Before Gus Van Sant's latest film Promised Land even premiered, the energy industry was up in arms, gearing up to counter the film's apparent anti-fracking stance with a barrage of "community" responses (read: thinly veiled corporate PR).

CONTACTS: Brendan Fischer, brendan@prwatch.org / Blair Bowie, bbowie@pirg.org

Nearly One-Fifth of All Business Gifts to Super Pacs 
Were Contributed by Shell Corporations

MADISON, WI — Mystery donors poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2012 elections via nonprofits and shell corporations, despite widespread public support for disclosure and decades of legal precedent supporting the public's right to know the sources of election-related spending.

Corporate polluters are taking aim this year at states with renewable energy laws, starting with an attack on North Carolina's clean energy economy by American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) politicians and member companies.