Bad Deeds: The Four Dirtiest Opponents of Clean Energy

 

Massey Energy – This spring, a coal mine explosion killed 29 people in a West Virginia mine owned and operated by Massey Energy, in the worst coal mine disaster since 1970. The mine where the disaster occurred, Upper Big Branch, had received more than 1,300 safety violations since 2005.

Just seven months prior to the explosion, Massey’s CEO Don Blankenship dismissed climate change and safety regulations simultaneously at a Labor Day rally, saying: “I also know Washington and state politicians have no idea how to improve miner safety. The very idea that they care more about coal miner safety than we do is as silly as global warming.”

1,342: Number of safety violations Massey received at the Upper Big Branch Mine alone since 2005.
$129.2 Million: The amount since 1999 Massey Coal’s CEO Don Blankenship has received in salary, bonuses, and perks.

$1,609,593: The amount Massey spent on ads in 2009 and 2010 (Kantar Media CMAG, accessed 10/12/10).

– In response to Massey’s record of safety violations, CEO Don Blankenship responded: “Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process.”
– Blankenship has called members of Congress seeking climate change legislation “greeniacs” and “all crazy.”
– He called deadly mining accidents “statistically insignificant.”

 

American Petroleum Institute (API) – The American Petroleum Institute, or API as it is commonly called, is the main U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. API funds advertising and promotes government policies that many oil and gas companies support, even if the companies are embarrassed to associate themselves by name.

API stages public “Energy Citizens” rallies to provide the appearance of public support for the oil industry, even though many of the people who attend the rallies are energy company employees.

– API spent $66 million on ads in 2009 and 2010. [Kantar Media CMAG, accessed 10/20/10]
– API spent more than $14 million lobbying in the 111th Congress.
– API launched a “major lobbying campaign” aimed at opposing tax changes on oil companies and tougher drilling regulations.
– API was a member of the Global Climate Coalition, which “led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign” against climate science for more than a decade.

 

BP America – BP needs no introduction. Headquartered in London, its American division was responsible for the largest accidental oil spill the world has ever known. Between April and September 2010, this oil and gas conglomerate spent more than $123 million on advertising in response to plummeting public opinion. [Kantar Media CMAG, accessed 10/20/10]. On top of that, BP has spent more than $23.5 million lobbying Congress over the past two years.

Just one shut-off switch that could have prevented the oil spill from happening if BP had purchased it.
$225,000: Amount BP avoided paying each day for rent on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig, using a tax break.

Quotation from former BP CEO Tony Hayward after the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico: “I would like my life back.”

 

Koch Industries – Koch Industries is America’s second-biggest private company, with estimated annual revenues of $100 billion. Koch owns refineries from Alaska to Texas and a large number of subsidiaries that make things like Bounty paper towels and Dixie Cups.

But who are they, really? It is owned by two brothers, Charles and David, who have a long history of funding causes that benefit the oil industry. According to a New Yorker profile: “The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry — especially environmental regulation” The Koch brothers are also major funders of Americans for Prosperity, a prominent tea party group.

– Koch Industries is one of the top ten toxic air polluters in the U.S.

– Koch is responsible for over 300 oil spills in the U.S. and has leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into fisheries and drinking waters.

– Koch admitted to stealing $31 million worth of crude oil from Indian reservations.

– Koch Industries was found by a jury to be guilty of negligence and malice in the deaths of two Texas teenagers in an explosion that resulted from a leaky underground butane pipeline. The plaintiff was awarded almost $300 million for the wrongful death.

– Koch Industries spent more than $48.5 million from 1997 to 2008 funding climate science opposition groups.

Regards,

Jim