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:

• Coal Industry: $10 million
• Oil & Gas Industry: $75 million
• Electric Utilities: $118 million

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:

• Big Coal was exposed for using stock photos as “supporters” on its “FACES of Coal” website with stock photos in 2009 … then tried to get away with it again in February with the “Coalition for American Jobs” website
• A lobbying firm hired by Big Coal sent a series of forged letters to members of Congress last year, posing as everything from the NAACP to a veterans group
• Big Oil paid for its employees to “rally” while on the clock both in 2009 & 2010

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