CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Obama's Coal Connection
22
Corporate Crime Reporter 3, January 17, 2008
Got to hand it to the Barack Obama.
On the one hand, he rips into the influence of lobbyists and special interests.
On the other hand, he’s walking down primary lane hand in hand with them.
Take the case of Big Coal.
Last year, Barack came out for turning coal into liquid fuel. He took heat from environmentalists, and he backed off a bit.
Now, he’s walking hand in hand with a coal spinmaster in Nevada – Billy Vassiliadis, the CEO of R&R Partners.
That’s the firm that took on Las Vegas as client and came up with – “What Happens Here Stays Here.”
But according to Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch, R&R Partners has another client – Sierra Pacific Resources – which wants to build a new coal-burning plant in Nevada.
O’Donnell says that R&R also is the public relations and advertising firm for a coal industry front group called Americans for Balanced Energy Choices which is advertising heavily in Nevada.
“This coal group is spending like a drunken sailor,” O’Donnell writes. “It's hard to miss all its spots on CNN and during presidential debates, including in Nevada.”
And who exactly are the “Americans” in Americans for Balanced Energy Choices? They include the likes of Peabody Energy, Southern Company, Duke Energy, and American Electric Power.
“The question some environmentalists are asking: how does Obama reconcile his platform with some of his people?” O’Donnell asks. “Isn't he at least a wee bit uncomfortable about this?”
Corporate
Crime Reporter
1209 National Press Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20045
202.737.1680