Steve Horn: State Dept. Overseers of Contentious Enbridge Tar Sands Pipeline Workaround Have Industry, Torture Ties

by Steve Horn, DeSmogBlog, August 27, 2014

The Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and other green groups recently revealed that pipeline giant Enbridge got U.S. State Department permission in response to its request to construct a U.S.-Canada border-crossing tar sands pipeline without earning an obligatory Presidential Permit.

Enbridge originally applied to the Obama State Department to expand capacity of its Alberta Clipper (now Line 67) pipeline in November 2012, but decided to avoid a “Keystone XL, take two” — or a years-long permitting battle — by creating a complex alternative to move nearly the same amount of diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) across the border.

The move coincides with the upcoming opening for business of Enbridge's “Keystone XL” clone: the combination of the Alberta Clipper expansion (and now its alternative) on-ramp originating in Alberta and heading eventually to Flanagan, Ill., the Flanagan South pipeline running from Flanagan, Ill., to Cushing, Okla., and the Cushing, Okla., to the Port Arthur, Texas, Seaway Twin pipeline.

Together, the three pieces will do what TransCanada's Keystone XL hopes to do: move dilbit from Alberta's tar sands to Port Arthur's refinery row and, in part, the global export market.

Environmental groups have reacted with indignation to the State Department announcement published in the Federal Register on August 18, 2014. The public commenting period remains open until September 17, 2014.

Jim Murphy, senior counsel for NWF, referred to it as an “illegal scheme,” while a representative from 350.org says Enbridge has learned from the lessons of its corporate compatriot, TransCanada.

“When we blocked Keystone XL, the fossil fuel industry learned that they have a much stronger hand to play in back rooms than on the streets,” said Jason Kowalski, policy director for 350.org. “They will break the law and wreck our climate if that's what it takes for them to make a buck.”

But as the old adage goes, it takes two to tango. 

That is, influential State Department employees helped Enbridge find a way to smuggle an additional 350,000 barrels of tar sands per day across the border without public hearings or an environmental review. 

Thus far, those following the issue have described the Enbridge maneuver as some sort of bureaucratic snafu.

“If anyone who's high up in the State Department actually knew about this, they'd be up in arms,” 350.org's Kowalski said in a recent interview with EnergyWire in reaction to State's decision.

The reality, though, is more sordid. That is, higher-ups made this call, not just “bad apples.” 

One of them has a key tie to the oil and gas industry, while the other helped lay the groundwork for the controversial “extraordinary rendition” torture program as a Bush Administration State Department attaché.

Patrick Dunn's Industry Ties

On July 24, 2014, State Department staffer Patrick Dunn signed off on a letter rubber-stamping Enbridge's pipeline chess move. In giving Enbridge authorization on official State Department letterhead, Dunn claimed it was not a form of authorization.

“Enbridge's intended changes…do not require authorization from the U.S.Department of State,” Dunn wrote in the letter. “[W]e will consider [your] letter and its attachments to amend and to be part of your Presidential Permit for the capcity (sic) expansion in Line 67.”

Dunn's letter does not give his job title, perhaps leading NWF to write him off as simply a “mid-level State Department official” in an August 25 blog post. His current position and State Department background, however, tells a different story.

A February 2014 letter obtained by DeSmogBlog lists Dunn's role as deputy office director for the Bureaus of European Affairs, the Western Hemisphere and African Affairs.

More specifically, Dunn heads up the three regions' bureaus of energy resources, described as a “chief of staff” in an August 11 article published on Dominican Today. That article highlighted Dunn's efforts — alongside Vice President Joe Biden — to cut deals with the Dominican Republic's government, turning the country into an importer of gas obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the U.S. 

Before working his way up to the powerful Bureau of Energy Resources, Dunn helped lead numerous U.S. Embassies abroad, including in Honduras and Angola as top economic adviser, and Cape Verde as deputy embassy director.

What came before any of that, though, may go a long way in explaining how he came to oversee such an important cross-border pipeline project in the first place.

According to the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (PESA), Dunn graduated in 1997 from the Association's Foreign Service Officer Energy Industry Training Program, which is funded in part by the State Department and has a Board of Directors stuffed with oil and gas industry executives.

“PESA's Foreign Service Officer Energy Industry Training Program was created in 1993 to increase the practical knowledge of energy attaches and economic officers with responsibility for oil and gas issues stationed in American embassies in countries where energy is a major issue,” reads a Program description.

