American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 17, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• US Court Rules in Favor of Chevron in Ecuador Pollution Case - By Reuters, Telesur, August 8, 2016; [related]: Amazon Watch Response to Decision to Uphold Flawed Chevron Retaliatory Lawsuit - By Paul Paz y Miño, Amazon Watch, August 8, 2016 | Chevron won’t have to pay for its own version of Chernobyl - By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 8, 2016
• Brazil’s sewage woes reflect the growing global water quality crisis - By Joan Rose, The Conversation, August 7, 2016
• Why Say No to the TPP? Corporations Already Have Too Much Power - By Sarah van Gelder, Yes! Magazine, August 3, 2016
• Alaskans Witness Collapsing Mountains, Shattered Lives - By Dahr Jamail, Truthout, August 1, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• New Koch-Funded Group ‘Fueling US Forward’ Aims to Promote the "Positives" of Fossil Fuels - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, August 14, 2016
• Republican Politicians Love Oil & Coal Money, Destroy Human Health & Life - By Zachary Shahan, Clean Technica, August 12, 2016
• The Slow Poisoning of Health and the Environment - By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, August 12, 2016
• Enron and the power boys played Ralph Klein's government as suckers - By David Climenhaga, Rabble.Ca, August 10, 2016
• The Galileo gambit and other stories: the three main tactics of climate denial - By Stephan Lewandowsky, The Conversation, August 10, 2016
• Colorado Readies for 'All Out War' as Anti-Fracking Measures Advance to Ballot - By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, August 9, 2016
• Exclusive: Documents Show FERC-hired Contractor Did Not Disclose Work on Related Spectra Pipeline in Atlantic Bridge Project - By Itai Vardi, DeSmog Blog, August 9, 2016
• Exxon’s climate fight with ‘green’ states heats up in court - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 9, 2016
• Thousands of Pages of Confidential Think Tank Documents Detail Corporate Ties, New York Times Reports - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, August 9, 2016; [related]: NYT Reveals Think Tank It’s Cited for Years to Be Corrupt Arms Booster - By Adam Johnson, FAIR, August 12, 2016 | How Think Tanks Amplify Corporate America’s Influence - By Eric Lipton and Brooke Williams, New York Times, August 7, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• FOIA Request Probes Extent of Government Spying on Climate Protesters - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, August 11, 2016; [related]: Public Records Sought Over Federal Surveillance of Climate Protesters - By Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, August 11, 2016 | Right-Wing Group Continues to Diligently Stalk Environmental Leaders - By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, August 9, 2016 | Embarrassing Photos of Me, Thanks to My Right-Wing Stalkers - By Bill McKibben, New York Times, August 5, 2016
• A Deadly Shade of Green: The Dangerous Situation Facing Environmental Defenders in Latin America - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, August 10, 2016
• State AGs and Groups Defy Lamar Smith's Subpoena Over Exxon Climate Probes - By David Hasemyer, Inside Climate News, July 27, 2016; [related]: Exxon Sues a Second Attorney General To Fight Off Climate Fraud Probe - By David Hasemyer, Inside Climate News, June 16, 2016

Greenwashers:

• California Regulators Sued Over Plan To Turn Aquifer Into Permanent Oil Waste Dump - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, August 10, 2016
• Exxon’s Latest Campaign to Stymie Climate Action - By Elliott Negin, EcoWatch, August 10, 2016
• Fact-Checking The Biomass Lobby’s New Website - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, August 10, 2016
• What's Fishy About the Feds' Salmon Promises? - By Judith Lavoie, DeSmog.Ca, August 10, 2016
• BP Greenwashes the Olympics … Again - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 8, 2016
• New Subsidy Loophole Will Boost Profits for Unsustainable Corn Biofuel Industry - By Almuth Ernsting, Independent Science News, August 8, 2016
• Wake Up: These Unneeded Instruments Can Wreck Mass Destruction - By Ralph Nader, CounterPunch, August 8, 2016
• Why the UK government’s fracking payout claim is just not true - By Damian Kahya, Greenpeace, August 8, 2016; [related]: Opposition Grows to UK Government’s Fracking “Bribe” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 8, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Louisiana Floods: A “classic signal of climate change” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 15, 2016
• Flint’s lead-poisoned water cost the city nearly 100 times as much as it was supposed to save - By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 9, 2016

Other News:

