Steve Milloy on Fox NewsClimate scientists increasingly report that they have become targets of cyber-bullying, saying threats and hatred pour into their email inboxes whenever they appear in the press or media. The emailers call the scientists cheaters, frauds, scumbags and worse. Australian academic Clive Hamilton speculated in a news column that purpose of this cyber-bullying is to upset and intimidate the targets, making them reluctant to participate further in the climate change debate. Most of the e-mails seem to be the work of frustrated individuals who simply want to rant, but some appears to be coming from coordinated campaigns. Scientists say people appear to be taking cues from influential anti-climate change advocates like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the Web site ClimateDepot.com. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research -- who has received 19 pages of hate email just since November -- says that the most dispiriting aspect of the e-mails is that facts seem to no longer hold any weight in the public debate. He observes that the nature of public discourse, be it climate change or health care, has changed; information that does not fit peoples' worldview is now discounted or rejected. Richard Littlemore of DeSmogBlog says the cyberbullying starts with paid campaigners like Marc Morano, Executive Director at ClimateDepot.com, and Steven J. Milloy of JunkScience.com. "They're the PR guys and they're in the game and taking money for what they do," he said.

Progress Energy is the latest in a growing number of energy companies abandoning the pro-coal industry front group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). ACCCE opposes President Obama's clean energy reform agenda, and was the group that ran ads at Christmas time, 2008 featuring animated lumps of coal called the "Clean Coal Carolers" cheerfully singing Christmas Carols like "Frosty the Snowman" with the lyrics changed to deliver pro-coal propaganda ("Frosty the Coalman is a jolly happy soul. He's abundant here in America, and he helps our economy roll. Frosty the Coalman's getting cleaner every day. He's affordable and adorable and helps workers keep their pay.") Progress Energy serves 3.1 million customers in Florida and the Carolinas, and it follows Duke Energy, Alcoa and other power generators in pulling out of ACCCE. Progress had been one of ACCCE's biggest funders, and had given the group $1 million in 2008. But Progress recently announced they were moving away from coal and shutting down 11 coal-fired power plants, in favor of moving towards natural gas -- a less greenhouse-gas intensive fuel source. ACCCE has been spending over $40 million a year to promote the myth of "clean coal." In August, 2009, ACCCE's Vice President of Communications even tried to portray mountaintop removal as a boon to rural communities because it solved the problem of a "lack of flat space" in Appalachia.

The multinational energy company ExxonMobil has given hundreds of thousands of British pounds in grants to free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks to wage a coordinated, orchestrated campaign against climate change science, and undermine public acceptance of the idea that global warming has a man-made component. The campaign includes attacks against scientists who support the idea that climate change in man-made. Funding has gone to groups like the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the U.S., and the International Policy Network in the United Kingdom, which have organized international seminars that pulled together climate change deniers from around the world.

In 2006, the California legislature passed AB 32, the "Global Warming Solutions Act," which requires the state to bring its greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Since then, a coalition with the helpful-sounding name the "AB 32 Implementation Group" has appeared, claiming to represent green businesses and a broad section of California interests focused on global warming regulations. The Implementation Group's Web site features photos of white clouds and flowers, and the organization is being managed by a big public relations firm, Woodward & McDowell. In truth, the Group actually represents 22 of California's biggest carbon polluters (as ranked by the California Air Resources Board), and, according to environmentalists and lawmakers, is engaged in a steady campaign to undermine the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Even some of its own member businesses were surprised to learn that the group was trying to negatively impact the global warming law. The PR firm Woodward & McDowell has a history of working with the tobacco industry to defeat clean indoor air laws and working with polluting industries to defeat environmental measures. In the 1990s, it helped defeat California's Proposition 128, also known as "Big Green," which would have enacted a number of environmentally-friendly measures related to pesticides, water quality and old-growth forests. The Group's co-chair said in an interview that she supports suspending AB 32, saying "It will add significant costs to manufacturing, particularly in the electricity side." A chief sponsor of the Group is California's Chamber of Commerce, and its membership includes the Western States Petroleum Association, which represents ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, Tesoro, Valero and BP.

Fifteen years ago, CMD's book Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! first exposed the hidden government and industry PR campaign greenwashing toxic sewage sludge as "biosolids," an invented PR euphemism used to cynically re-brand toxic waste as "fertilizer" given free to farmers. Today, unfortunately, the biosolids scam is bigger than ever. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) reports that "San Francisco has come up with an ingenious plot to trick city residents into taking their toxic sewage sludge back and disposing of it in their own gardens. San Francisco is having Synagro, the corporate giant of the toxic sludge industry, 'compost' some of the toxic sewage sludge. Then they give it away to San Francisco's gardeners telling us it's 'high-quality, nutrient-rich, organic Biosolids Compost.' " OCA has launched a grassroots campaign calling on San Francisco's mayor to stop the practice, noting "municipal sewage sludge routinely contains thousands of dangerous pathogens, toxic heavy metals, flame retardants, endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, pharmaceutical drugs and other hazardous chemicals coming from residential drains, storm water runoff, hospitals, and industrial plants."

Juliet Eilperin reports that "two Washington lobbyists, Jeffrey R. Holmstead and Roger R. Martella, Jr., helped craft" the original version of an amendment proposed by Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski which would "bar the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act." Holmstead, who heads the Environmental Strategies Group at Bracewell & Giuliani, confirmed that last September he worked with Murkowski's staff on the wording of the amendment. Both Holmstead and a Murkowski aide confirmed that Martella, a partner at Sidley Austin, also worked on crafting the amendments. Holmstead's client list on climate issues includes Southern Company, Duke Energy, Progress Energy and the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council on climate matters while Martella is the registered lobbyist for the National Alliance of Forest Owners and the Alliance of Food Associations on the same subject. Brendan Demelle notes on DeSmog Blog that Murkowski "has received $470,000 in campaign contributions from dirty energy and mining interests since 2005, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."