Coal Industry Pays Fake Activists $50 To Wear Pro-Coal Shirts At Public Hearing

Coal Industry Pays Fake Activists $50 To Wear Pro-Coal Shirts At Public Hearing

Apparently unable to find real activists, the coal industry paid astroturfers $50 to wear pro-coal t-shirts at an Environmental Protection Agency hearing yesterday.

Coal is also engaging in fake advocacy campaigns, known as astroturfing. In a Craigslist ad found by the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago, a coal group promised participants $50 to “wear a t-shirt in support of an energy project.” Upon further digging, the Sierra Club blog pieced together much of the deleted Craigslist ad:

And some of the "fake advocates" aka astrosurfers:



(TBH I think some of them tipped off the Sierra Club what was going on...)

From the original source:
Pro-Coal Group Pays People to Wear Its Shirts at EPA Hearing

If they're paying $50 to respondents just to show up at a one-time meeting wearing a t-shirt, what are they paying for a sock-puppet to shill for them online? No wonder America has lost all innovation and remains mired in passe energy technology.

this doesn't bother me as much as the fake "activism" that the liberals have payed for in the past.

Until we do find an alternative that is as viable and marketable as coal/nuclear, this is what we depend on.

It works on the surface, but when people actually engage someone that has one of these t-shirts on, that should be the end of it, right?? It's hard to carry on with a false story or lie when a normal person is questioned. I just don't see how this really works in favor of whomever if paying for this... in this case the coal industry.

Coal produces 99% of our electricty - so whatever...no coal no IPODS, IPADS, Volts...so stupid!

reply to post by BABYBULL24


99% you say?

What country?

In the USA coal only produces 44.9% of our electricity - NOT 99%. Natural gas (23%) and Nuclear (20%) make up most of the rest. Infant energy industries like wind and solar are about 4%.

America is locked into this form of electricity generation because the power brokers that run our energy consortium want to extract maximum profits from it. Coal is not efficient and is very polluting. Almost anything is better, including nuclear power.

It's funny they'd stoop to something like this, but all it does is show how easy it is to buy public opinion. While they got caught this time, I imagine how many other instances of where public opinion was swayed by paid shills and plants. It really makes you question the validity of posts on public forums like ATS, where you know disinfo agents are being paid to post propaganda supporting an industry or pushing some public policy measure.

Anyhow, good catch, SnF.