• “Why don’t people demand action on climate change?” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 11, 2016
• Insane Trump Energy Policy Would Put Entire World At Risk - By Steve Hanley, Gas2, August 10, 2016
• Hundreds of oil and gas-related spills affected water sources in 2015 - By Jesse Prentice-Dunn, Center for Western Priorities, August 8, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 10, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Cities Need More Public Transit, Not More Uber and Self-Driving Cars - By Kevin Cashman, Truthout, August 2, 2016
• On Trade, Our Choices Aren’t Only Xenophobic Nationalism Or Neoliberal Globalization - By Leon Fink, In These Times, August 2, 2016
• Post-Paris Climate Talks: implementation at any price - By Simon Fischer, New Internationalist, August 2, 2016
• "You Can't Handle the Truth!" - By Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute, August 1, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• In California Clean Air Fight, Environmental Justice Takes a Leading Role - By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, August 5, 2016
• Will Happer Drills For Support With Lamar Smith, Ted Cruz And Texas Public Policy Foundation - By John Mashey, DeSmog Blog, August 5, 2016
• The right now wants a “Clexit,” because Brexit went so well - By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 4, 2016 [related]: After Brexit, Climate Science Denialists Form New Group to Call for a Clexit - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, August 3, 2016
• Koch Bros’ Summer Reading List for Donors Promotes Freedom, Fossil Fuels, and Matt Ridley - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, August 3, 2016
• The Kochs, Big Oil Are Taking Their War With The EPA To The Ballot Box - By Josh Israel and Samantha Page, Think Progress, August 3, 2016
• Behold, the death of memes at the hand of the fracking lobby - By Cody Permenter, Grist, August 2, 2016
• Climate Denier Jim Inhofe Goes Full Conspiracy Theorist In Unhinged Rant About Global Warming - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, August 2, 2016
• Fastest-Growing Source Of Electricity ‘Not Working So Good,’ Trump Claims - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, August 2, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• How America Rising Ties the GOP Establishment to the Stalkers Harassing Bill McKibben and Tom Steyer - By Ben Jervey, DeSmog Blog, August 6, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Bavaria Suing Volkswagen Over Diesel Emissions Cheating Scandal - By James Ayre, Clean Technica, August 3, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Louisiana Parish Hit by Third Oil Spill in Ten Days As Pressure Grows To Hold Oil and Gas Industry Accountable for Coastal Damage - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, August 3, 2016
• "When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers": How Private Equity Profits off Our Daily Lives - Danielle Ivory interviewed by Juan Gonzáles and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, August 3, 2016
• Utility Won’t Clean Up Toxic Coal Ash Pits Because It’s Too Expensive - By Alejandro Dávila Fragoso, Think Progress, August 1, 2016

Other News:

