20 August 09

Houston Energy Citizen Event not a Rally - it was a Company Picnic

Note: the times, dates and locations of all the upcoming American Petroleum Institute “Energy Citizen rallies” are at the end of this post.

As regular readers will recall, DeSmogBlog was the first blog to report on an API memo obtained by Greenpeace outlining a series of “energy citizens” rallies that would rely heavily on local oil companies bussing in their employees to create the appearance of a grassroots uprising against the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill.

Since then, I have received a lot of emails from oil company employees who know these fake rallies are wrong. Members of the Texas Public Citizen group attended the rally, and as they rightly report these were more like a company picnic than a spontaneous uprising of citizens.

If you’ve received an invitation to one of these energy citizen rallies, send me an email: desmogblog@gmail.com or call me at 778-240-6343 and let me know the details so we can continue to send folks out to report on these company picnics.

Here’s a list of upcoming astrturf events:

8/18 (11:30 AM). Houston, TX. Verizon Wireless Center. 8/20 (11.30 AM)

Roswell, NM. Eastern New Mexico State Fairgrounds, Arts and Crafts Building

8/20 5.30 PM Greensboro, NC. Greensboro Coliseum.

8/21 (11:30 AM). Lima, OH Veterans’ Memorial and Civic Center.

8/21 (11:30 AM) Farmington, NM. Convention Center at McGee Park

8/22 (11:30 AM). Atlanta, GA. Marriott Century Center.

8/25 (11.30 AM) Nashville, TN. Wild Horse Saloon.

8/25 (11:00 AM). Elkhart, IN. RV Hall of Fame.

8/25 (TBD) Greeley, CO. Island Grove Regional Park, Exhibit Hall

8/27 (11:30 AM). St. Louis, MO Hilton at the Ballpark.

8/27 (5.:00 PM) Tampa FL, Tampa Convention Center

8/27 (TBD). Bismarck, ND National Center of Energy Excellence at Bismarck State College, 4th Floor

8/31 (TBD). Anchorage, AK Anchorage Convention Center

8/31 (5:00 PM). Greenville, SC. Carolina First Center.

9/1 Springfield IL Time TBD Venue TBD

9/3 (Time TBD) Detroit MI Burton Manor Banquet and Conference Center.

9/3 (4:30 PM). Philadelphia, PA. Venue TBD.

9/3 Richmond, VA. TBD.

9/5 (2:30 PM). Lincoln, NE. Embassy Suites Lincoln.

9/7 (1:15 3 2:15 PM). Huron, SD. Freedom Stage, South Dakota State Fair

I will report out anymore details I can get so you can show up with your video cameras and ask questions, like: “Do you know why you’re here today,” or “Are you here because your boss made you come?”. If media are at the event, be sure to urge them to report these events as fake astroturf events organized by oil companies. Maybe you’ll get some footage like this: