The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record reports that Wal-Mart's federal political action committee, the retailer's political arm, has been expanding its donations to candidates seeking North Carolina state office, including $54,000 to state-level candidates during the current election cycle.

According to the News & Record, in North Carolina, the PAC seems to support candidates with business-friendly reputations:

Of the 52 North Carolina state-level candidates to whom the PAC has given in the election cycle, recipients include Sen. Phil Berger, a Republican who represents Rockingham County and parts of Guilford County; Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat; Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat; and Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat.

But Wal-Mart is not only stepping up its involvement in state-level policy-making. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company has been holding mandatory meetings with store managers and department heads, encouraging them to oppose the election of Barack Obama and to vote against Democrats in U.S. Senate campaigns because of concerns over pro-labor union legislation. The Wall-Street Journal reported:

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers ... make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in, according to Wal-Mart employees who attended gatherings in Maryland, Missouri and other states.

Wal-Mart continues to face scrutiny for its aggressive anti-union activity, policies that include shutting down the few stores where employees have been able to start organizing drives and firing many others for union activity. This latest anti-union activity surrounds Wal-Mart's fear that Democrats will resurrect the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that, if passed, would make it much easier and quicker for employees to unionize. Wal-Mart, alongside other large corporations, has been putting heavy funds and resources into lobbying against the passage of the EFCA.

"We believe EFCA is a bad bill and we have been on record as opposing it for some time," David Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal. "We feel educating our associates about the bill is the right thing to do."

Labels: labor, lobbyists, north carolina, wal-mart, workers' rights

We received this communication today from Steve Gates, senior communication director of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a group that represents the interests of coal producers and coal-based utilities. He was commenting on our post from yesterday titled "Big Coal makes deceptive phone calls on climate change legislation," about a call a North Carolina environmental activist received from a related group called Americans for Balanced Energy Choices in which the caller wrongly denied any connection to utilities:

After reading your article, I decided to look into this matter and this is what I have been able to find out. In the instance mentioned in your post, one new staff member -- who is no longer working on this project -- decided to "wing it" when asked some questions that were off her script. This staff person clearly should have answered "Yes" when asked if ABEC was related to the utility industry.

While ABEC did merge with the Center for Energy and Economic Development to form ACCCE back in April of this year, our grassroots arm still operates under the ABEC name to reduce confusion to our more than 150,000 individual members some of whom have been members since ABEC’s inception in 2000.

We only call only our membership, whom we have been communicating with over many years, about what ABEC is and what we stand for. Our policy is to always be open and upfront about who we are, what we do and what we advocate for. As you pointed out in your post, we go to great lengths to operate as transparently as possible on our website.

I hope this helps to add some clarity to the operations of our organization. I can always be reached for further information at sgates@cleancoalusa.org.

Steve Gates
ACCCE Senior Communications Director

Labels: climate, coal, global warming, lobbyists

Next month the U.S. Senate is expected to take up the Lieberman-Warner bill on climate change (S. 2191), legislation that would create a federally controlled market for carbon pollution by allowing industries to buy and sell emission allowances.

In the meantime, a lobby group for the coal industry is making phone calls encouraging people to oppose the measure -- but it's being less than forthcoming about who's behind those calls.

Pete MacDowell, an activist with the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, got one of the calls this morning. The woman on the other end identified herself as being from Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, an organization formed in 2000 to build support for coal-based electricity. Last month, ABEC merged with the Center for Energy and Economic Development -- an Alexandria, Va.-based group that represents the interests of coal producers and utility companies -- to form the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

Here's MacDowell's account of the call:

They wanted to add my name to a fax to Senators Lieberman and Warner asking them leave it up to the states to decide how to respond to climate change rather than drive up our utility rates. When I asked who ABEC was, I was told that they were individuals concerned about utility rates. When I asked if they were an environmental group, the answer was "yes." When I asked whether they were related to the utilities, the answer was "No." When I asked to find out more about them I was directed to their website. When I told the lady that they were the coal lobby, they said that they did believe in "clean coal." When I told the lady that the information she had previously given me was fraudulent, she said she would tell her supervisor.

As MacDowell notes, it's fraudulent for ABEC/ACCCE to claim they're not related to the utilities. Even the groups' own www.americaspower.org website acknowledges their relationship to coal-fired electrical utilities (bold emphasis mine):

AmericasPower.org is sponsored by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), which is a partnership of the industries involved in producing electricity from coal.

That website also includes a list of ACCCE member organizations -- among them major utility companies including Duke Energy and Progress Energy of North Carolina, Luminant of Texas, and Mirant of Georgia.

Expect to be hearing more from ACCCE in the coming weeks, as the organization today announced that it will be focusing on the upcoming Lieberman-Warner debate. Besides making phone calls, the group will also run print ads against the measure.

For an analysis of the Lieberman-Warner legislation from the Union of Concerned Scientists, click here. For more information on ABEC, read its SourceWatch.org entry.

Labels: climate, coal, global warming, Joe Lieberman, John Warner, lobbyists, NCWARN

Sen. Trent Lott -- remember him? For the first time since 1988, the U.S. Senate convened this year without the Mississippi lawmaker -- known for his nostalgic feelings for the Old South -- after his abrupt retirement in 2007.

Where is he now?

Preparing to make a lot of money, reports Tory Newmyer of Portfolio.com:

Lott is launching a lobbying firm with former Louisiana senator John Breaux, a Democrat, and is joining the speaking circuit and eyeing corporate boards. Compensation experts and other lobbyists say Lott's access and unflagging hustle will probably interest companies enough to net him millions out of the starting gate—quite an improvement over his $165,200 Senate salary.

Newmyer estimates that between speaking gigs (five a year at about $40,000 a pop), his new lobbying venture (representing "trains, planes, boats and harbors"), and involvement on corporate boards (he's available), Lott's new "annual value" will be around $4-$6 million.

Kind of takes the sting out of losing that Mississippi waterfront house to Katrina.

Labels: lobbyists, Southern Politics, trent lott