Earth Equity News

Oil Industry Backs 'Citizen' Protests of Climate Bill. By Clifford Krauss and Jad Mouawad, NYTimes, August 19, 2009. "Hard on the heels of the health care protests, another citizen movement seems to have sprung up, this one to oppose Washington's attempts to tackle climate change. But behind the scenes, an industry with much at stake -- Big Oil -- is pulling the strings. Hundreds of people packed a downtown theater in Houston on Tuesday for a lunchtime rally that was as much a celebration of oil's traditional role in the Texas way of life as it was a political protest against Washington's energy policies, which many here fear will raise energy prices... The event on Tuesday was organized by a group called Energy Citizens, which is backed by the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's main trade group. Many of the people attending the demonstration were employees of oil companies who work in Houston and were bused from their workplaces. This was the first of a series of about 20 rallies planned for Southern and oil-producing states to organize resistance to proposed legislation that would set a limit on emissions of heat-trapping gases, requiring many companies to buy emission permits. Participants described the system as an energy tax that would undermine the economy of Houston, the nation's energy capital."