A glance at PESA's website demonstrates that industry executives regularly serve as presenters at the Foreign Service Officer Energy Industry Training Program.

Deborah Klepp's Ties to Rendition, Corrupt Contracting

Though Dunn wrote the July 24 letter to Enbridge, he is not the only senior level State Department staffer overseeing the Enbridge Alberta Clipper file.

Deborah Klepp, whose name is listed at the very bottom of the State Department's August 12 announcement on the Alberta Clipper, currently serves as director of the Department of State's office of environmental quality and transboundary issues. 

In the past, she has helped to head up U.S. Embassies in Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Burkina Faso, as well as in Estonia and Poland.

While working as deputy director of the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on a two-year appointment starting in July 2001, Klepp knowingly or unknowingly got involved in what many would likely consider her most controversial work at the State Department: planting the seeds of the Bush Administration's “extraordinary rendition” torture program.

“Finnish authorities identified a single Miami Air flight…that travelled back and forth between Helsinki and Manas U.S. Air Force transit base in Kyrgyzstan in a single day in December 2002,” explains a February 2013 Open Society Foundation report titled, “Globalizing Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition.”

The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek is only a 30-minute drive away from the Transit Center at Manas located at Manas International Airport, which served as a key U.S. military base from 2001-2009. After her time serving in Bishkek, Klepp wrote a paper for the National Defense University about how the U.S.established the base during her time working on the ground there.

Omitted from Klepp's paper: the sheer amount of corruption and insider dealing involved in maintaining the base from the day that it opened. This resulted in a damning December 2010 congressional investigation on Manas and fuel contracting and other ownership issues. 

Deborah Klepp and Guantanamo Bay

Beyond rendition and corruption at Manas, Klepp also had at least some knowledge of torture of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.

In a document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), then Secretary of State Colin Powell sent a cable in January 2002 to Klepp and James Boughner, at that time the deputy director of the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan and now head of economic affairs for the U.S. Embassy in Germany.

Image Credit: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Requesting the cable be passed onto then-U.S. assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, A. Elizabeth Jones, and her executive assistant at the time, Karen Decker, the cable discusses Guantanamo Bay (“GTMO”), “access to the detainees” and three congressional delegations (“CODELs”) to GTMO going on at the time.

That cable also discusses International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) “technical recommendations,” but the State Department redacted what those recommendations were.

Image Credit: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

The New York Times revealed in 2004 that a confidential ICRC memo stated the “American military [had] intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion 'tantamount to torture' on prisoners at Guantanamo.”

Klepp's husband Mark B. Horowitz — determined by viewing property records — also formerly served as a senior-level State Department employee. A 2012 State Department telephone directory lists Horowitz as an employee of the Office of Information Resource Management, where he served as “ISSO (For S/ES Only).”

In the tech world, “ISSO” is shorthand for Information System Security Officer or Chief Information Security Officer, who oversees institutional computer system networks and online infrastructure.

“Local Corrupt Practices”

An October 2008 State Department diplomatic cable provided to Wikileaks by whistleblower Chelsea Manning discusses what Columbia University political scientist Alexander Cooley describes as the “local rules” of doing business in Kyrgyzstan and the Central Asian region at-large.

“[O]ne businessman said that doing business here is ‘like doing business in the Yukon’ in the nineteenth century, i.e., only those willing to participate in local corrupt practices are able to make any money,” explains the cable.

But the latest wheeling and dealing by Enbridge raises a troubling question: have the “local corrupt practices” conducted by State Department diplomats abroad snaked their way home in order to help the tar sands export industry?

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

http://desmogblog.com/2014/08/27/state-department-enbridge-tar-sands-pipeline-workaround-industry-torture-ties

Chicago Tribune: Illinois fracking rules to become public Friday, August 29, 2014

by Julie Wernau, Tribune reporter, Chicago Tribune, August 27, 2014

Men with Cabot Oil and Gas work on a natural gas valve at a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012, in South Montrose, Pa. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Long-anticipated rules that would govern a new fracking industry in Illinois, are expected to become public Friday.

Those rules could be approved as early as next month, opening the door to oil and gas drillers to apply for permits to begin drilling the state’s shale rock in search of oil reserves. Lawmakers are hoping that an oil boom in the southern part of the state will fatten state coffers with oil revenue and bring jobs to a struggling downstate economy. 
 
