Brad Johnson makes a great catch:

The target of this ad is the Obama administration’s effort to remove $36 billion in loopholes and subsidies for the oil industry. As it turns out, the “Americans” presented in the ad are stock photos from Getty Images

The ad is below, and you can see the stock images Brad pulled from Getty at The Wonk Room.

If so, the easiest path seems to be through Senator Lincoln’s office. The Sunlight Foundation published a massive research project yesterday in which they mapped out the connections between Senator Lincoln and various lobbyists. You can see a full visualization of this here and read the research here.

The Hill:

The main trade group for auto dealers is backing Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) plan to thwart upcoming EPA climate change rules and attacking White House claims that her measure would harm struggling automakers.

In a letter to Murkowski on Monday, the National Automobile Dealers Association supports her resolution – which may come to the floor this month – to prevent EPA from issuing rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, cars, factories and other sources.

Here is the letter:

murkowski resolution letter nada

Following up on yesterday’s post on Senator Murkowski’s close ties to energy industry lobbyists, I wanted to pass along some great work by the consequence campaign. On a conference call with Chamber of Commerce members, Senator Murkowski actually bragged about the fact that protesters are now showing up at her fundraising events:

I actually had an event here in Washington last night and I had my own group of protestors show up, and I guess you know you’ve arrived in politics when you generate your own group of protestors against you.

The Senator has no shame.

You can listen to an audio clip from the call here.

Last night, Senator Murkowski was treated to a fundraiser by lobbyists for the Nuclear Energy Institute, Duke Energy and Peabody Coal. Political Party Time has the details:

Host Alex Flint lobbies for the Nuclear Energy Institute, whose PAC has given her $5,000 since 2008. Beverly K. Marshall lobbies for Duke Energy, which is based in North Carolina, and has given the senator $24,050 over the course of her career. David Russell represents a number of clients for Bryan Cave LLP, including Peabody Energy, a coal company based in St. Louis,  Mo. Peabody’s PAC has given her $3,000 since 2008.

Here is a screenshot of the invitation, which was distributed by the NRSC:

Political Party Time also made some interesting general observations about Senator Murkowski’s fundraising habits:

Murkowski gets more campaign cash from the energy and natural resources sector than any other–more than $1 million over the course of her career. Seventy-three percent of her campaign cash comes from sources out of state.

Senator Murkowski was met outside the fundraiser by a group of student protesters. Rather than taking the time to engage with the concerned youth, she quickly brushed past them into the building. Watch here:

Just 19 hours later, today at 2:00, Senator Murkowski will do the bidding of those who funneled money to her campaign last night. On a conference call with Chamber of Commerce members Senator Murkowski will give an overview of the EPA’s plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and her efforts to stop those plans. Here is how the Chamber of Commerce describes the call:

The U.S. Chamber is pleased to announce that we will hold a special member conference call with United States Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and we want you to be a part of this timely discussion about climate change and legislation in Congress to deal with EPA’s actions to regulate greenhouse gases on the afternoon of Thursday, February 25. Join in this worthwhile opportunity to hear an overview of the EPA’s move toward regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, its burdensome affects on business, and Congress’ response to the move. Register now to receive the dial-in number.

Senator Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation to allow time for Congress to address the climate change issue and prevent EPA from moving forward with a regulatory scheme to regulate greenhouse gases under the ill-suited framework of the Clean Air Act. On January 14, the first major step of that process–an EPA final rule concluding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare–took effect, and with it the obligation to move forward with what could easily become the most expensive and intrusive set of regulations in history. The implementation of these rules will have a significant impact on the economy and small businesses.

This is one of those all-too-often instances in Washington where a direct connection can be drawn between a candidate’s fundraising and their anti-progressive legislative agenda. Polluting corporations don’t funnel millions of dollars to candidates out of the goodness of their hearts. They do so with an expectation that they’ll get something in return, and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski never disappoints on that front.

Indeed, Senator Murkowski’s extremely close ties to oil, gas and coal industry lobbyists have caused some to speculate that she is romantically involved with some of them:

When I moved from Alaska to Washington, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find someone who was right for me. The first couple of years were tough — I met a lot of potential matches but couldn’t find the perfect one. My dad had lived in DC for years and had a lot of success with PolluterHarmony, so I decided to try it.

When I saw Jeff’s profile, I couldn’t believe I found a lobbyist with so much money to contribute to my re-election campaigns and so many big coal and utility industry clients. Arch Coal, Southern Company, Edison Electric… I thought “He’s just what I’m looking for!” We instantly clicked — in our first phone conversation, he told me he could bundle $10,000 by our first date. We met in person a week later, and he had the check in hand.

