Astroturf Update: Coal lobby group parts ways with fraudster PR firm

Above: Protesting "Naked Fraud" at offices of Bonner & Assoc. in Washington, DC. By DC Climate Action.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) announced Friday that it will no longer engage conservative campaign firm Bonner & Associates.

Bonner is the firm responsible for sending fradulent letters to three members of Congress in opposition to carbon cap-and-trade legislation -- letters that were made to look as if they were from legitimate grassroots citizen organizations.

"We will not be working with Mr. Bonner again," Joe Lucas, senior vice president for communications at ACCCE, told NationalJournal.com (which broke the story, as far as I can tell). "ACCCE did nothing wrong. Looking back, there would be many things we would do differently."

Opinion flew around the global warming blogosphere when the move was announced:

At the National Journal's Under the Influence blog, Amy Harder writes that ACCCE has yet to sever ties with PR firm Hawthorn Group, its primary contractor, which had in turn hired Bonner. Thus "the middleman in this scandal is not losing out."

ThinkProgress disagrees with ACCCE's claim of innocence: "In fact, ACCCE covered up the fraud and is now throwing Bonner under the bus. The coal coalition had been informed by the Hawthorn Group...days before the pivotal House vote on the energy legislation. But ACCCE kept silent, failing to notify lawmakers or the defrauded organizations."

ACCCE will continue to work with the Lincoln Strategy Group, a firm with its own troubled history of anti-Democratic voter fraud. "Makes you wonder," writes activist Jesse Jenkins at WattHead, "what else is the dirty energy lobby up to..."

OMB Watch worries that the fraudulent letters could have a chilling effect on grassroots organizing beyond the immediate situation. "Unfortunately, advocacy organizations may now be uneasy about any future letters they send to legislators and question whether they will be considered illegitimate."

In another blog post, OMB Watch makes the point most other blogging and reporting on this issue has missed: Under current law, there are no requirements for grassroots lobbying campaigns to disclose their origins and funding, "including the fake, Astroturf kind, even if specific pending legislation is mentioned and members of the public are encouraged to contact Congress."

Sine these corporate-funded campaigns can generally outspend and outshout public interest organizations and constituents, "the playing field is rendered unequal and the democratic process is hurt," writes OMB Watch.

Opponents of increased disclosure (who often include groups engaged in Astroturf lobbying) argue that requiring the public's access to such information is an unconstitutional regulation of speech and is intended to silence diverse viewpoints. Ethics watchdogs, however, say disclosure of grassroots lobbying is not intended to restrict free speech, but it is intended to bring increased transparency to both government and those who seek to influence government.

In addition, advocates note that nonprofit organizations and labor unions are already required to report on their grassroots lobbying activities via their annual IRS Form 990 reports.

Browsing a few of the more prominent conservative climate blogs, including Climate Audit, Watts Up With That, and Climate Depot, I've so far found no comment on ACCCE's break with Bonner & Associates.