How ALEC fronts for fossil fuels.

• Author: Surgey, Nick
• Position: American Legislative Exchange Council

Even as the Environmental Protection Agency finally attempts to limit carbon dioxide pollution from coal plants, it is meeting resistance at the state level, thanks to a secretive campaign by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

This reporter has obtained a number of internal documents from ALEC that provide a rare glimpse into how this corporate-funded lobbying group is attempting to derail the draft federal pollution standards.

ALEC is funded by many of the largest fossil fuel and utility companies in the United States, the very companies that have played such a destructive role with our environment.

C02 pollution is a key driver of climate change. In the United States, power plants (mostly coal-fired) burn an enormous 2.2 billion tons of CO2 every year, accounting for around 40 percent of the nation's total emissions.

"The EPA's proposal to cut carbon pollution from the power sector is both the most important thing a U.S. President has done to address climate change, and woefully inadequate, given the urgent warnings from climate scientists," says Gabe Wisniewski, Greenpeace USA climate campaign director.

Limiting carbon pollution is actually surprisingly popular. Two polls this year found that 70 percent of Americans approve of establishing carbon pollution limits, while the more recent of the two--commissioned by The Washington Post--found that 63 percent supported the limits even if implementing them would cost people $20 extra a month in energy costs.

But that isn't stopping ALEC.

For many years, ALEC has worked to challenge the EPA's ability to regulate carbon emissions, and to undermine renewable energy more generally, arguing instead that market forces should dictate our sources of energy. Its language has become more careful in recent years. It no longer promotes the ALEC "Top 10 Myths About Global Warming" on its website. ("Myth 1" was that human activity is causing the Earth to warm. "Myth 4" was that extreme weather phenomena are increasing because of global warming.)

Despite adjusting its tone, ALEC has not relented in its promotion of policies that perpetuate the use of fossil fuels at the expense of the environment.

"ALEC has repeatedly adopted the position that regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act is unnecessary, ineffective, and economically destructive," wrote Todd Wynn two years ago when he headed up ALEC's energy, environment, and agriculture task force. Wynn is now a lobbyist for the...