{"id":13189,"date":"2015-05-24T10:23:44","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T14:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=13189"},"modified":"2018-02-05T14:46:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T19:46:50","slug":"atlanta-tv-station-exposes-alec-lobbyists-in-savannah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/atlanta-tv-station-exposes-alec-lobbyists-in-savannah.html","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta TV station exposes ALEC lobbyists in Savannah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nCaught on-camera:<br \/>\nALEC&#8217;s off-duty sheriff&#8217;s deputies getting TV reporters thrown out of their own hotel<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.11alive.com\/story\/news\/local\/investigations\/2015\/05\/21\/investigators-legislators-and-corporate-lobbyists-meet-in-secret-at-georgia-resort\/27695105\/\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;width:300px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/82d277526692de90a816ce06297ac5409cb76dc0\/c=307-0-1739-1077&#038;r=x404&#038;c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2015\/05\/21\/WXIA\/WXIA\/635677635158692898-keefe-backroom520a.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nfor &#8220;taking pictures in the hotel&#8221;, after ALEC&#8217;s marketing droid denied any<br \/>\nlobbying going on, nevermind the lobbyist and<br \/>\nlegislator in a bar spelling out how it works:<br \/>\nALEC gives &#8220;scholarships&#8221; to legislators who then meet in closed rooms<br \/>\nwith corporate reps (including all the companies involved in the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline) who have equal votes<br \/>\non draft bills for legislators to get passed as law in many states.<br \/>\nBills promoting fracking, pipelines, LNG export, and against solar power,<br \/>\nrenewable portfolio standards, not to mention for private prisons<br \/>\nand privatized education and against municipal broadband and country-of-origin labelling, plus many other<br \/>\ncorporate give-aways subsidized by the taxpayers and the environment.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s time for the IRS to revoke ALEC&#8217;s 501(c)(3) status.<br \/>\nAnd for the Georgia legislature to apply the state&#8217;s sunshine laws to itself.<\/p>\n<p>\nBrendan Keefe and Michael King, WXIA-TV, 22 May 2015,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.11alive.com\/story\/news\/local\/investigations\/2015\/05\/21\/investigators-legislators-and-corporate-lobbyists-meet-in-secret-at-georgia-resort\/27695105\/\"><br \/>\nLegislators and corporate lobbyists meet in secret at Georgia resort<\/a>,<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nSAVANNAH, Ga. (WXIA) &mdash; The Georgia Legislature has a message<br \/>\nfor voters: don&#8217;t ask us about our meetings with corporate lobbyists<br \/>\nbehind closed doors.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe 11Alive Investigators tracked lawmakers to a resort hotel in<br \/>\nSavannah last week, where we observed state legislators and<br \/>\nlobbyists mingling in the hotel bar the night before they gathered<br \/>\nin private rooms to decide what new laws would best serve the<br \/>\ncorporations.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe meetings were part of the Spring Task Force Summit of the<br \/>\nAmerican Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sNA0-GBuunc\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\nThere&#8217;s lots more in the report, such as:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nA letter House Speaker David Ralston signed in 2013 on ALEC<br \/>\nletterhead, obtained by thinkprogress.org, asked &#8220;members of the<br \/>\nbusiness community&#8221; to help fund these trips. &#8220;Your support of the<br \/>\nscholarship fund is critical, enabling Georgia legislators to join<br \/>\nand attend the annual (ALEC) meetings. Please note that 100 percent<br \/>\nof the raised funds are tax-deductible and are for ALEC expenses<br \/>\ndirectly related to education efforts for legislators.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSpeaker Ralston&#8217;s office responded to our request by saying &#8220;welcome<br \/>\nto Georgia,&#8221; but did not answer any of our questions.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nHe&#8217;s not the only one. Here&#8217;s<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/Georgia_ALEC_Politicians\"><br \/>\na list of known Georgia ALEC politicians<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\nALEC is not just a lobbying organization: it&#8217;s a shadow national<br \/>\ncongress in which corporations get equal votes with elected legislators.