Houston Energy Citizen Event not a Rally – it was a Company Picnic

onAug 20, 2009 @ 09:50 PDT

Note: the times, dates and locations of all the upcoming American Petroleum Institute “Energy Citizen rallies” are at the end of this post.

As regular readers will recall, DeSmogBlog was the first blog to report on an API memo obtained by Greenpeace outlining a series of “energy citizens” rallies that would rely heavily on local oil companies bussing in their employees to create the appearance of a grassroots uprising against the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill.

Since then, I have received a lot of emails from oil company employees who know these fake rallies are wrong. Members of the Texas Public Citizen group attended the rally, and as they rightly report these were more like a company picnic than a spontaneous uprising of citizens.

If you’ve received an invitation to one of these energy citizen rallies, send me an email: [email protected] or call me at 778-240-6343 and let me know the details so we can continue to send folks out to report on these company picnics.

Here’s a list of upcoming astrturf events:

8/18 (11:30 AM). Houston, TX. Verizon Wireless Center. 8/20 (11.30 AM)

Roswell, NM. Eastern New Mexico State Fairgrounds, Arts and Crafts Building

8/20 5.30 PM Greensboro, NC. Greensboro Coliseum.

8/21 (11:30 AM). Lima, OH Veterans’ Memorial and Civic Center.

8/21 (11:30 AM) Farmington, NM. Convention Center at McGee Park

8/22 (11:30 AM). Atlanta, GA. Marriott Century Center.

8/25 (11.30 AM) Nashville, TN. Wild Horse Saloon.

8/25 (11:00 AM). Elkhart, IN. RV Hall of Fame.

8/25 (TBD) Greeley, CO. Island Grove Regional Park, Exhibit Hall

8/27 (11:30 AM). St. Louis, MO Hilton at the Ballpark.

8/27 (5.:00 PM) Tampa FL, Tampa Convention Center

8/27 (TBD). Bismarck, ND National Center of Energy Excellence at Bismarck State College, 4th Floor

8/31 (TBD). Anchorage, AK Anchorage Convention Center

8/31 (5:00 PM). Greenville, SC. Carolina First Center.

9/1 Springfield IL Time TBD Venue TBD

9/3 (Time TBD) Detroit MI Burton Manor Banquet and Conference Center.

9/3 (4:30 PM). Philadelphia, PA. Venue TBD.

9/3 Richmond, VA. TBD.

9/5 (2:30 PM). Lincoln, NE. Embassy Suites Lincoln.

9/7 (1:15 3 2:15 PM). Huron, SD. Freedom Stage, South Dakota State Fair

I will report out anymore details I can get so you can show up with your video cameras and ask questions, like: “Do you know why you’re here today,” or “Are you here because your boss made you come?”. If media are at the event, be sure to urge them to report these events as fake astroturf events organized by oil companies. Maybe you’ll get some footage like this:

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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