• Leaked Government Report Reveals Failed Coal Mine Rehabilitation Costing Taxpayers $3.2 Billion - By staff, Lock the Gate Alliance, August 5, 2016
• We Were Promised The Greenest Olympics Ever. We Got An Ecological Disaster - By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, August 2, 2016; [related]: Dave Zirin: Protests by Athletes and Displaced Rio Residents Accompany Opening of 2016 Olympic Games - By Dave Zirin interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, August 5, 2016 | Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony Reminds World That Climate Change Is Very Real - By Esther Yu Hsi Lee, Think Progress, August 2, 2016 | Athletes Forced To Live With Disgusting Conditions And Poor Security In Rio Olympic Village - By Lindsay Gibbs, Think Progress, August 1, 2016
• End the Stink in Endicott! - By Joan McKiernan, The People's Press, July 24, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 2, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• They Killed Keystone. Now What? - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, July 29, 2016
• An Inside Look At How Rio Fell So Far, So Fast - By Lindsay Gibbs, Think Progress, July 28, 2016
• The Color of Pollution: How Environmental Contamination Targets People of Color - By Larry Buhl, DeSmog Blog, July 28, 2016
• TTIP: The most dangerous weapon in the hands of the fossil fuel industry - By Andreas Sieber and Pavlos Georgiadis, The Ecologist, July 27, 2016
• ALEC 2016 Agenda Boosts Charters, Coal, and Other Corporate Funders - By Jessica Mason, PRWatch, July 26, 2016
• Moving Gulf Fossil Fuel Lease Sales Online Won't Halt Public's Growing Opposition to Offshore Drilling - By Blake Kopcho, et. al., Center for Biological Diversity, et. al, July 25, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• ALEC in Indianapolis: ExxonMobil and the #WebOfDenial - By Connor Gibson, Greenpeace, July 30, 2016
• At Oil Industry Funded DNC Event, Surprising Turn: Protests, Ex-Governor Admits "Mistake" Over Fracking - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, July 29, 2016
• Fracking Colorado: This Is What (Buying a) Democracy Looks Like - By Jesse Coleman, Greenpeace, July 29, 2016
• Oil and gas industry events 'polluting' Democratic convention, say activists - By Oliver Milman, The Guardian, July 28, 2016
• Revealed: AARP Is Funding ALEC - By Nick Surgey and Calvin Sloan, Exposed, July 28, 2016
• At Federal Energy Conference, Forecasts Predict Bright Future for Fossil Fuels - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, July 27, 2016
• Sinking Tarballs, Whale Collisions: Potential Impacts of Energy East on the U.S. Coast Detailed in New Report - By James Wilt, DeSmog Canada, July 27, 2016
• Donald Trump's Top Energy Aide Could Profit From GOP-Promised Keystone XL Permit - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, July 26, 2016
• Jim Inhofe’s Granddaughter Asked Him Why He Didn’t Understand Global Warming - By Ryan Koronowski, Think Progress, July 26, 2016
• Oil Lobby Paid Washington Post and Atlantic to Host Climate-Change Deniers at RNC - By Alex Emmons, The Intercept, July 22, 2016
• Mike Pence Is a Loyal Friend to Polluters - By Sarah Anderson and Janet Redman, Alternet, July 18, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• 3 reasons we’re opposing a Congressional move to protect Exxon - By May Boeve and Annie Leonard, 350.org and Greenpeace, July 27, 2016; [related]: Exxon allies cry foul over law firm in climate probe - By Timothy Cama, The Hill, July 23, 2016
• Fossil Fuel Industry Continues Wrath on Renowned Climate Scientist Michael Mann - By Sierra Rayne, EcoWatch, July 26, 2016

Greenwashers:

• BP deal renewed. We vow to overturn it - By staff, BP or Not BP, July 28, 2016
• Delta Tunnels: Restoring An Estuary by Diverting Its Water? - By Dan Bacher, Daily Kos, July 27, 2016; [related]: Crowd chants “Ban fracking now” to Governor Brown at DNC - By EmilyJ, 350.org, July 28, 2016 | The Hired Gun: Jerry Brown Snags Bruce Babbitt as New Point Man For Delta Tunnels - By Dan Bacher, CounterPunch, July 27, 2016
• Promoting Cutting Trees to Store Carbon? It’s 1984 All Over Again - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, July 26, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Michigan AG Bill Schuette: State employees ignored warning flags in Flint - By John Wisely, Detroit Free Press, July 29, 2016
• Back to tragedy: more news of the BHP Billiton/Vale tailings dam collapse in Brazil - By Richard, London Mining Network, July 28, 2016

Other News:

• The Struggle Deep in the Forests of the Philippines - By Zeph Repollo, 350.org, July 29, 2016
• Over 130 Organizations Challenge EPA to Consider Prisoners in Environmental Justice Plan - By Panagioti Tsolkas, Prison Ecology Project, July 28, 2016
• Ecuador Refuses to Pay Chevron Nearly $100 Million in Damages - By staff, Telesur, July 9, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

By Jeffrey St. Clair and James Ridgeway - CounterPunch, January 15, 2016

Image, right: Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. USFS.

Scanning the Sunday New York Times during the summer of 1990, President George Herbert Walker Bush read how an Idaho rancher had threatened to slit the throat of Forest Service ranger Don Oman, who had decided to reduce the number of cattle grazing on several allotments in the Twin Falls District of the Sawtooth National Forest. Bush ordered a Justice Department investigation. A White House aide called Oman and said the president wanted the ranger to know he wouldn’t tolerate harassment of federal workers.

Five years later times had changed drastically. At the half-way mark of Bill Clinton’s term in office, threats against federal employees working in the rural west had become commonplace. Many Forest Service and BLM workers had to travel in pairs, maintaining constant radio contact with ranger offices. Their families routinely received death threats aimed not just at the workers, but also at their children.

In the face of these rising tensions, President Clinton reacted in a markedly different way than his predecessor. His administration placed a gag order on Forest Service employees talking about their harassment, ordered line officers on the public range to quit complaining and retreated from legal confrontation with violent anti-government vigilantes.