<\/p>\n<p>\nHere are some specific examples of the corporate boondoggles ALEC&#8217;s<br \/>\nshadow congress shops to many states at the same time:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/model-legislation\/the-disclosure-of-hydraulic-fracturing-fluid-composition-act\/\"><br \/>\nto prohibit disclosure of fracking chemicals<\/a>,<br \/>\nto<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/model-legislation\/pipeline-replacement-and-infrastructure-modernization-and-enhancement-act\/\">make state PSCs subsidize pipelines<\/a>,<br \/>\na<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/model-legislation\/resolution-in-support-of-the-keystone-xl-pipeline\/\"><br \/>\nResolution in Support of the Keystone XL Pipeline<\/a>,<br \/>\na<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/model-legislation\/resolution-support-expanded-liquefied-natural-gas-exports\/\"><br \/>\nResolution In Support of Expanded Liquefied Natural Gas Exports<\/a>,<br \/>\na bill<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/alec-responds-to-sierra-club-report.html\"><br \/>\nto revoke renewable energy portfolio standards<\/a>, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/alec-solar-tax.html\">solar generation tax<\/a>,<br \/>\nbills against<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/?post_type=model-legislation&#038;s=water+quality\">water quality<\/a> and<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/legislation-tags\/air-quality\/\">air quality<\/a>,<br \/>\nfor<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/bloomberg-discovers-mandated-prison-beds-for-cca-profit.html\">mandated private prison beds<\/a>,<br \/>\nagainst <a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/national-attention-on-ga-hb-282-against-muni-broadband-needs-ga-leg-to-vote-it-down.html\">municipal broadband<\/a>,<br \/>\nthe <a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/georgias-alec-local-cheap-labor-law.html\"><br \/>\nALEC Model Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act<\/a>,<br \/>\na bill <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/model-legislation\/resolution-on-animal-antibiotic-use\/\">whitewashing overuse of antibiotics on livestock in corporate farms<\/a>,<br \/>\na bill<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/model-legislation\/the-animal-and-ecological-terrorism-act-aeta\/\"><br \/>\ndefining photographing such practices as &#8220;ecological terrorism&#8221;<\/a>,<br \/>\nand<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/renewable-portfolio-standards-ga-nc-and-alec.html\"><br \/>\nfar more<\/a>.<br \/>\nIf your corporation has money to spend on &#8220;scholarships&#8221; to get legislators<br \/>\nto ALEC meetings, you can probably get some model legislation approved<br \/>\nthat will get shopped to many state legislatures, and likely made into law.<\/p>\n<p>\nALEC members include all of the companies involved in all three components<br \/>\nof the Southeast Market Pipelines Project: Sabal Trail (FPL, Spectra, and Duke),<br \/>\nHillabe Expansion Project (Williams Co.), and Florida Southeast Connection (FPL).<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/ALEC_Corporations#D\"><br \/>\nDuke Energy Corp.<\/a> (merged with Progress Energy, another ALEC member),[20] State corporate co-chair of Indiana and South Carolina[15] Member of ALEC&#8217;s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force[106] &#8211; The ALEC Exposed coalition, including Greenpeace, is asking Duke Energy to cut ties to ALEC.[133]<\/p>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/ALEC_Corporations#F\"><br \/>\nFlorida Gas Transmission Co.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/ALEC_Corporations#F\"><br \/>\nFlorida Power Corp.[17]<\/a><\/p>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/ALEC_Corporations#S\"><br \/>\nSpectra Energy (natural gas infrastructure company)<\/a>, &#8220;Trustee&#8221; level sponsor of 2011 ALEC Annual Conference[24] ($5,000 in 2010)[25]<\/p>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/ALEC_Corporations#W\">The Williams Companies<\/a>  (natural gas company[298]), State corporate co-chair of Oklahoma[15]\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nBut remember: &#8220;Don&#8217;t say nothing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nOr maybe we should say: revoke ALEC&#8217;s 501(c)(3) status<br \/>\nand stop electing ALEC legislators.<\/p>\n<p>\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caught on-camera: ALEC&#8217;s off-duty sheriff&#8217;s deputies getting TV reporters thrown out of their own hotel for &#8220;taking pictures in the hotel&#8221;, after ALEC&#8217;s marketing droid denied any lobbying going on, nevermind the lobbyist and legislator in a bar spelling out how it works: ALEC gives &#8220;scholarships&#8221; to legislators who then meet in closed rooms with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556,140,141,15,70,8,72,132,20,733,6124,6687,24,55],"tags":[8779,8744,8745,143,8705,8728,8495,6995,1763,308,8701,7690,8730,8741,8702,8710,12,7,8799,562,6076,6597,702,8714,6966,6,8727,8494],"class_list":["post-13189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air","category-alec","category-co2","category-education","category-ethics","category-georgia","category-incarceration","category-internet-access-speed","category-law","category-media","category-natural-gas-2","category-pipeline-2","category-solar","category-water","tag-air","tag-alec","tag-co2","tag-duke-energy","tag-education","tag-ethics","tag-florida-power","tag-florida-southeast-connection","tag-fpl","tag-fracking","tag-georgia","tag-hillabee-expansion-project","tag-incarceration","tag-internet-access-speed","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-media","tag-natural-gas","tag-pipeline","tag-sabal-trail-transmission","tag-savannah","tag-solar","tag-spectra-energy","tag-valdosta","tag-water","tag-williams-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13189"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19639,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13189\/revisions\/19639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}