Tell Gov. Tomblin: Taxpayer money shouldn't promote
coal propaganda and right-wing attacks on the EPA.
Dear Paul,
An explosive article published Wednesday on the Charleston Gazette's website exposed that West Virginia taxpayer money is
being used to promote the coal industry's misleading attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency and President Obama's
attempts to protect public health.1
In the past two years, Governor Tomblin and the state legislature have set aside $58,500 in taxpayer money for a
series of annual events called "the coal forum," in which coal industry staffers and pro-coal elected officials will attack
EPA's efforts to protect public health as "the EPA's war on coal."
It is bad enough that Governor Tomblin is supporting pro-coal policies that throw people's health under the bus, but to be
so brazen about using taxpayer money to parrot right-wing and coal industry political attacks is a stunning breach of public
trust.
Tell Governor Tomblin: Don't spend taxpayer money on political attacks. Click here to automatically sign the petition.
Everything about these events just reeks. This year's "coal forums," which are scheduled to take place this week in Charleston,
Wheeling and Beckley, are literally being planned and promoted by a coal industry public relations firm owned by a registered
lobbyist!2
These forums are a blatant attempt to advance the one-sided interests of the coal industry, which is working to reverse life
saving federal pollution limits. Absent from the forums will be scientists, public health professionals and anyone else who
might tell the truth about the devastating impacts of coal and the need to protect West Virginians from dirty coal pollution.3
Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard characterized the issue well: "It's not surprising that the coal industry is down on
Obama. But there aren't many states where the industry would have direct state support in advancing that agenda."4
The Coal Forum's Twitter account gives a good indication of the anti-Obama sentiment the events will be pushing, with several
recent Tweets highlighting "Obama's war on coal" and one actually saying "Obama faces trouble in coal country."5
Tell Governor Tomblin: Don't spend taxpayer money on political attacks. Click here to automatically sign the petition.
Governor Tomblin has a well-deserved reputation for acting as a mouthpiece for West Virginia's powerful coal industry.
His re-election website is largely committed to defending the coal industry and attacking the EPA.6 And of course,
his list of campaign contributions reads like a who's who of power brokers in the dirty coal industry.7
But the blatant use of state-funds to promote what clearly amounts to coal industry propaganda and right-wing political attacks
is truly brazen, even for him.
Click below to automatically sign the petition and send a strong message to Governor Tomblin:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=10
Thanks for fighting against the West Virginia government's shameful shilling for dirty coal.
Josh Nelson, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
1. W.Va. taxpayers fund anti-Obama coal campaign,
Charleston Gazette, 5/16/12
2. Coal PR firm set up state's anti-Obama meetings,
Charleston Gazette, 5/18/12
3. Events, The Coal Forum
4. West Virginia Funds Pro-Coal Attack on Obama
Admin., Mother Jones, 5/17/12
5. The Coal Forum, Twitter
6. W. Va. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Coal, YouTube,
1/13/12
7. Contributions to Tomblin, Earl Ray, National
Institute on Money in State Politics
|