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has been sifting through more than 35,000 comments that were launched at its first draft of the rules, which were based on legislation passed more than a year ago. It faces a November deadline to structure the law.

State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, co-chairman of the Illinois Legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, said IDNR has said it expects to drop the rules off with the committee Friday. The obscure committee’s approval is the final step in a multi-year effort to regulate horizontal hydraulic fracturing in Illinois, defined as 80,000 gallons of fluid or more injected into underground rock formations to extract oil and gas.

Once those rules are dropped, the committee has 45 days to either approve the rules, suggest changes, or reject them outright or the rules automatically become law.

IDNR held five lengthy public hearings on the proposed rules, which have about 100 different sections and are hundreds of pages long.

Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry expects to have to continue its fight against anti-fracking groups, especially after their intended drilling locations become public.

Opponents have vowed to use every legal avenue available to stop fracking. The law allows citizens to appeal permits and to ask for public hearings, which makes some drillers anxious.

Companies wishing to engage in horizontal hydraulic fracturing must register 30 days before filing an application to drill. Their intentions will be posted online.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-fracking-rules-introduced-20140827-story.html

Saline County Illinois residents beg Gov. Quinn and AG Lisa Madigan to stop Peabody Coal's Rocky Branch strip mine's toxic blasting and water contamination

by Jeff Biggers, EcoWatch, August 25, 2014

Update: Rocky Branch residents are reporting that decorated Vietnam War-veteran Glen Kellen, a Rocky Branch resident, has been arrested this morning, as he attempted to move his cross and protest sign closer to the public road.

Despite an appeal over the controversial Rocky Branch strip mine permit still pending with an Illinois Department of Natural Resources administrative judge, Peabody Energy defiantly closed down public roads and moved massive mining equipment in Saline County yesterday, in preparation to carry out its already violation-ridden and state-subsidized mine operation.

Rocky Branch, Illinois. Photo credit: Jeff Lucas / Gutting the Heartland

Calling out clear violations of the state’s mine permitting process, civil rights and environmental justice policies, besieged farm residents facing toxic mine blasting and water contamination within yards of their homes and wells have appealed to Gov. Pat Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan to halt the state’s flawed mine permit process.

“I feel the Attorney General has abandoned us by dragging her feet and letting Peabody destroy a community,” Rocky Branch resident Jennifer Dumbris said. 

“She has the power to stop what is going on until investigations are through but seems to rather look the other way, while Peabody is conducting business as usual.”

Last spring, thousands of Illinois residents appealed to Madigan to investigate the numerous inconsistencies and permit violations in the Rocky Branch mine process. Where does the AG stand now?

On behalf of civil rights and environmental justice in Rocky Branch?

Or with Peabody Energy CEO Greg Boyce, who declared in Australia last week that “coal always wins.”

In truth, Peabody was named as a party subject to discovery in a recent law suit over the Prairie State coal-fired plant, “a scheme by Peabody,” according to Illinois state residents, “to create a market for its high-sulfur, high-ash coal reserves in Southern Illinois.” A UK judge also ruled this week that Peabody’s “clean coal” ad campaign is misleading.

Peabody Coal equipment on Rt. 13, Saline County, IL. Photo credit: Shawnee Hills and Hollers

If Gov. Quinn and Attorney General Madigan can step in and halt the proposed Banner strip mine, why can’t they step in and halt the violation-ridden permits of the proposed Rocky Branch strip mine?

If Gov. Quinn and Attorney General Madigan can step in and halt petcoke coal dust, a “serious public health threat facing the residents,” why can’t they step in and halt the admitted unprotected health threat of toxic coal dust in Rocky Branch?

According to the IDNR permit for Rocky Branch, released earlier this spring, toxic coal dust from blasting, which will occur only a few hundred feet from resident homes, farms and wells, is not even considered:

If Quinn and Madigan can campaign to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired plants, why can’t they stop the unnecessary and CO2-exploding Peabody mine in Saline County from being loaded onto barges and shipped for dirty coal-fired plants overseas?

“Why is it that electric cigarettes are more important to make a decision on than the health and well being of a community of 70- and 80-year-olds that are law-abiding, tax-paying citizens,” Dumbris added. “It is nothing but profit over people.”

Yesterday, as equipment trundled across the state highway and down public roads in Saline County, Rocky Branch residents protested and held signs, “God Save Rocky Branch.”

