Koch Brothers And ExxonMobil Join Forces To Fight RGGI With Copy-Paste State Legislation
As we’ve reported over and over again, the popular and successful Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and other regional climate agreements are under attack from polluters. Today, a bombshell report by Bloomberg News makes it undeniably clear who is leading the attack, and paints an ugly picture of collusion, influence, and state legislators deep in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry.
The report shines a light on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which serves as a drafting board for industry-friendly state legislation and then subsequently as a sort of mixer for corporations and state politicians who are willing to accept financial favors to bring these copy-and-paste laws back to their home states.
Bloomberg reporter Alison Fitzpatrick writes:
The opportunity for corporations to become co-authors of state laws legally through ALEC covers a wide range of issues from energy to taxes to agriculture. The price for participation is an ALEC membership fee of as much as $25,000 — and the few extra thousands to join one of the group’s legislative-writing task forces. Once the “model legislation” is complete, it’s up to ALEC’s legislator members to shepherd it into law.
Fitzpatrick calls out Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries as two companies whose handwriting (forget fingerprints) are all over the template legislation that forces states out of their regional climate agreements.
Read more: Koch Brothers And ExxonMobil Join Forces To Fight RGGI With Copy-Paste State Legislation
TAGS: ALEC, american legislative exchange council, americans for properity, charles koch charitable foundation, Chris Christie, exxon, Exxon Mobil, Exxonmobil, gas, Koch brothers, koch industries, midwesterns greenhouse gas accord, mobil, oil, regional greenhouse gas initiative, rggi, western climate initiative
