If That’s An Army, What’s NWF?

Remember the “American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity” (ACCCE)? That’s the group that hired a lobbying firm in an effort to stop comprehensive climate & energy legislation. The lobbying firm then sent forged letters to at least three members of Congress falsely claiming to represent women, seniors, and minorities.

Politico did a glowing profile of ACCCE yesterday, helpfully avoiding a single mention of the fake letter scandal:

The group’s membership includes major coal, utility and railroad companies and claims a grass-roots force of 200,000 people, called “America’s power army.” Its annual budget is more than $40 million.

Wow, 200,000 people! Sounds impressive … until you consider that the National Wildlife Federation has over four million members and supporters. Even with its mammoth annual budget, spent entirely on trying to gin up support for dirty energy sources, ACCCE can only scrounge together 1/20th of the National Wildlife Federation’s support.

No wonder the National Wildlife Federation won the battle on comprehensive climate & energy legislation in the House! And thanks to supporters like you, we’ll do it again in the Senate.

Photo courtesy Flickr’s iLoveMountains.org