I was looking at information about photovoltaic solar energy, wind energy, electric cars, plug-in hybrids and such last night. Through a chain of links and searches I can't quite remember, I found an article published by the National Legal and Policy Center about Sally Jewell, the Obama administrations's new nominee for Secretary of the Interior. I found it immediately apparent that this was a fossil-fuel industry hit piece that bore essentially no relationship to real public policy.
I found out from Sourcewatch what the NLPC's real motivating force is: "NLPC’s predominate sources of funding are the Scaife Foundations. Richard Mellon Scaife is heir to the Mellon banking, oil and aluminum fortune. He is the premier financier for right wing political and policy organizations in the United States. The Mellon family owns Gulf Oil."
According to their About Us page, "NLPC promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education and legal action." They provide a page where anyone can report "...information about fraudulent or questionable activities in or by the government, large corporations, or government contractors..." Well, since their own article struck me as a fraudulent and questionable activity by a large corporation, I felt compelled to respond to the call.
Armed with more of a sense of dramatic irony than any real expectation of accomplishment, I submitted the following report to their own Report Corruption page.
I want to report a possible example of collusion between government, industry and a purported "public interest" group.
http://nlpc.org/...
This supposedly public interest article uses questionable sources: industry lobbying groups and elected officials in the pockets of these same industry lobbying groups to smear a potential civil service nominee by making false claims about resource extraction: mining doesn't harm the public and the environment? Ever heard of Mountaintop Removal? Fossil fuels are good for the economy? Wind and solar are now cheaper than coal and gas in some markets and solar is already generating huge savings by reducing peak daytime loads.
There is clearly a conflict of interest between NLPC's industry ties through its funding by the Scaife foundations and its claims of unbiased anti-corruption activism. Please investigate these issues and act on them with all possible speed.
Thank you.
I included my contact information. If they respond, I'll provide updates as warranted.
Edited to provide context, as suggested. Thanks for the feedback!