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Have you ever wondered why it is that two-thirds of Americans think government should do more to #ActOnClimate and over 90% of Americans support background checks, yet we’ve made virtually zero progress on either issue?
One reason is @ALEC_States.
#ExposeALEC #TradeUp
One reason is @ALEC_States.
#ExposeALEC #TradeUp
So what is ALEC anyway? I’ll let @iamjohnoliver explain it to you and then I’ll pick off where the folks at @LastWeekTonight left off back in 2014.
@IamJohnOliver’s description of @ALEC_States as a conservative bill mill responsible for every disastrous anti-climate law you could imagine was true then and it’s true now.
But 6 years later, ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption isn't just as shady as it sounds, it’s even shadier.
But 6 years later, ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption isn't just as shady as it sounds, it’s even shadier.
Follow along this week as I #ExposeALEC and break down exactly how their #CopyPasteCorruption is killing our planet, selling out public health in the midst of a pandemic & using taxpayer dollars to subsidize polluters pumping toxins into our air & water. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/29/conservatives-remade-american-state-politics-heres-how-they-did-it/
Let’s start off with with ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption on climate.
As businesses from Microsoft to Morgan Stanley finally speak out about the #ClimateCrisis, @ALEC_States continues to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of polluters. https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council
As businesses from Microsoft to Morgan Stanley finally speak out about the #ClimateCrisis, @ALEC_States continues to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of polluters. https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council
How exactly does #CopyPasteCorruption work? ALEC hands legislators *pre-written* bills that help membership-paying polluters like ExxonMobil & Chevron by eliminating enviro regulations, criminalizing protests, disincentivizing clean energy & forcing climate denialism into schools
Let’s start with the “Electricity Freedom” model bill @IamJohnOliver mentioned—legislation designed to:
1. Prevent states from requiring utilities to increase renewable energy production
2. Kill state solar incentives.
1. Prevent states from requiring utilities to increase renewable energy production
2. Kill state solar incentives.
When this particular instance of #CopyPasteCorruption failed in states like Arizona & Georgia, ALEC didn’t give up. Instead, they introduced a "Market-Power Renewable Act," which was designed to eliminate clean energy jobs & investment.
Read more
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/the-battle-for-a-solar-arizona/Content?oid=3880921
Read more
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/the-battle-for-a-solar-arizona/Content?oid=3880921
Then there’s ALEC’s "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act"
Teaching climate denialism debunked by 97% of scientists is about as balanced as a rock on a seesaw.
#CopyPasteCorruption
Teaching climate denialism debunked by 97% of scientists is about as balanced as a rock on a seesaw.
#CopyPasteCorruption
ALEC’s "Interstate Research Commission on Climatic Change Act" incorrectly states that there is a "great deal of ”scientific uncertainty” around climate change and that it could result in 'beneficial” climate changes…
ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption isn’t just polluting our water & killing our planet, it’s also violating free speech.
ALEC’s “Critical Infrastructure Protection Act” makes protests at ‘critical energy infrastructure’ sites like oil & gas pipelines illegal. https://climatesolutioncenter.com/alec-illegal-protests/
ALEC’s “Critical Infrastructure Protection Act” makes protests at ‘critical energy infrastructure’ sites like oil & gas pipelines illegal. https://climatesolutioncenter.com/alec-illegal-protests/
Any legislation—federal or state—that makes protesting illegal & punishable as a felony is an affront to our constitution and our democracy.
Yet as of this July, versions of this anti-climate, anti-free speech #CopyPasteCorruption has been signed into law in 16 states.
Yet as of this July, versions of this anti-climate, anti-free speech #CopyPasteCorruption has been signed into law in 16 states.
Even when ALEC doesn’t use its #CopyPasteCorruption, its fingerprints are still all over bills.
Last year, the state of Ohio passed HB 6, which you may have heard of when it was called one of the worst energy bills of the 21st century. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/7/27/8910804/ohio-gop-nuclear-coal-plants-renewables-efficiency-hb6
Last year, the state of Ohio passed HB 6, which you may have heard of when it was called one of the worst energy bills of the 21st century. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/7/27/8910804/ohio-gop-nuclear-coal-plants-renewables-efficiency-hb6
HB 6 in Ohio had all sorts of ALEC ideas all over it. Even if Ohio didn’t take ALEC’s language from its policy briefs, the result was the same:
1. Gutting the state’s renewable power generation requirements
2. Eliminating any incentive for clean energy development in the state
1. Gutting the state’s renewable power generation requirements
2. Eliminating any incentive for clean energy development in the state
Of course, you also may have heard of HB 6 as it’s featured at the center of a corruption and bribery scandal in recent weeks.
Naturally, one of the sponsors of the Ohio bill was a *dues-paying member* of ALEC.
