DC NPR Affiliate WAMU should take API's "Vote-for Energy" promo off the air.

Jack Gerard, President & CEO American Petroleum Institute, Oil Lobby Commander and Chief.

 

Urge WAMU to remove the American Petroleum’s “Vote-4-Energy” sponsorship ads from all future broadcasts. This ad is politically charged and comes dangerously close to the electoral campaign advertisements from candidates who advocate rampant exploitation of fossil fuels regardless of their environmental costs. The ad comes dangerously close to campaign rhetoric of Republican Presidential candidates who have attacked President Obama’s more balanced stance which includes environmental protection, energy efficiency standards for cars, and renewable energy. Big Oil –thanks to the Supreme Court’s United Citizens decision — now has a virtually unlimited to fund the election campaigns of its preferred candidates. We certainly hope that WAMU is not for sale.  See the  Vote-4-Energy Website.  

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SEE THE PETITION AND SIGN IT NOW:  

AND PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

Today (March 19): I spoke with both NPR and WAMU corporate sponsorship directors; the ads are specific to NPR’s affiliate Washington DC WAMU.  So we are redirecting the petition to WAMU. I was told by NPR’s spokesperson that the American Petroleum Institute has never sponsored NPR.

The WAMU sponsorship director Anthony Hayes told me that his department checked out the promo with their legal team who said that the ad did not violate the Federal Election Commission rules. I asked Mr. Hayes whether the station had considered the ethics of allowing politically biased ads such as API’s or Monsanto’s (did you here they are saving the world). I asked about the “fairness doctrine” and if  WAMU would allow another view such as mine. Mr. Hayes replied that I had every opportunity to be an underwriter and get on the airwaves. I told him this was unfair since API has the money to get on the air multiple times each day, every day of the week. I am not in that financial position. (He laughed at this.) Stay tune; I’ll be talking to the acting Station Manager shortly.

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To show you just how insidious and outrageous this whole thing is go to Vote-4-Energy’s website.   This will take you to a map of the U.S. where you can click on your state to get information on Senators and Reps. You click on voting records and then you pick a one of the officials, I picked Ben Cardin, the Democratic and Progressive Senator from Maryland who is running for re-election.  Here is what comes up! A report card on the Senator’s voting record graded by the American Petroleum Institute (API, i.e. Big Oil).

Maryland U.S. Senate (show committee information)
	Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D) http://cardin.senate.gov (web) Write This Official
	Capital Address: U.S. Senate 509 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 205100001 (202) 224-4524 (phone) (202) 224-1651 (fax)	District Address: Tower One 100 South Charles Street, Suite 1710M Baltimore MD 212012725 (410) 962-4436 (phone) (410) 962-4156 (fax)

112th Senate Key Votes
Description	Preferred Position	This official’s vote compared with the preferred position
Tax – Would have denied section 199 manufacturing/production, cutback foreign tax credits for dual capacity taxpayers and limited the ability of companies to take a credit for foreign taxes on oil and gas income against other types of U.S. income.	N
Environment – Prevents the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.	Y
Tax – Would have denied section 199 manufacturing/production deduction, denied intangible drilling costs, denied percentage depletion, denied tertiary injectants, increased OCS royalties and cutback foreign tax credits for dual capacity taxpayers.	N

Why did Mr. Cardin get failing grades from API?  He voted (1) to allow EPA to continue regulating global warming emissions (2) to eliminate tax loopholes for energy corporations.

Great Spoof of Vote-4-Energy’s Propaganda Film here: 

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