environment

Americans for American Energy (AAE), an energy front group established by the public relations firm Pac/West Communications, asked Congress to investigate "possible illegal coordination between U.S. Interior Department officials and several national environmental groups." At issue are contacts between the Department's National Landscape Conservation System and the Wilderness Society and National Wildlife Federation -- groups AAE accuses of "pursuing an anti-American energy political agenda." According to Representative Rob Bishop, a Republican from Utah, the Interior Department's inspector general is already looking into the matter. Federal employees are generally prohibited "from using appropriated funds or their official positions to lobby Congress." The Deseret News notes that the probe "comes after the Interior Department ... found that officials at its Minerals Management Service engaged in sexual relationships with energy industry representatives, and accepted gifts from them."

The Society for Environmental Journalists (SEJ), which promotes "excellence in environmental journalism," is gearing up for its annual conference in Roanoke, Virginia in mid-October. As the conference is in the "heart of coal country," numerous sessions will address "the status and future of big coal." Richard Pauli, who writes the NoEnergyTomorrow blog, notes that two of the conference's "premier sponsors” are the coal-addicted energy corporations American Electric Power and Dominion Power. "It's like seeing a Heart Association 10k race sponsored by a tobacco company," he wrote. In response, SEJ Executive Director Beth Parke stated that the corporate funding is for Virgina Tech, which will host the conference, and not directly for SEJ. Pauli noted SEJ's response, suggesting that "an improved analogy might be that of a track meet being held in a stadium that shows tobacco advertising. It may not be connected to the team, but they have to run below the sign."

In an opinion column, former Greenpeace activist turned PR consultant Patrick Moore waxes lyrical about a proposal by Luminant to build two new reactors at its Comanche Peak nuclear power station in Texas. Luminant's new reactors, he wrote, would produce "electricity from virtually carbon-free nuclear power." Moore's brief biographical note states only that he is "co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, a national grass-roots coalition that promotes nuclear power." What neither Moore nor the Dallas Morning News discloses to readers of the column is that he is a consultant for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), which funds the "coalition." Luminant is a member (pdf) of the NEI. A New York Times blog post referring to Moore also fails to refer the coalition's NEI link, describing it only as a "pro-nuclear group."

A leaked draft PR plan by the Clean Coal Council, a Queensland state government partnership with the coal industry, stated that a "key outcome" would be to "turn around attitudes that clean coal is an unproven and unsafe technology." While the PR plan noted that "stakeholders" wanted investment directed to "emissions-free renewable energy technologies, not clean coal," the Council has other ideas. It ridiculed renewable energy technologies by claiming that they would only cater for "certain niche markets" and are still in the "development stages." Environmentalists dismissed the plan as government propaganda. "The Queensland Government is spending taxpayer money to fund a campaign to deceive the next generation of voters," said Simon Roz from Greenpeace Australia. Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson conceded the draft plan was misleading. "I don't agree with the description of renewable energy," he said. Queensland and the neighboring state of New South Wales produce 97 percent of Australian coal production.

"The ultimate selling proposition might just be saving the planet," said International Advertising Association (IAA) executive director Michael Lee. The IAA recently met with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss how marketing firms might help address global warming. Lee added that marketers can "help change consumer behavior, influence public policy and help the UN make further progress on the issue." Also present at the meeting were executives from Publicis Groupe, Interpublic Group, Omnicom, Ogilvy & Mather and Euro RSCG, among other major marketing firms. Secretary-General Ban remarked, "As climate change affects everyone, everywhere, the UN needs partners in the private sector and in civil society to mobilize and spur action." Details of the UN-marketer partnership will be revealed at COP14, the next conference on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which will be held December 2008 in Poznan, Poland.

According to documents leaked to The Guardian, the British government has been actively trying to undermine the European Union's proposals to drastically reduce carbon emissions in order to combat climate change. The UK wants to be able to count more imported carbon credits in order to meet pollution reduction targets. The Guardian reports that "The government's own calculations show the proposed change would allow Europe to emit an extra billion tonnes of CO2 from 2013-2020." The British government's efforts would raise the amount of carbon emissions "paid for" with buying credits from the developing world from about a quarter of the total to nearly half. Environmentalists are furious. Caroline Lucas, MEP and leader of the Green party, said, "The British government is trying to buy its way out of climate change targets using unreliable credits from abroad. It shows how much of the political talk on climate is empty rhetoric, when you have the UK talking up the need for action on one hand, and carrying out this kind of irresponsible climate vandalism on the other."

International Nuclear Services (INS) is looking for PR support for an unpopular issue -- transportation of nuclear waste. "INS was created out of the 'spent fuel services' business of Sellafield to provide a service to more than 20 global utility firms. It manages the transportation of their nuclear waste and subsequent reprocessing at Sellafield." British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) was an international company owned by the UK government, involved in all stages of the nuclear process, from designing reactors and manufacturing fuel, to decommissioning reactors and dealing with radioactive waste. Sellafield emerged from the re-organization of BNFL as the company responsible for the delivery of contracts at the Sellafield and Capenhurst sites in England on behalf of site owners, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The contract will be worth around £550,000 ($1,017,500) over four years. Sellafield press officer Steve Barnes said: "This role can only be delivered by a specialised firm that has in-depth knowledge of international relations and the issues of transportation of nuclear materials overseas."

The UK Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, a group hosted by the University of Cambridge's Programme for Industry, has written to British political leaders requesting a meeting to discuss the development of a "comprehensive package of policy measures to change every major sector of the economy" to combat climate change. The group argues that there is a need for a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which may be negotiated at the COP14 meeting in Poland in December 2008, and the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009. Among the signatories of the letter were the CEOs of the power company E.ON UK and airport owner BAA. Greenpeace communications director Ben Stewart responded, "This is hypocrisy of the purest strain. ... If the executives of these companies want action on climate change they should immediately lock themselves in their boardrooms and not come out until the Kingsnorth [coal-fired power station] and Heathrow [airport] expansion have been dropped," he told the Guardian.

In July, oil industry figure T. Boone Pickens launched the PickensPlan to promote "energy independence" from "foreign oil" for the United States. In the plan, Pickens promotes the use of wind power to generate 20 percent of U.S. electricity, and natural gas and biofuels for transportation. Pickens now has business interests from funds management, water projects and the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel. O'Dwyers PR Daily reports that Pickens has hired the Washington D.C. lobbying firm Patton Boggs "to win Washington support" for the plan. One of those managing the account for Patton Boggs is Benjamin Ginsberg, who was national counsel to the two Bush-Cheney campaigns and, his biographical note states, "played a central role in the 2000 Florida recount." O'Dwyers reports that Pickens used Sloane & Co for the launch of his plan and has also been using North Bridge Communications for PR support.

The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) is alarmed about the extent of corporate greenwashing. The authority's chief executive, Frank Goodman, explained, "You are not allowed to say your product is good for the environment unless you can prove this. Our code is very specific on this point." Of particular concern are claims by companies that they have become "carbon neutral" by buying carbon offsets for their greenhouse gas emissions. John Curran, the environmental executive for Musgrave Group, which markets leading retail brands, said, "It's easy to make the claim, but it is almost impossible to really be carbon neutral. ... Low carbon is the best you can aim for. But once PR gets a hold of things, being seen as green can turn into a crusade for some companies."