#CopyPasteCorruption #ExposeALEC https://www.10tv.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/hb6-scandal-what-we-know-so-far-and-whats-next/530-3605cf52-dcd2-4c68-8fe0-ca931a8fc481
Naturally, one of the sponsors of the Ohio bill was a *dues-paying member* of ALEC.
#CopyPasteCorruption #ExposeALEC https://www.10tv.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/hb6-scandal-what-we-know-so-far-and-whats-next/530-3605cf52-dcd2-4c68-8fe0-ca931a8fc481
Who funds ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption? They don’t want you to know.
Because ALEC operates as a tax-exempt non-profit, they don’t have to disclose donors like a lobby shop.
Here’s a list of attendees from ALEC’s 2019 meeting via @NickSurgey https://documented.net/2019/08/alec-legislators-am-2019/
Because ALEC operates as a tax-exempt non-profit, they don’t have to disclose donors like a lobby shop.
Here’s a list of attendees from ALEC’s 2019 meeting via @NickSurgey https://documented.net/2019/08/alec-legislators-am-2019/
Aside from the #CopyPasteCorruption, ALEC frequently schedules prominent #ClimateChange deniers to speak at its conferences attended by thousands of legislators.
#ExposeALEC
#ExposeALEC
Now that we’ve covered climate, it’s time to #ExposeALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption and how it’s exploited our justice system, made it harder to #EndGunViolence & is *currently* selling out public health & jeopardizing American lives to help its donors profit off a deadly pandemic.
Let’s start with Trayvon Martin and how ALEC turned the Florida “Stand Your Ground” law that allowed George Zimmmerman to kill an unarmed black teenager into a model bill that was later adopted in *27* states.
This bloody iteration of ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption is a lot to unpack. Here’s the backstory.
Beyond Stand Your Ground, ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption on guns helps explain why our communities, schools, churches, and synagogues are subject to mass shooting after mass shooting without any progress on measures as simple as background checks, which 90% of Americans support.
From “stand your ground,” “three strikes” and “truth in sentencing” model bills to private prisons and for-profit bail, ALEC’s role in designing the inherently racist and inequitable justice system that now draws bipartisan calls to reform cannot be overstated.
#ExposeALEC
#ExposeALEC
ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption on our justice system has cost parents their children, cost taxpayers billions, and contributed perhaps more than any other organization to the systemic racism that makes black men 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police.
Now for ALEC’s decades-long commitment to sabotaging health care.
Before I #ExposeALEC’s role selling out public health during #COVID19 & jeopardizing our economic recovery, it’s important to understand their long history of #CopyPasteCorruption on undermining #AffordableCare.
Before I #ExposeALEC’s role selling out public health during #COVID19 & jeopardizing our economic recovery, it’s important to understand their long history of #CopyPasteCorruption on undermining #AffordableCare.
Last but certainly not least-stomach-churning is what ALEC is doing right now—not only exploiting a pandemic that’s killing 1,000 Americans daily, but actively lobbying states to turn down federal aid needed to save lives, open schools safely & prevent further devastation.
At this moment, ALEC is leveraging #CopyPasteCorruption to sell out our public heath in the middle of a deadly pandemic via 2 new model bills 
First there’s ALEC’s “State Leaders Say ‘No Thanks’ to Federal Bailout”
This proposal signed by 185 ALEC-affiliated legislators asks the federal government to avoid sending more money to the states.
Read it on ALEC’s website below https://www.alec.org/article/state-leaders-say-no-thanks-to-federal-bailout/
This proposal signed by 185 ALEC-affiliated legislators asks the federal government to avoid sending more money to the states.
Read it on ALEC’s website below
https://www.alec.org/article/state-leaders-say-no-thanks-to-federal-bailout/
Without federal aid, the virus will continue to ravage our communities, killing our loved ones and shuttering our small businesses. Illinoisans and families across the country will go hungry and risk eviction.
ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption costs lives.
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/06/02/koch-funded-americans-prosperity-opposes-bailout-state-local-governments-hit-hard-covid-19-pandemi
ALEC’s #CopyPasteCorruption costs lives.
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/06/02/koch-funded-americans-prosperity-opposes-bailout-state-local-governments-hit-hard-covid-19-pandemi
Then there’s ALEC’s model bill for state legislatures to create #COVID19 liability protections aimed to protect corporations from lawsuits by employees who are required to work during the coronavirus pandemic at the state and federal levels. https://theintercept.com/2020/07/21/alec-coronavirus-corporate-liability-bill/
Aside from lobbying against the #HeroesAct & legal protections for employee and customer safety, ALEC is also exploiting the pandemic to gerrymander our districts, privatize our public schools & curb federal #COVID19 emergency response. https://www.prwatch.org/news/2020/07/13602/alec-exploits-pandemic-push-right-wing-policy-goals-annual-meeting