Rocky Branch, Illinois. Photo credit: Shawnee Hills and Hollers

That is—until Gov. Quinn, Attorney General Madigan and the courts uphold regulatory laws and fair mining practices, as well as civil rights and environmental justice.

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http://ecowatch.com/2014/08/26/peabody-coal-overruns-rocky-branch-despite-appeal-pending/

Corrupted California Legislature delays crucial honeybee protections against neonicotinoid pesticides until the year 2020!!!

by Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch, August 22, 2014

As more and more proof emerges that the widespread die-off of honeybee colonies in the last decade is linked to use of neonicotinoid pesticides, the California legislature has passed a bill that would allow its Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to do nothing until 2020.

Honeybees are essential to the pollination of many crops, and California is the U.S.’s biggest agricultural producer. Photo credit: Shutterstock

The DRP has been studying the issues for five years (a study that was supposed to take two years under the current law) without taking meaningful action. AB 1789 extends the study window and the time frame for taking action another six years.

Nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice is representing a coalition of groups—Pesticide Action Network, Center for Food Safety and Beyond Pesticides—which has filed a challenge  in the California Superior Court for the County of Alameda, asking the DPR to ban the pesticides prior to the study completion.

Earthjustice attorney Greg Loarie said:

We’re disappointed that California legislators have just passed a bill that allows the California agencies to do nothing about widespread bee die-offs until 2020. While bee colonies are collapsing at historic rates and a huge California growing economy depends on these pollinators, we don’t have time to kick this problem that far down the road. We urge Gov. Brown to veto this bill and get to work with the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation and commit to addressing this problem much sooner than 2020.

Since honeybees are essential to the pollination of many crops, including California’s lucrative almond crop, and California is the leading agriculture state in the U.S., the loss of honeybees there would have a widespread impact on U.S. food production.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/08/22/california-honeybees/

Protests Greet Lawmakers, Corporate Officials Gathering in Dallas as New Arm of ALEC Is Announced

by Candice Bernd, Truth Out, August 2, 2014

Protesters dropped a banner from the upper stories of the Hilton Anatole hotel early Thursday, July 31, 2014, to greet legislators and corporate officials attending ALEC's 41st annual meeting in Dallas, Texas. (Photo: Candice Bernd)

Two grassroots activists from North Texas locked themselves inside the lobby of the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Thursday morning, as another two dropped a banner from the upper stories of the hotel to greet lawmakers and corporate officials gathered for the 41st annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Joshua Carmona from Dallas locked himself to a tree inside the lobby of the Hilton Anatole as hotel security arrives on the scene. He was removed and released without charges Thursday, July 31, 2014. (Photo: Candice Bernd)

Protesters Whytney Blythe and Joshua Carmona were removed by hotel security, within about an hour after they chained themselves inside, and released without charges.

State legislators and corporate lobbyist members from across the country will sit on task forces designed to review and vote on conservative "model" legislation that will likely travel from the Dallas Hilton Anatole's luxury conference rooms to official state house chambers, as lawmakers often pass off ALEC model bills as their own.

ALEC has generated legislation that advances the interests of its corporate members throughout state legislatures in the United States, as has been well documented, by organizations such as the Center for Media and Democracy. More than 98% of the organization's funding comes from corporations and corporate foundations, with the infamous petrochemical billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, serving as some of the organization's largest donors.

ALEC media relations staffers refused to issue a credential to this reporter to attend and cover this week's meeting in Dallas, citing the following specific portion of ALEC's media relations policy:

ALEC does not allow journalists to register as media for the purpose of writing a personal blog, or for persons whose news outlet is funded by an individual; political candidate or party; nonprofit; or activist/lobbying organization.

Truthout meets this criterion however, as a nonprofit whose classification as a 501(c)(3) was granted because Truthout has not affiliated with any political, lobbying or activist organizations, as opposed to nonprofit organizations that engage in political campaigning, widely classified as 501(c)(4) organizations. It remains unclear why this reporter was not granted access to this week's meeting.

Task forces are expected to consider model bills that would make Medicaid unobtainable for many across states and broaden the privatization of public education through the expansion of charter schools.

ALEC's Climate Agenda

ALEC also plans to host panels this week on topics including teaching its members "How to Think and Talk About Climate and Energy Issues," and how to bolster exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as on the EPA’s proposed carbon emissions rules and GMO food labeling proposals. Speakers include Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott and Newt Gingrich.

