C02 is Green, a group with ties to the fossil fuel industry, has launched a new ad campaign in the "The Washington Post" that urges people to call their senators and vote against the cap-and-trade bill, reports the New York Times. The half-page ad says the president's bill will not change the climate and will increase the cost of living, driving up the price for electricity, transportation, fuel and food.
The group believes that CO2 isn't an environmental pollutant and is not the cause of climate change.
The New York Times reports that the CO2 is Green spokesman H. Leighton Steward sits on the board of directors of EOG Resources, an oil and natural gas development company, and is an honorary director at the industry trade group American Petroleum Institute.
Ken Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank told the newspaper that "the ad is more political than scientific," sending a message to Democrats that there is a large group who don't want climate controls and it will impact them in the midterm elections.
USA Today reports that the ad campaign is part of a lobbying campaign aimed at defeating the climate bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
As an example, Tesoro Corp. and Valero Energy Corp., both of San Antonio, Tx., have spent a combined $1.5 million or 79 percent of the funds collected in an effort to overturn California's AB 32, which seeks to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2020, and may mark the beginning of a massive spending campaign by companies which have little or no economic interest in California. Although the legislation only impacts California, the measure could have a significant effect throughout the country.
David Di Martino, spokesman for Clean Energy Works, a coalition of about 60 groups that want climate legislation, said in the article that in addition to Steward the organization is funded by Corbin J. Robinson, chief executive of and leading shareholder in Natural Resource Partners, a Houston-based owner of coal resources.
Di Martino, citing figures from the CBO, says the Senate bill will reduce the country's deficit by $20 billion and will create new jobs.
