CO2 is GREEN.. as in cash for oil, gas and coal companies
Submitted by Jeanne Marie So... on November 9, 2009 - 6:44pm
CO2 is GREEN.. as in cash for oil, gas and coal companies
Recently, a group calling itself CO2isgreen.com started running television and print ads in Montana saying the earth needs more CO2, not less. The simple question any reasonable person would ask is, WHY would an organization call for more pollution? Why would anyone want to add more carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere, more rapidly that we are already doing, leading to increased temperatures and greater warming of the earth?
It turns out CO2is green.com is connected with the recently registered plantsneedCO2.org. The contact for plantsneedCO2.org is H. Leighton Steward, about whom Forbes says:
“He retired from Burlington Resources, Inc., an oil and gas exploration, production and development company, in 2000, where he had served as Vice Chairman since 1997. Mr. Steward is former Chairman of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association and the Natural Gas Supply Association, and is currently an honorary director of the American Petroleum Institute.”
Leighton is also a director of the oil and gas company EOG Resources, formerly Enron Oil & Gas Company, a position he assumed in 2004 – about the same time he started investigating climate change, he says. He spoke recently to the Cody, Wyoming, Rotary Club, and acknowldged that more than half the contributions to his group are from the coal industry.
The online public policy encyclopedia SourceWatch states that plantsneedCO2.org’s Texas certificate of Formation lists three directors, including Steward, all involved in oil, gas or coal.
Clearly, these people have a tremendous financial incentive to promote the byproduct of burning fossil fuel!
For more on CO2 is green:
Choke on This: CO2 is Green, by Anna Fahey, on Sightline Daily 9-28-09
Oil industry lobbyist telling Americans CO2 is not a pollutant.
Right! And toxic sludge is good for you. And coal is clean. And unicorns are real. And cigarettes don’t cause cancer. And pigs can fly. More…
Love Your CO2? New Gas-Loving Group Runs Ads, Hides Bias, by Amy Linn on NewWest.net 9-24-09
Who is the founder of a new nonprofit that says CO2 is healthy and good? A former oil company exec.
You might have seen the half-page ad in today’s Missoulian: CO2 is Green, it declares, amid photos of a flower, a tree and two grazing bison. “There are regulators and some in Congress who want to pass laws that limit the amount of CO2 produced, with their claims that CO2 is a pollutant. That is a myth and absolutely false,” states the ad, which is appearing in similar forms around the country. More…
BILLINGS GAZETTE
LETTER: Look at who’s behind ‘green’ advertisements
By Russ Doty, Billings – 10/11/2009
"Money is 'green.' So we can't get enough of it." Probably not the mantra of stations and newspapers, which ran recent ads from Co2isgreen.net. More…
MONTANA STANDARD
LETTER: Don't be fooled by recent ‘greenwashing' ad
By Pat Bradley, Twin Bridges - 09/30/2009
You can fool some of the people some of the time, which is apparently what PlantsNeedCO2.org is trying to do with their silly ad in last Thursday's Standard, stating that carbon dioxide is "green" and we need it. Duh. More…
