topper-small-no_footerSo the trickle turns into a tide. They are all at it now. There is a sudden rush amongst oil and gas companies in the US to garner grasssroots support to attack the Climate bill.

Just days after Greenpeace released an internal memo from the oil boys at the American Petroleum Institute, detailing plans to launch a nationwide astroturf campaign called “Energy Citizen”, we have Valero, North America’s largest independent petroleum refiner, trying to mobilise grass-roots support to “oppose this cap and trade legislation”.

In a scaremongering letter to all employees sent two days ago, Bill Klesse, the company’s CEO, argued that if the Waxman/Markey bill becomes law, “it will have an enormous negative impact on the economy, the consumer, the refining industry, and employees of the refining industry. We need your help to oppose this cap and trade legislation.”

The memo continues that “As a leader in the refining industry, we have decided to engage in a full court press, so to speak, in opposition to the cap and trade legislation that is being considered.  You may see our opposition campaign at our Valero Corner Stores beginning in early September. ”

The company’s creative types and PROs have obviously been busy coming up with a catchy name for their campaign. So hot on the heels of the API’s “Energy Citizen” we have Valero’s “Voices for Energy”.

It makes you wonder why the industry can’t be just a little bit more creative, doesn’t it.

On the company’s website – it says “You can be a Voice for Energy. We encourage you to take action and convey your message to legislators. By doing so, you’re not only supporting our company and our industry, but American energy security, American jobs and the American economy.”

The website says that “We have created a resource at www.voicesforenergy.com that provides a fast and easy tool for contacting your legislator and learning more about this issue ….   Your support is critical.  Thank you for your dedication and support of our company, and thank you for being a voice for energy.”

The only trouble is as of this morning the link doesn’t work.

So here’s a little bit of advice to the oil bods. If you are going to try and run a PR campaign via a website, via a “fast and easy tool” – make  sure it works before starting the campaign.

Otherwise it kind of backfires.  And instead of “easy tool” you have “silly fool.”

PS. the image above is from a cached version of the VoicesforEnergy website.

11 Comments

  • The website is now working, so I suppose they have redeemed themselves a little. However, they state that they want you to be a ‘voice for energy’, yet on the website they have already formulated a letter and all you have to do is enter your details and click submit. Thats not really making you a voice but more of a statistic! If people were genuinally concerned I’m sure they’d want to send their own opinions instead of a generic letter written by company bosses!

  • Ijust want to say DON’T RAISE THE FULE PRICES, The avege american cant aford fuel now

  • The American public is very wasteful especially when it comes to their automobiles. I am not for raising prices for the sake of increasing oil company and/or retailer profits but I do believe we could be more conserving but we won’t until we are forced to. We love to drive our automobiles especially when the alternative means staying at home and being bored to death. It is so much better to get out and cruise up and down the streets to see who we can see or be seen or to run down to your local Walmart just to have something to do. Conservation should be something on everyones mind but most of us could care less especially when we can use the excuse that if the Chinese don’t do it also what is the point. I think we should see prices go up again on fuel just so that people will start to cut back again and not be so wasteful but of course that won’t happen because the public will get in an uproar over it and businesses to will cry because people won’t spend money with them in order to save for possible recessionary situations.

  • IF THEY PASS THIS LEGISLATION WE ARE IN TROUBLE , Gas is to HIGH NOW LEAVE US ALONE . WE all are having enough problems problems making it at this time . NO JOBS , PEOPLE LAYED OFF , COMPANYS GOING UNDER , and THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT DOING THE JOB WE PUT THEM IN OFFICE TO DO . TIM

  • We don’t all live in the city. I am a Californian who lives in the foothills, it’s a little like living in the country & I love it here. However for any kind of shopping, like groceries, or nessecities, we have to drive quite a few miles, like 35 at the least on crooked curvy roads. This takes a lot of fuel. $3.19 a gallon is outrageous, for any place people live & especially seniors on budgets!!! I am against any fuel hykes. They need to come way down & stay down!

  • cap and trade will the price of gasoline $.77 a gallon. it will also raise the price of electricity, natural gas and every other product that is manufactured in the u. s. our domestic industry will have to pay while companies ouside the u s will not have to. obviously this will cost many manufacturing jobs while raising prices on all our products. there is no good data on how this will help the environment, particularly since the rest of the world will not be partipating. surely even our elected officials are not foolish enough to pass such folly.

  • First, let me tell you that the Waxman-Markey bill will NEVER pass the Senate in its current form. I am highly suspect of the price increase Valero claims will happen (It may be possible, in HB 2454’s current form, that the increases Valero claims are at the upper end of the year 2050’s rates…but by then most of us will have electric cars, efficient devices & lighting). If you want to know why Cap & Trade is good, research sulfur dioxide caps in the 1980’s acid rain days. Government projections for sulfur dioxide reductions were way off. In fact, the free market stepped in and created a ton of new jobs and technological innovations ($$$) allowed industry to beat government projections on emissions. Like sulfur dioxide caps in the 80’s created jobs and was extremely successful, carbon caps will be too. The Senate will never pass CAP & Trade if it means the average American will pay significantly more than they do now. They are, after all, elected officials. What Valero doesn’t tell you on their website is that you can currently buy carbon offsets for your vehicles ranging from $49-99 per year ($99-269 for houses). http://www.balancedfootprint.com What they don’t tell you is that consumer driven support of companies who VOLUNTARILY reduce emissions through Energy Reduction projects or carbon offsets will create the incentive to change, not high taxes. You don’t have to be a tree-hugging-hippie to appreciate the fact that pollution is bad and we have an opportunity to create jobs and secure our energy independence OVER TIME. Don’t listen to the pundits on either side. This is a good concept that just may save our country.

  • This is for Leo. So tell me Leo do lump all of the people who get in their automobles to go back and forth to work. In the same catagory as as the people who drive around to save themselves from suicide by boredom. Well if so I hope you sit at home alone alot. I’am sure that the millions of unemployed people who can’t afford to pay for the high priced gas as it is, and are forced to set at home and wait for ,or travel to look for work ,would agree with me. Most people write of what they know. So for you to be driving up and down the streets, trips to Wal-Mart and where ever else so you are not bored to death sitting at home. Makes you one pathetic person. So Leo I hope you take this as constructive criticism. Get a life.

  • Who has the right to charge me more for gas to try and enforce me to conserve. No one should have that right. Its already high enough and I bought a rice burn(used) as the average joe cant afford new green cars. If they want to tax Gas guzzler vehicles thru high lic fees, thats one thing, But dont penalize everyone else. And even then, businesses that need those gas guzzlers should be exempt also. Again the left thinks they know how to make everyone conform to there ideals. Just goes to show you everyday we are moving from a country with freedoms and turning into a socialist society.

  • If this bill passes it will KILL this country. The reason we’re in a recession right now & 1 in 6 Americans are hungry is because of the gas prices at the end of the Bush administration. I will personaaly find out who voted for this & do whatever I can to make sure they are not reelected. This is America, the hell with global warming, take care of the people who live here in the present.

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