Last month the American Petroleum Institute announced it was hiring a “grassroots” organizer (actually, it’s a stretch to call anything The Nature Conservancy does “grassroots” – but that’s a slightly different story, which we’ll come back to below).
Grass-Roots Organizer Jumps From Nature Conservancy to API
By ANNE C. MULKERN of Greenwire – February 26, 2010 nytimes.com
The oil industry’s biggest trade group has nabbed one of the environmental community’s top grass-roots organizers as it ramps up efforts to build a network of citizen lobbyists.
Deryck Spooner, who ran Nature Conservancy’s push to spur legislative action on climate change, will now head American Petroleum Institute’s grass-roots activism arm. The hiring move sends a nervous flutter through environmental groups. By recruiting Spooner, green groups said, API adds someone with both credibility and deep knowledge of grass-roots strategy. Spooner previously ran campaigns for labor group AFL-CIO and abortion rights organization NARAL.
“He’s a big dog,” said Tyson Slocum, energy program director at watchdog group Public Citizen. “It gives API somebody with enormous grass-roots experience running major campaigns. This indicates that API is taking their grass-roots strategy in a very serious direction.”
The move comes two months after the trade group cut 15 percent of its staff and President Jack Gerard said API had “not been as effective as we could be in educating public officials or the public about the critical role of oil and gas in our economy. … You will see us evolve into a more nimble, more aggressive” organization. “We’re going to be aggressive in our outreach to educate the public,” he said (E&ENews PM, Dec. 11, 2009).
Hiring Spooner is part of Gerard’s strategy to expand grass-roots activism, API spokeswoman Cathy Landry said, adding, “Jack’s vision is to mobilize the 9.2 million people whose jobs rely on the oil and gas industry. We do plan to step that up.”
API’s community activism last year sparked controversy, as environmental critics accused the trade group of steering employees to rallies aimed at killing climate legislation. API said the rallies allowed both employees and other citizens to voice concerns that climate legislation would raise energy prices and affect jobs.
Spooner, 42, doesn’t see the move from Nature Conservancy to API as that big of a jump.
“I have worked for vastly different organizations throughout my career,” Spooner said. “The bottom line is it’s all about advocacy, that’s what I’m passionate about. Mobilizing and organizing people to influence the public process and public policy is what I truly love to do.”
“At the end of the day, I don’t necessarily believe that the views of [the Nature Conservancy] and API are incompatible,” Spooner added. API members use technology “to ensure that the places that they drill are not impacted,” Spooner said, while the Nature Conservancy uses a scientific approach in deciding where to protect land and water. API members, he said, “don’t just want to drill anywhere for drilling’s sake. There’s a lot of science going into where they drill.”
. . . .
“There’s no useful contribution that the American Petroleum Institute is making to forwarding our energy economy,” said Kert Davies, research director for Greenpeace. “They’ve been at the center of campaigns to derail climate progress for 20 years.”
Ramping up grass-roots efforts with Spooner shows API believes that’s what’s necessary to achieve its goals, he said.
“They know that ultimately it’s going to come down to a grass-roots toe-to-toe battle on energy policy,” Davies said. And having Spooner at API gives the oil trade group new advantages, he said, including information about environmental group strategies.”
For complete NYTimes article, click here
And now, the other shoe – API’s version of grassroots. How’s about some petrochemical-based synthetic dyes to make that astroturf look like the real thing? – sort of. From API’s “Energy Tomorrow” website:
Tell Congress to Allow for Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources
Domestic oil and gas will provide the jobs, revenues and energy our nation needs. And Canada, our friendly neighbor to the north and top supplier of oil, will continue to play a vital role as we seek greater energy and economic security. Take action and send a letter now.
Tweet Your Support for Domestic Access
Update your Twitter status to show your support for increased access to domestic oil and natural gas, as well as Canadian oil sands. Post to Twitter now.
Post about Energy Access to Facebook
Tell your Facebook friends that you support increased energy access and encourage them to get involved. Post to Facebook now.
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Yup, that’s the industry’s other major asset: shamelessness. Watch for ongoing efforts to rebrand thoughtless over-consumption as “Domestic Access.” Thanks to the ongoing efforts of industry leaders to exploit every possible drop of hydrocarbons during their own lifetimes, while they can hoard the profits, there may be an “Energy Tomorrow” of sorts, but an “Energy Day After That” becomes somewhat more problematic.
Thanks to The Nature Conservancy for being so without ethics that it will apparently hire any amoral crook if s/he’s clever enough. No wonder real climate-protection legislation hasn’t come to pass and isn’t on the horizon either. This is why the bottom is falling out from under the big environmental organizations – they’ve forgotten their [grass]roots.
Tags: API, astroturfing, Energy Access
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