which are clearly mimicked by our local VT operatives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi…
From the “Media Comittee”:
Mon, 2010-03-22 11:46 Brendan DeMelle
Institute for Energy Research Admits It Was Behind Anti-Wind Study
Danish journalists have confirmed that The Institute for Energy Research commissioned and paid for the anti-wind energy study released last year by a Danish think tank..]In 2009 IER run a campaign on “green jobs” attacking the expansion of renewables energies. IER commissioned three studies on renewable energies and green jobs in Denmark, Germany and Spain.[4 These studies by different think tanks were than promoted by IER and other free market think tanks in the US but also used in Europe[5] and Ontario, Canada
Sound familiar? It’s not new — strategies used in VT have been used on a nationwide as well as international level for years as they conduct a a smear campaign against wind development and to influence legislation designed to stop renewables, in this case industrial-scale wind.
From the “Policy” committee — Moratorium anyone?
NSW Nationals urge wind farms freeze
Updated October 10, 2011
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201…
From the “Health & Science” comittee:
Wind Energy and Health”: Special issue of science journal
Aug 26, 2011
-Calvin Luther Martin, PhD
http://www.windturbinesyndrome…