Wyoming Is Using Dark Money To Help Keep Coal Plants In Other States Open

pauldun170

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2011
9,133
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136
I'm burned out from having to comment on all the shit stories we've been bombarded with over the past 4 years...
Screw it.


Stephanie Kodish is used to opposition to her work. In her job with the National Parks Conservation Association, she pushes utilities to comply with environmental laws. That can mean installing expensive new anti-pollution technology on coal plants, or even closing them down.

Last year, though, she encountered a completely new kind of opposition that left her disconcerted.

After years of feuding and lawsuits, the utility Entergy Arkansas Inc. had agreed to shut down two coal plants over the next decade. Weeks later, the Arkansas Attorney General and a local coalition called the Arkansas Affordable Energy Coalition intervened, asking a judge to stop the settlement. They argued that other fuel sources would be more expensive and less reliable.

But emails obtained through public records requests show the coalition represents more than just coal, gas and steel businesses in Arkansas. In fact, it was created by a nonprofit — the Energy Policy Network — whose largest financial contributor most years is the state of Wyoming, home to the coal mines that feed the two Arkansas plants slated for shut down.

When told the coalition was backed by Wyoming Kodish first laughed in surprise, but then turned serious. "It's disturbing to learn that those interests are disingenuous and people are being manipulated," she says.

Several ethics and transparency experts say this is the first time they have heard of a U.S. state using so-called "dark money" in this way. They agree that it raises troubling questions about state officials backing a group that surreptitiously seeks to impact policy elsewhere.

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More fun
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
72,329
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In a capitalist competitive system absent socialist support for all members of society other than those who can devote their lives to making money, like children and mothers, the old and the sick, blue collar workers, etc. those who most successfully rise to the top are the criminal psychopaths who see other people as prey. They are a mafia cancer that will do anything to benefit themselves. Cunning scum will do anything to win and the one thing they do best is to create a country full of fools they can manipulate.
 
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K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
45,896
32,696
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The coal industry was put into irreversible secular decline by cheap natural gas. People not wanting the dirty power is just icing on the cake.

Wyoming would be better served exploiting their wind resource.
 

Dulanic

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2000
9,949
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You'd think at some point, the idea behind venture capitalists dumping debt onto a company just to bankrupt them would be addressed. Eh what am I thinking, capitalism at it's finest, basically stealing money from the middle class is the best way for the rich to get richer.
 
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zzyzxroad

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2017
3,244
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The coal industry was put into irreversible secular decline by cheap natural gas. People not wanting the dirty power is just icing on the cake.

Wyoming would be better served exploiting their wind resource.
Plus there are not guys down in a mine with a hard hat and pickaxe any more. Plenty of health issues and danger though.

 
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UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
24,802
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My states’ rights are more important than your states’ rights. All animals are equal...but some are more equal than others.