Climate and energy

Just up in DeSmogBlog – I will reprint here in its entirety:

Kansas coal kings have set up another front group to fight back against an October decision to block construction of two coal-fired electricity generators.

The Alliance for Sound Energy Policy advertises itself as “a statewide, non-partisan organization committed to balancing our growing energy needs with environmental stewardship.”

But there are no “environmental stewards” on its list of members, and its slick website is registered directly to Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, the failed proponent of the canceled power plants.

This is the second time that coal interests, including Sunflower, have launched an Astroturf group to fight the October decision. In early November 2007, a group calling itself “Kansans for Affordable Energy” ran a series of expensive and outrageous ads, suggesting that Kansas legislators were playing into the hands of people like Russian President Vladimir Putin, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But the Washington Post quickly discovered that the ads had been purchased by Sunflower and by coal giant Peabody Coal.

If you’d like to see the website registration for yourself, just go to this link: http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=soundenergypolicy.net.

Right now, as of 11:12 a.m. January 17, that site is registered to: Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, PO Box 1020, 301 West 13th St., Hays KS, 67601.

So if Sunflower owns and administers this site – what else connected with www.soundenergypolicy.net (the Alliance for Sound Energy Policy) do they run as well? To what extent are they dictating its entire agenda?

How can an organization with such a mammoth stake in current Kansas energy policy – in the midst of a brutally partisan-ized battle, where many Republican legislators firmly identify with Sunflower’s agenda, and see their main target as Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius and her adminstration’s decisions – credibly claim to be “a non-partisan organization”?

The exact relationships here call for further explanation and investigation. It’s important for the public – and for the legislators who serve us – to know what these connections are.

— Maril Hazlett

Want to learn more about climate and energy in the Midwest? Check out www.climateandenergy.org.