Much of ALEC's agenda for this week's meeting is returning to the organization's focus on promoting the extraction, production and exportation of fossil fuels while putting up roadblocks for renewable energy initiatives where it can. LNG exports have come to the forefront as a priority for ALEC during this week's meeting, according Steve Horn a research fellow with DeSmogBlog.

"The two areas that ALEC is pushing . . . are LNG exports and compressed natural gas vehicle model legislation. Both of these have already passed in some state houses, so it's kind of a reverse in a way, where ALEC will take bills they like from other states and introduce them to be templates for the 50 states," Horn said during a press call.

According to ClimateProgress, ALEC has invited a representative from the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, a group funded by the Heartland Institute, to deliver the group's recent report on questioning the current scientific consensus on the issue of climate change during this week's meeting. The Heartland Institute is well known for openly denying the existence of anthropogenic climate change and questioning the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"We do expect that ALEC will double down this year to try to undermine or even completely undo the EPA's clean power plan," said Aliya Haq, who directs climate change special projects for the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), referring to the EPA's proposal to cut emissions from power plants released last year.

She pointed to a previous annual meeting last December, in which ALEC members participated in workshops on how to obstruct the EPA's proposal months before the actual proposal was released. The NRDC tracked resolutions and bills from ALEC that emerged in state houses, after the meeting, designed to obstruct a state's ability to reduce carbon pollution. ALEC's environmental task force agenda for this week's meeting includes a new draft resolution opposing the EPA's clean power plan.

"That new draft has rhetoric like, 'the regulation of electricity is a sovereign state function' . . . there's a lot of kind of blustery language that they'll be pushing again once state legislators get back into swing," Haq said during a press call.

Protesters Greet ALEC in Dallas

As lawmakers schmoozed with corporate officials during the day's panels and luncheons, hundreds of protesters lined the streets outside the Hilton Anatole to oppose ALEC's agenda on issues ranging from labor rights, environmental policy, political spending, public education and health care.

Organizers greet ALEC attendees during a rally outside the Hilton Anatole on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. (Photo: Candice Bernd)

Organizers erected a giant inflatable pig to represent ALEC during a rally outside the Hilton Anatole on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. (Photo: Candice Bernd)

A coalition of activists, including many union organizers and grassroots groups, under the banner "TEXposeALEC" arranged buses for up to 500 demonstrators, who rendezvoused at the Hilton Anatole for a rally Wednesday afternoon, themed "Don't Mess With Texas." Demonstrators also attended ALEC's welcome reception at Eddie Deen's Ranch later on in the day.

"[ALEC] is going to continue to push an anti-worker narrative," said Pamela Reséndiz, mobilization coordinator with the Dallas AFL-CIO. "Whether it's right to work, or whether they're trying to take away pensions from workers, or whether it is to cut out overtime pay . . . their policies affect everyone, regardless of whether you're in a union or not."

But as protesters rallied outside, ALEC officials inside revealed new plans to expand their organizations reach at the local level.

ALEC Could Be Coming to Your City Soon: The American City County Exchange

ALEC announced Wednesday the launch of a new offshoot that will apply ALEC's modus operandi of courting legislators with corporate lobbyists to draft model bills advancing corporate interests -- to the local level.

This new arm of ALEC, the American City County Exchange (ACCE), held its first meeting Wednesday at the Hilton Anatole. ACCE will work in conjunction with ALEC to influence elected representatives in city and county council positions, while ALEC focuses on state legislatures. The Guardian reports:

IN ACCE’s very first workshop under the simple title: "Privatization" -- though in the final version the wording had been sanitized into: "Effective Tools for Promoting Limited Government."

A later workshop scheduled for Thursday is called: "Releasing Local Governments from the Grip of Collective Bargaining."

The Guardian also revealed through internal documents last year that ALEC started work on a "prodigal son project" meant to regain corporate donors that fled their affiliation with ALEC in the aftermath of George Zimmerman's not guilty verdict in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. ALEC public relations image took a massive hit for its promotion of "stand-your-ground" laws across the United States.

But as ALEC works toward expanding its reach at all various level of government, progressives are beginning to forge a counterpart to ALEC with their very own legislative policy network, albeit using a different set of tactics entirely.

A Progressive ALEC?