In order to make sure Washington lobbyists know that Senator Murkowski’s votes and legislative efforts are up for sale to the highest bidder, PolluterWatch.com is now running ads on Politico:

And to be fair to Alaska residents who may also be interested to know about the unscrupulous behavior of their senior Senator, ads are also running on the websites of Alaska TV stations:

Despite intimations to the contrary, Senator Murkowski is far too beholden to corporate interests to take the true interests of her state seriously. While Alaska is literally melting, Murkowski’s spokesman is busy attacking bloggers for asking hard questions. While her state’s infrastructure suffers from the impacts of climate change, Murkowski lets corporate lobbyists write legislation for her. And while a bipartisan group of Senators works to find consensus on climate legislation, Senator Murkowski does everything in her power to keep her funders happy by thwarting progress at every turn.

Visit NoDirtyAirAct.com for the latest on Senator Murkowski’s efforts to the bidding of her energy industry lobbying pals by severely weakening the Clean Air Act.

By way of this Steven Pearlstein article, Ezra Klein wonders why natural gas doesn’t get as much attention as nuclear energy as a bridge fuel toward the clean energy economy:

My understanding is that natural gas is a really promising candidate as a bridge fuel (a cleaner energy source between the coal/oil economy and whatever comes next), for all the reasons Steve Pearlstein lays out here. But nuclear energy attracts all the political attention. Why is that? Is it just because nuclear energy has traditionally been opposed by liberals and so it’s become an article of faith among conservatives? Does nuclear energy have a more-organized or better-funded industry backing it?

I’ll look at a few factors that may play a role in this below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone still holding out hope that Senator Murkowski has any interest whatsoever in addressing climate change should give up now:

The U.S. Chamber is pleased to announce that we will hold a special member conference call with United States Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and we want you to be a part of this timely discussion about climate change and legislation in Congress to deal with EPA’s actions to regulate greenhouse gases on the afternoon of Thursday, February 25. Join in this worthwhile opportunity to hear an overview of the EPA’s move toward regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, its burdensome affects on business, and Congress’ response to the move. Register now to receive the dial-in number.

Seriously, cross her off the list of ‘maybes.’

E2 Wire:

The National Wildlife Federation Action Fund has a radio ad out criticizing Nebraska Sens. Mike Johanns (R) and Ben Nelson (D) for opposing EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gases.

The ad uses some of the same themes touched upon in a Sierra Club radio ad against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who also is supporting a congressional effort to block EPA.

There isn’t any mention of climate change or global warming or even a comprehensive climate and energy legislation. Instead, Johanns and Nelson are knocked for siding with “special interests” in an effort to roll-back anti-pollution rules that protect “our health” and “quality of air.”

Listen to the ad:

So much for eliminating useless and wasteful programs:

For decades, the coal industry has supported quality high-paying jobs for American workers, and coal has provided an important domestic source of reliable, affordable energy. At the same time, coal-fired power plants are the largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and coal accounts for 40 percent of global emissions. Charting a path toward clean coal is essential to achieving my Administration’s goals of providing clean energy, supporting American jobs, and reducing emissions of carbon pollution. Rapid commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage (CCS), will help position the United States as a leader in the global clean energy race.

…

To further this work and develop a comprehensive and coordinated Federal strategy to speed the commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies, I hereby establish an Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage (Task Force). You shall each designate a senior official from your respective agency to serve on the Task Force, which shall be Co Chaired by the designees from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

There is nothing clean about coal. Aside from burning wood or feces, it is literally the most polluting, most dangerous energy source known to man. If the president wanted people to take his fiscal conservatism seriously he wouldn’t pump billions of dollars into the pet project of the coal industry. Further, every dollar spent doing the coal industry’s research into the myth of ‘clean coal’ is a dollar that could have been invested in clean energy research. Obama and his team are making some efforts to speed up the transition to a clean energy economy, while at the same time making other efforts to slow that transition down. It is counterproductive and wasteful, and I’m sure plenty of people in the administration know better. More pandering we can believe in, I guess.

CNN Money:

Exxon Mobil reported a 23% drop in quarterly profit Monday as economic conditions remain challenging, but the energy giant’s earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations.

The world’s largest publicly traded oil company said it earned $6.05 billion in the last three months of 2009, down 23% from $7.82 billion a year earlier. On a per share basis, Exxon said it earned $1.27, a decline of 18% from the fourth quarter of last year.

Here are the details:

news_release_earnings4q09 –