Deja Ruse: Coal Front Groups Roll Out Astroturf on Capitol Hill

Coal miners are heading to Capitol Hill for a pro-mountaintop removal rally! Totally spontaneously! Just up & went!

At least, that’s what you’d think reading the Associated Press preview of the rally. It only mentions Big Coal front groups like the “Federation for American Coal, Energy & Security (FACES)” as a footnote, calling them “among those involved.”

That, of course, is exactly the kind of coverage polluters are hoping for. They don’t want you to know that today’s event is part of a massive polluter lobbying effort, trying to avert regulations designed to make polluters pay for their pollution.

Take a look at polluter lobbying totals already in 2010:

FACES

But for all the hundreds of millions of dollars they spend, polluter efforts at astroturfing — trying to buy support that looks grassroots — have been incredibly inept:

Tell your members of Congress that big polluters don’t speak for you.