After the Oklahoma City bombings, the situation across the whole of the West became more tense. “There’s more people now kind of watching their backs,” said Doug Zimmer, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officer. “You pull into a rest stop driving from Spokane to Seattle and you park away from the other vehicles. That kind of thing.”

At public meeting in December 2004, one man told Zimmer he was going back to his truck to get a gun. Another threatened to rope him to his pickup and drag him through town. The situation got so bad that the Washington state Department of Ecology removed state logos from many of its trucks and cars.

In the mountains outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, a rancher by the name of Cliveden Bundy decided to excavate a gravel quarry on public lands. When BLM rangers came out to the site to halt the unauthorized mining, Bundy threatened to “blow [their] fucking heads off.” Bundy wasn’t arrested. Indeed, he continued to mine gravel and threaten BLM officials.

“The BLM and Forest Service managers pushed the Department of Justice to act, but the Clinton administration was loath to respond in an aggressive manner,” said Jeff DeBonis, a former Forest Service worker who founded Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“The most they were willing to do was to belatedly file civil suits,” said Andy Stahl of the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. “The problems seemed to lie with top-level managers in the Forest Service and in the office of general counsel of the Department of Agriculture, some of whom were sympathetic with the claims of many of these ranchers and county leaders.”

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 5, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• The end of conductors? - Featuring Ron Kaminkow, MSNBC, January 29, 2015
• Labor Landscape Analysis - By Joe Uehline, Labor Network for Sustainability, February 4, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• 3,800 Oil Workers in Four States Enter Fourth Day of Strike - By Kate Arnoff, In These Times, February 4, 2015
• Fourth day of U.S. refineries strike ends with new offer - By Erwin Seba, Reuters, February 4, 2015
• Oil workers’ strike for safety reflects danger of fossil fuels - By Phil Aroneanu, 350.Org, February 4, 2015
• Oil workers strike for their lives - By Elizabeth Schulte, Socialist Worker, February 5, 2015
• Organized Labor Showing Signs of Life - By David Macaray, Huffington Post, February 3, 2015
• Safety Is Life-or-Death, Say Refinery Strikers - By Samantha Winslow, Labor Notes, February 5, 2015
• Striking for safe working conditions - By Ed Schultz (The Ed Show), MSNBC, February 2, 2015
• USW Oil Workers to Rally at Shell Headquarters - United Steelworkers Press Release, February 4, 2015
• WFTU in solidarity with workers in US oil refineries -  World Federation of Trade Unions Press Release, February 3, 2015
• WIN News Report: Steelworkers Refinery Strike Is About Safe Staffing - By Doug Cunningham, Workers Independent News, February 4, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• U.S. loses oil jobs - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, FuelFix, February 6, 2015
• Weatherford to cut 5,000 jobs, mostly in western hemisphere - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, February 4, 2015
• Weatherford to ax 3,000 more jobs as it cuts layers, execs say - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, February 5, 2015
• Weatherford to lay off 5,000 in wake of oil price decline - By Jennifer Hiller, FuelFix, February 5, 2015
• Weatherford increases layoff plans from 5,000 to 8,000 - By Jennifer Hiller, FuelFix, February 6, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• Repower Our Schools: 100% Renewable Energy Offers Schools Savings, Health and Learning Opportunities - By Monica Embrey, Greenpeace Blogs, February 3, 2015 [related] Green Schools: AFT President Thinks Public School Buildings Need Extreme Makeover - By Randi Weingarten, Blue Green Alliance, February 4, 2015
• Solar Jobs Benefit Economy, Maybe More Than Oil and Gas Jobs - By Deborah Lawrence, Energy Policy Forum, January 31, 2015
• The War On Solar Is Real, Unlike the "War on Coal" - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, February 5, 2015

Other News of Interest:

• Farmworker Tribunal - Boycott Sakuma Berries, February 4, 2015
• Photos released from 2013 Entergy ANO fatal drop of a very heavy load - By David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists, February 3, 2015
• Raw log exports skyrocket in British Columbia - Wilderness Committee Press Release, Eco Report, February 4, 2015
• West Virginia Coal Mine Owners Have Blood on Their Hands - By James Green, The Daily Beast, February 5, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 1, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 22, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• How Scrappy Community and Labor Activists Took on a California Oil Giant—and Won - By Jane Slaughter, In These Times, January 26, 2015
• Shut It Down Now! Former Nuclear Plant Technician Bob Rowen on Nuclear Power - By Steve Zelter, TruthOut, January 30, 2015
• Union rejects second refinery workers contract proposal - By Erwin Seba, Reuters, January 27, 2015

