Research Cited

Our Opinion: Email Ruling Exposes ‘Think Tank’ Motivations

Source: Brattleboro Reformer | Published: 10/24/2017

According to The Guardian, EELI’s core mission is actually “discrediting climate science and dismantling environmental regulations” and is “a free-market think tank that wants the public to believe human-caused global warming is a scientific fraud” that uses tactics including “filing nuisance suits to disrupt important academic research.”

“When E&E Legal doesn’t get everything it asks for, it will typically file a lawsuit and take the scientist and university to court,” the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch writes.

White Lawmakers Are Using Alabama’s Racist State Constitution to Keep Black Wages Down

Democracy

Source: In These Times | Published: 10/23/2017

And preemption laws are becoming both more expansive and more punitive. “What we’ve seen is preemption on overdrive,” says Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy. It’s not just about the minimum wage anymore; states have blocked cities from taking action on issues such as paid sick leave, anti-discrimination rules, fracking, and even the regulation of plastic bags and e-cigarettes.

Former Head of Energy, Environment at ALEC Hired by Trump Interior Department

ALEC, Environment, Koch

Source: Earth Island Journal | Published: 10/20/2017

“This is yet another choice to put an aggressive fossil fuel insider into a position of power at taxpayer expense. I have no doubt Wynn will put private interests — very special interests — over the public interest in protecting our public lands and forests,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy and publisher of the website ALECExposed.org, the first website to publish hundreds of ALEC model bills back in 2011.

“Promoting Wynn, with his long ties to the Koch Industries-fueled ALEC pay-to-play operation and other groups like EEI that peddle the corporate agenda, just underscores how Trump has put the swamp creatures in charge instead of ‘draining the swamp.”

New Case, Same Battle over Partisan Gerrymandering

Democracy

Source: The Indiana Lawyer | Published: 10/18/2017

When the Wisconsin Senate and State Assembly submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs asked the Faegre group to write a response brief on behalf of the Center for Media and Democracy. Yeager led the team of 15 attorneys from eight Faegre offices in researching, drafting and redrafting the brief pro bono.

Former Head of Energy, Environment at ALEC, Todd Wynn, Hired by Trump Interior Department

ALEC, Environment, Koch

Source: DeSmog | Published: 10/18/2017

“This is yet another choice to put an aggressive fossil fuel insider into a position of power at taxpayer expense. I have no doubt Wynn will put private interests–very special interests–over the public interest in protecting our public lands and forests,” said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and publisher of the website ALECExposed.org, the first website to publish hundreds of ALEC model bills back in 2011.

Group Doesn’t Speak for Nebraska

Environment

Source: The Grand Island Independent | Published: 10/17/2017

The CEA was created in the late 2000s by Whatley, a founding partner of a Washington, D.C.-based Republican lobbying group, HBW Resources, that has close ties to the Alberta, Canada, tar sands industry, according to Sourcewatch, “Consumer Energy Alliance”: https//www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Consumer_Energy_Alliance. Whatley’s CEA is backed by big energy producers such as BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Marathon, Shell, to name but a few.

Logging Company’s Attack on Environmental Activist Groups Dismissed by Federal Court

Democracy, Environment

Source: Shadowproof | Published: 10/17/2017

What Resolute filed is known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) lawsuit. They are, as PR Watch has previously documented, employed by corporations to shut people up and burden them with the cost of legal defenses.

Laughing Liberally Milwaukee to Hold October Show

Democracy

Source: Wisconsin Gazette | Published: 10/17/2017

In addition to Milwaukee progressive comedians, each Laughing Liberally Milwaukee features a special interview with a local activist, journalist, or political figure. October’s guest is Lisa Graves, executive director at the Center for Media and Democracy, a nationally-recognized watchdog group that leads in-depth investigations into the corruption that undermines our democracy, environment, and economic prosperity.

Corporate Corruption Profits the President

ALEC

Source: NJ Today | Published: 10/16/2017

In July 2011, The Nation published a series of articles produced in collaboration with the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) that showcased some of the ALEC model bills and described ties to the Koch family, and CMD launched a website “ALEC Exposed” that documented more than 800 of ALEC model bills, the legislators and corporations that had helped to draft them, and the states that enacted them.

Coal Boss Takes Climate Change Denial to the Extreme

Climate, Environment

Source: InsideClimate News | Published: 10/11/2017

Murray has worked assiduously for years to head off federal climate regulation. In fact, emails obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy showed that Murray conferred with then-Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt in 2015 after the Obama EPA announced its plans for reducing carbon emissions from the electric power sector. Inhofe acted as a go-between, arranging a phone meeting between the two.