Oil Industry Front Group Rallies for Global Warming

"Taking a cue from angry protests against the Obama Administration's health care restructuring, the oil industry is helping organize anti-climate bill rallies around the nation," reports Ian Talley. The rallies are being organized under the name "Energy Citizens," an effort led by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and including the National Association of Manufacturers, American Farm Bureau, American Highway Users Alliance, National Black Chamber of Commerce, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, FreedomWorks, American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform and Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, according to Greenwire. Rally fliers warn, "Climate change legislation being considered in Washington will cause huge economic pain and produce little environmental gain." The fliers also claim that the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill, which passed the House of Representatives in June, would "cost 2 million American jobs, raise gasoline and diesel prices up to $4." In contrast, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the bill would cost U.S. households "about a postage stamp a day," while the Energy Information Administration projects that annual "energy bill costs could rise between $26 per household to to $362 by 2020." API's "EnergyCitizens" plans to hold rallies in about 20 states during August, targeting states "whose Democratic Senators aren't strong supporters of a stringent bill, such as ... Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Mark Begich of Alaska."