Corporate donors retain veto power over the language, which is developed by the secretive task forces. The task forces cover issues from education to health policy. ALEC's priorities [have included] bills to privatize education, break unions, deregulate major industries, pass voter ID laws and more. [emphasis added]
ALEC has developed a model bill for undermining alternative energy growth. The bill signed by Gov. Kasich June 13 includes language taken from the ALEC model bill. At least 33 Ohio legislators are also members of ALEC. In 2012, Ohio legislators sponsored more than 30 bills reflecting ALEC language and goals. Before he was a congressman or a governor, John Kasich was active in ALEC during its formative years. This is a closed feedback loop that allows these "representatives" of the people to ignore the people even on an issue where 70% of the people oppose this corporate elite.
With unapologetic, deeply deceptive, Orwellian language, ALEC calls its model legislation the "Electricity Freedom Act."
Saving the planet tends to remind some people of Stalin
One of the most consistent critics of Ohio's renewable portfolio standard has been Republican state Senator Bill Seitz who is also a member of the board of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). He has been campaigning against renewable energy responses to the dangers of climate change for years. He has sponsored a bill to repeal the 2008 law. In 2013, he told Mother Jones: "Nobody is for more carbon emissions than you need to have, but at the same time the question is, well, what does it cost?"
Earlier he had told the Wall Street Journal that renewable portfolio standards reminded him of "Joseph Stalin's five-year plan." That article's headline was "States Cooling to Renewable Energy," followed by text supporting that self-fulfilling prophecy, mentioning climate change only in passing, and noting, as if it was a good thing, that:
The American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit whose members include fossil-fuel companies and mostly Republican state legislators, created a model bill for rolling back the standards last year and urged its members to pass similar bills in 2013.
Sen. Seitz's third largest campaign donor in 2012 was the Ohio company, American Electric Power Company (AEP). AEP fears it will lose money because of increased efficiency in electric use. AEP is also a member of ALEC.
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