Crude by Rail:

• California Cities and Citizens Speak Out Against Oil Trains - By Ethan Buckner, Forest Ethics, January 26, 2015
• The Dangers of Hauling Crude Oil by Rail - By John Kristensen, Railroaded, January 25, 2015
• Oil Train Spills Hit Record Level in 2014 - By Tony Dokoupil, NBC Nightly News, January 26, 2015
• Why New "Improved" Oil Trains Are Not Nearly Good Enough: a closer look at the many flaws of CPC-1232 tank cars - By Eric de Place, Sightline Daily, January 28, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Big Oil needs a Plan B. It hasn’t got one - By Giles Parkinson, ReNew Economy, January 29, 2015
• BP cuts jobs in Houston as it trims Gulf of Mexico business - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 28, 2015
• BP will freeze pay for most of its employees - By Robert Grattan, FuelFix, January 26, 2015
• ConocoPhillips tells employees to expect layoffs - By Robert Grattan, FuelFix, January 29, 2015
• Drilling contractor may cut 2,000 field jobs as rigs idle - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 30, 2015
• The False Promise of Local Fracking Jobs - By Susan Christopherson, The Conversation, January 27, 2015
• Glencore mulls shutting down South African coal mines, lay offs - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 28, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• Just Transitions Speaking Tour with Bob Massie - Yes 2 Renewables [FOE], January 30, 2015
• Parents, Teachers and Students Ask School Districts to Go 100% Renewable Energy - By Stefanie Spear, EcoWatch, January 27, 2015
• SMA Solar to cut 1,600 jobs as European demand slides - By Christoph Steitz and Maria Sheahan, Reuters, January 27, 2015

Other News of Interest:

• 400 parts per million and class struggle - By Victor Wallis, Climate and Capitalism, January 25, 2015
• ALEC Forces the Question: Will Labor Really Go Local? - By Simon Davis-Cohen, Truthout, January 25, 2015
• Bangladesh Garment Workers Win Bargaining Pacts at 5 Factories - By Jennifer Kuhlman, AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, January 27, 2015
• Bribery Is a Bargain for Big Oil - By Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International, January 22, 2015
• Former DNR employees say regulator stifles public information - By Jacob Barker, St Louis Post Dispatch, January 26, 2015
• The Heat Is On: Via Campesina and Allies Challenge Climate Capitalism - La Via Campesina, January 27, 2015
• The Precariat and the Basic Income: Part 1 - By Andrew Curry, The Next Wave, January 26, 2015
• The Precariat and the Basic Income: Part 2 - By Andrew Curry, The Next Wave, January 27, 2015
• 'Tiny houses' no solution to the unaffordability crisis - By Mike Stewart, Rabble.Ca, January 28, 2015
• Uber Accused of Lax Safety Practices by Delhi Woman - By Mike Isaac, New York Times, January 29, 2015
• Union workers press their case for contract demands at Lyondell refinery - By LM Sixell, FuelFix, January 28, 2015
• Up to 6,000 carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxins floating around EU - European Trade Union Institute, January 30, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Mike Gaworecki - DeSmog Blog, November 16, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

A recent trend has seen utilities deciding that since they haven't been able to beat back the rise of rooftop solar companies, they might as well join them (or at least steal their business model). But the Walton Family, owners of Walmart as well as a stake in a manufacturer of solar arrays for utilties, aren't ready to give up the fight.

A new report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance has found that, through their Walton Family Foundation, the Waltons have given $4.5 million dollars to groups like the American Enterprise Institute, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and Americans for Prosperity—groups that are attacking renewable energy policies at the state level and, specifically, pushing for fees on rooftop solar installations. The head of ALEC has even gone so far as to denigrate owners of rooftop solar installations as “freeriders.”

But support for groups seeking to halt the rise of clean energy is only half the story. According to Vice News, the Waltons own a 30% stake in First Solar, a company that makes solar arrays for power plants as “an economically attractive alternative or complement to fossil fuel electricity generation,” per its 2013 annual report, which also identifies “competitors who may gain in profitability and financial strength over time by successfully participating in the global rooftop PV solar market” as a threat to First Solar's future profitability.