A Siegel (via Stoller) reports:

According to Washington Post reporting, the coal industry is using an Astroturf organization, the Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, to wage a $35 million dollar effort to gain traction in the 2008 Presidential campaign for a more polluting future for America and the Globe....

ABEC is paying people to be at campaign events, in human billboards, and giving out leaflets at events. They have sponsored Presidential debates (here also).  They even had Santas giving out “Clean Coal” (reminder: that is ’somewhat less dirty coal’) at the Metro stations by the US Congress.

I've been encountering these ABEC folks around the web in my work to stop mountaintop removal coal mining at IloveMountains.org.

If $35 million in astroturf money isn't enough to convince you that 2008 is a defining year for coal, maybe their incredibly tactless website will:

[The ABEC website features an] array of young people, many of whom appear to be under 10 years of age, enlighten visitors about the happy, hunky-dory world of coal. Alicia sets down her book bag to explain how coal and environmentalism go hand in hand, while young Sarah tells how we have more energy in the form of coal than the Middle East has in oil. “I’m doing my homework,” she says. “You do yours too.”

You can "do your homework" by checking out the high cost of coal or discovering your power company's connection to mountaintop removal coal. If you like what you see, please join us in the fight.

$35 million is a lot of money, but not enough, perhaps, if you're on the wrong side of history.