Environmentalists paid to kill Alabama coal jobs

Environmentalists paid to kill Alabama coal jobs (Opinion by
George Barber)

by George Barber

Earlier this week, our association revealed startling new evidence that environmental groups active in
Alabama have been funded by the Energy Foundation, an institution headquartered in San Francisco with a
clear anti-coal agenda. While these groups have claimed for months that their aim was to protect
consumers, a claim echoed by PSC Commissioner Terry Dunn, the Energy Foundation documents prove they
were being paid millions to shut down coal.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) received $1,815,000 from the Energy Foundation; the
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy took $810,000; the Alabama Environmental Council cashed checks for
$107,000; the Greater Birmingham Alliance to Stop Air Pollution (GASP), accepted $70,000 and Alabama
Arise received $50,000. All of these groups formally participated in recent PSC hearings regarding the state's
utilities. In total, they raked in nearly $3 million in the past three years from the Energy Foundation to
pursue an anti-coal, pro-renewable energy agenda, all while telling the public repeatedly that they just
wanted to protect consumers.

As advocates for the future of the coal industry, we raised a number of red flags that the new-found interest
of these groups in Alabama's utility rates was really a well-disguised fight against coal, only to be ridiculed
by some in the media. The groups themselves went to great lengths to deny our allegations, with Kimble
Forrister of Alabama Arise penning an op-ed entitled "It's Not About Coal." Meanwhile, his colleague at
GASP, Stacy Propst, wrote about the "smokescreen of coal." As they were repeating his narrative to the
public, they were busy cashing checks from the anti-coal Energy Foundation.

Perhaps most disappointing of all, PSC Commissioner Terry Dunn told the public that the idea that
environmentalists would "somehow hijack the proceedings and effectively shut down Alabama's coal
industry" was "a lie" and "ridiculous." Considering Terry Dunn is a life long politician who first ran as a
Democrat for Alabama Senate in 1994, I should have expected as much.

The records disclosed by the San Francisco-based Energy Foundation could not be clearer. These groups took money to "accelerate the retirement of coal-fired power plants in the Southeast" and to "advance clean energy policies in Alabama." They weren't being paid to advocate on behalf of Alabama energy customers, as they claimed to be doing; they were being paid to shut down coal-fired power plants.

The red flags raised by Alabama's coal industry and other elected members of the PSC that these hearings were an attack on coal by environmentalists was neither a lie nor ridiculous. The public deserves to know the facts as well as the consequences on Alabama's coal jobs and the state's economy in general, should these groups achieve what they are being paid by out-of-state interests to accomplish.

We have asked Congress to investigate these groups and have posted these facts and more on our website at www.CoalJobsCount.com and we welcome the public to see the truth for themselves.

George Barber is President of the Alabama Coal Association