Scholastic Peddles Dirty Energy Propaganda in 100,000 Classrooms

Imagine, one day, little Johnny comes home from school with a teary, concerned look. "Mommy, why is the government trying to stop oil drilling? That will hurt our family."

That little Johnny would get off the bus sounding like an oil lobbyist may seem patently ridiculous. But, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's new "Shedding Light on Energy" teaching guide—set for distribution to 100,000 classrooms nationwide, according to Politico—the scenario is plausible.

The guide (pdf) looks harmless enough. It tells kids the sad-but-true facts of how we power our nation: 45 percent coal, 23 percent natural gas, 20 percent nuclear, 7 percent hydroelectric, and a mere 3.6 percent renewables (wind, solar and biomass, all in a single sliver of the pie), and it conveniently lists all the lovely countries from which we import oil (in order, Canada, Mexico, Saudia Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iraq, Angola). The 4-page guide even gets into the specific fact that 41 percent of crude oil is refined into gasoline, 23 percent diesel—information I doubt little Johnny needs to know, let alone anyone who doesn't work in an oil refinery.

Yet, as NRDC's Pete Altman points out, nowhere is there mention of the public health, environmental or national security consequences of our coal and oil reliance—information I believe the next generation should be a tad more concerned about than how to divvy up a barrel of crude.

The real whammy in the guide comes with the suggested "wrap up" discussion questions at the end. “What do you think could happen if one of our energy sources was suddenly unavailable (e.g., power plant maintenance, government curb on production, etc.)?” the guide asks. Um, sorry kids, I hate to break it  you, but the only answer is DOOMSDAY.

That's at least what the Chamber of Commerce wants us adults to believe. The nation's biggest-spending lobby group has a firm record of fear-mongering about climate and energy policies and has spent millions of dollars to defeat clean energy legislation and pan the drilling moratorium. It also happens to have 12 pending lawsuits against EPA—including ones challenging regulations that reduce childhood asthma-causing smog.

Yet the Chamber may have come to believe in a more effective tactic than direct fear-mongering: the "soft-sell" PR strategy. Recently, Bill Kovacs, the chamber's main energy lobbyist, advised that strategy at a North Dakota conference: "How do we explain why we are so beneficial to society...and what would life be like without coal?," is what he advised.

This is not the first time the energy industry has had its way spreading propaganda to kids—most recently, BP had a hand in developing California's new environmental education curriculum.

Scholastic, Inc., is one of the nation's largest educational publishers, and it's publishing the Chamber's guide set for distribution to 100,000 schools. The guide is actually part of a series, the next 2 due out early next year. NRDC's Altman very nicely gave us Scholastic's email address so let's use it to sign this letter and tell the company to end its partnership with the Chamber and put its propaganda in the recycling bin where it belongs.

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks via Flickr

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