-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.alecwatch.org/forward.html
}}}>Begin
Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States
The Untold Story Behind the American Legislative Exchange Council
Foreword
Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council assembled this
unprecedented, jointly produced report to help shine the public spotlight on a
corrosive, secretive and highly influential power in state capitals around the nation �
the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). As documented in the pages
that follow, while ALEC purports to be a �good-government� group operating in the
public interest, its sole mission is to advance special-interest legislation across the
nation on behalf of its corporate sponsors and funders. The organization�s behind-
the-scenes advocacy has been surprisingly effective � leading, according to ALEC
material, to the enactment of more than 450 state laws during the 1999 and 2000
state legislative sessions.
ALEC would have the public believe that it�s an association of elected members of
the 50 state legislatures with varying political and public policy philosophies.
However, ALEC is nothing less than a tax-exempt facade for the country�s largest
corporations and kindred entities. Companies likes Enron, Amoco, Chevron, Shell,
Texaco, Coors Brewing, Koch Industries, Nationwide Insurance, Pfizer, National
Energy Group, Philip Morris, and R. J. Reynolds pay for essentially all of ALEC�s
expenses. The payments might be membership dues, fees to sit on nine industry-
specific committees that approve �model� bills, expenditures for lavish parties and
entertainment, or �scholarships� to pay for targeted legislators to attend ALEC�s
junket-like meetings.
ALEC�s role is especially insidious because state law-making bodies are even
Foreword more vulnerable to secretive and well-financed corporate advocacy than
the U.S. Congress. Many states have little or no public reporting requirements that
would require disclosure of junkets and gifts awarded to legislators by ALEC, and
little or no lobbying disclosure laws requiring public release of information about
ALEC�s funding support and methods of operation. State legislatures are often made
up primarily of underpaid, under-appreciated, part-time lawmakers with few if any
personal staff to help research, evaluate and enact complex laws, and are
notoriously parsimonious in providing for their own analytical needs. Meanwhile, the
public advocacy groups most likely to oppose corporate excesses are too thinly
funded to compete effectively in most states. For all of these reasons, ALEC�s
approach of brazenly promoting a corporate agenda as the product of a supposedly
objective, nonprofit organization is especially effective in state legislatures, and
especially attractive to the corporations that set its advocacy agenda.
Environment is an especially popular target for ALEC, which is currently promoting
more than two dozen industry bills related to energy and environmental protection.
According to one staff member, the goal is �...to break the stranglehold of the
command-and-control policies promoted by the EPA (Environmental Protection
Agency) and the extremist environmental lobby.� But this is only one aspect of
ALEC�s reach. While our organizations are of course especially concerned about
ALEC�s destructive environmental initiatives, the organization�s �model� bills cover
the full range of subjects on which business has a state legislative interest,
including
health care, land use, tobacco restrictions, mandated employee benefits, utility
regulation, agriculture, tax policy, education and much more.
American capitalism has helped give this country the highest standard of living in
history, and its potential to continue to do the same is remarkable if the rules within
which government requires that it compete, grow and evolve are properly drawn to
protect our environment and quality of life against corporate excesses. These
protections are essential in part because it is the nature of the corporate ethic to
continually fight to obtain the most lenient regulatory environment possible in order
to
maximize profits and stock price. The resulting pressures can create an attitude that
whatever is possible within the law is justified, as is re-shaping the law to make it
increasingly more permissive.
Due to the magnitude and visibility of the Enron collapse, the public can hope for
some remedial action at the federal level. But that is not sufficient. Polluters,
developers, and their big business allies will use their extensive resources to finance
a corporate takeover of state government if we continue to turn a blind eye to the
deceptive and insidious work of the American Legislative Exchange Council. It is
time to hold this group, and its members, accountable for the greater public interest.
Rodger Schlickeisen
President
Defenders of Wildlife
John Adams
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
End<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no automatic endorsement
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
