EM:/ Feds Should Probe Opponents Fake Clean Energy Letters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        CONTACT: DAVID HOLTZ
FRIDAY, July 31, 2009                                 (313) 300-4454

*Clean Energy Opponents Using Fake Letters to Sway Congress; Feds Must Probe
Mail Fraud
Climate change legislation critical to 21st century jobs, protecting future
*
LANSING – Citizens watchdog Progress Michigan today called on Congress,
especially Michigan’s U.S. representatives and Senators, to watch out for
fake letters urging them to oppose climate change proposals after a Virginia
congressman uncovered several mailed to him. Progress Michigan called on the
groups behind the fake letter campaign to stop using fraud and also called
on the federal government to investigate mail fraud by Washington D.C.
lobbyists.

“We cannot allow fake letters ghostwritten by corporate forgers to derail
one of the most important steps we can take to protect our Great Lakes,
create clean energy jobs and build a stronger future for Michigan,” Progress
Michigan Executive Director David Holtz said. “In the fight against climate
change, Big Oil and Big Coal will use everything in their bag of dirty
political tricks to protect their profits. Congress has a duty to the people
they represent to make sure this kind of fraud doesn’t silence our citizens,
who support clean energy and want protections against climate change. Law
enforcement must crack down on this kind of mail fraud and investigate the
lobbyists behind it. This issue is too important.”

U.S. Rep Tom Perriello of Virginia has uncovered at least six letters
purportedly from minority organizations in his community opposing landmark
legislation to fight climate change and boost clean renewable energy,
according to the Charlottesville Daily Progress in a July 31 report. The
letters turned out to be fakes, signed by people who didn’t exist, but which
were submitted under the letterheads of groups such as the NAACP branch in
Charlottesville and the local community group Cresciendo Juntos, a nonprofit
that works with the Hispanic community, the paper reported.

The fake letters were linked to a lobbying firm, Bonner & Associates, that
has been implicated with another similar questionable grassroots campaign,
this time involving prescription drug programs, in 2006, the Daily Progress
reported.

Progress Michigan called on the U.S. Postal Service’s law enforcement
division to investigate these and any other possible incidences of similar
cases of mail fraud, which is a federal offense.

“Congress is about to take action on one of the most critical measures of
our time, one that will affect us for generations, and we must not let
political dirty tricks hijack our future,” Holtz said. “Our members of
Congress and our law enforcement agencies must do their part to stop mail
fraud and protect our families.”

###

-- 
David Holtz
Executive Director
Progress Michigan
david at progressmichigan.org
313-300-445 (cell)
Follow Progress Michigan: twitter.com/progressmich
Facebook:  ProgressMichigan
Follow me: twitter.com/dholtz
               www.facebook.com/david.holtz

831 N. Washington Avenue
Lansing, MI 48906
517-999-3646
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