A progressive ALEC could be in the birthing stages with the announcement of a merger of the American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE) and the Progressive States Network. The groups hope to build an organization that would move progressive policies through state legislatures.

"For nearly a generation, conservatives have outpaced us at the business of movement-building in states. They have focused hard on it, poured resources into it, and have been ruthlessly efficient at it. Starting now, we will do the same," wrote Nick Rathod, executive director of ALICE, and Iowa State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, board chair of Progressive States Network, in a joint statement.

But unlike ALEC, the group hopes to embrace a more democratic decision making process and a transparent approach, by shunning the use of lobbyists and making their model policy publicly available, according to the Washington Post. The group's database already boasts 1,800 examples of model legislation progressives can get behind.

There's evidence to suggest the group may be forming at an advantageous time for progressive policy in the states. As Congress stalls in raising the minimum wage, a policy backed by a clear majority of Americans, 10 states and the District of Columbia passed minimum wage hikes just this year, according to the Post. It's with examples like this that ALICE and the Progressive States Network hope will spark momentum for their new group's initiatives.

But while there may be possibility for a progressive counterpart to ALEC on the horizon, progressives should keep in mind that ALEC is far from isolated in its scope and influence.

ALEC's Extended Family: The State Policy Network

"It's important to recognize that ALEC is really the center of a network," said Connor Gibson, a researcher with Greenpeace's investigation team, during a teach-in panel attended by many ALEC protesters in Dallas Wednesday.

ALEC played a role in founding the State Policy Network (SPN) in November 1991. SPN extends ALEC's reach far beyond its corporate and legislative members, comprising an ALEC-sponsored family that includes affiliated think tanks and trade associations in every state, as well as national members such as the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity and the Cato Institute.

The groups are well organized in the way they coordinate to support ALEC’s conservative agenda to promote the privatization of the public sector, to attack renewable energy policies, and public employee unions and policies ALEC opposes.

Gibson said many of the think tanks and organizations involved in SPN are overwhelmingly funded through dark money groups and that some of these organizations disseminate faux news backed anonymously by corporate interests.

One SPN-affiliated organization is the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which has been focused on pushing ALEC's agenda in Texas to undermine public education in the state through the expansion of charter schools.

ALEC's Agenda in Texas

"Texans for Education Reform and some of these other groups are coming at us harder than ever, and ALEC is right in there with them," said Louis Malfaro, who is secretary-treasurer of the Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

The Texas AFT is working alongside other unions and groups such as the Texas Organizing Project to push back against efforts to create "home-rule" charter schools in the Dallas Independent School District, an effort that has been lead by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings.

But ALEC's agenda is Texas, executed through local legislators, goes beyond the privatization of public schools. ALEC's agenda to eviscerate worker protections in  Texas has taken the form of the state's deceptive "miracle economy," in which Texas created more minimum wage jobs, with little benefits and no upward social mobility, than any other state in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

"Sure, corporations are doing very well here in Texas," Jim Hightower, a former Texas agriculture commissioner, told Truthout. "But the working day people are being driven to the ground, rolling over in the ditch, small businessmen and family farmers too. [Perry] hasn't lifted a finger for them."

Jim Hightower outside the Community Beer Company brewery after a demonstration against ALEC in Dallas on Wednesday, July 31, 2014. (Photo: Candice Bernd)

Hightower drew the connection between the dubious Texas "miracle economy" and this week's ALEC conference.

"[ALEC] is a direct pipeline from corporate America into our state legislative bodies, and then, right into law," he told Truthout.

Hightower also spoke about how the ALEC energy agenda greatly impacts oil- and gas-rich Texas, specifically citing a recent announcement by Exxon-Mobil, a long-time member of ALEC, that the company will double the size of its export facilities located at Beaumont and Port Arthur.

"They sell this stuff on the basis that this 'is going to solve our energy-dependence problem,' " he said. "Except that the energy is not going to stay in America, it's going to be exported to China, it's going to be exported to Brazil."

He also noted that claims by oil giants such as Exxon-Mobil that they help to boost the state economy are false because a great majority of the jobs they offer are temporary construction positions.

"There's a rebellion that's building in Texas over this -- fracking, the tar sands pipeline, this is mostly happening to people who are a-political, conservative and largely Republican," he said.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/25321-protests-greet-lawmakers-corporate-officials-gathering-in-dallas-as-new-arm-of-alec-is-announced