New Oil and Coal Fronts Greenwash Global Warming

Television ads from a new Montana-based group called CO2 Is Green claim: "There is no scientific evidence that CO2 [carbon dioxide] is a pollutant. In fact higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth's ecosystems." The ads urge voters to contact their Senators and Representative, "and remind them CO2 is not pollution." The ads are meant to stoke opposition to climate change legislation. Not surprisingly, the man behind the ads, the lobbying group CO2 Is Green and a related "educational" group called Plants Need CO2 is "a veteran oil industry executive." H. Leighton Steward was a director at EOG Resources, which was previously named the Enron Oil and Gas Company, and is an honorary director of the American Petroleum Institute. "Now retired, [Steward] says he wants to 'get the message out there' that carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled a pollutant and which most [sic] scientists regard as a dangerous greenhouse gas, 'is a net benefit for the planet.'" Steward co-founded the new groups with Corbin J. Robertson Jr., the "chief executive of and leading shareholder in Natural Resource Partners, a Houston-based owner of coal resources."