Forgery scandal throws spotlight on anti-climate bill lobbying tactics

Lobbyists campaigning against US carbon legislation may be well used to accusations of underhand tactics, but it seems that one firm has now gone too far in its attempts to torpedo the climate bill working its way through the Senate, and is now facing Congressional investigation after admitting to forging letters arguing against the bill.

According to reports, Washington-based lobbying firm Bonner & Associates sent at least 12 forged letters to House Representatives in the run-up to last month's crucial vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, purporting to be from minority groups and voicing opposition to the proposed legislation.

Details of the scandal first emerged on Friday when the Associated Press reported that the firm sent six forged letters pretending to be from members of an NAACP chapter and a Latino advocacy group to Democratic Representative Tom Perriello.

The letters, which were signed by a fake person at Latino group Creciendo Juntos and five fake members of the Albemarle-Charlottesville branch of the NAACP, urged Perriello to "protect minorities" and not vote for a bill that would "force cost increases on us, especially in this volatile economy".

Perriello's office detected the forgeries when it was noticed that each of the letters used near-identical language.

The scandal was given fresh legs yesterday when the Washington Post reported that a further six faked letters were sent to two more House Representatives, Chris Carney and Kathy Dahlkemper.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the trade group that hired advocacy firm the Hawthorn Group, which in turn subcontracted work to Bonner & Associates on its behalf, admitted it had found that 12 forged letters had been sent by the grassroots lobby firm.

It said that it had been outraged by the company's activities, a stance echoed by the Hawthorn Group, which said that it was "furious" at Bonner & Associates' activities and had fired the firm.

In an email to The Associated Press, Bonner & Associates' president, Jack Bonner, said that the letters were the work of one rogue employee who had been caught and was no longer with the company. He added that he had contacted both the NAACP and Creciendo Juntos to apologise.

However, both groups reacted angrily to the forgeries, while the NAACP said that the opposition to the climate bill expressed in the letters was in direct contradiction to the group's stance on the legislation.

Hilary O. Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau and senior vice president for advocacy, issued a statement insisting the group was "appalled" by the forged emails, adding that it "is diametrically opposed to the claims made in the correspondence" and supports efforts to deliver energy independence.

Green groups seized on the scandal as further evidence of the lengths fossil fuel lobbyists will go to to block climate change legislation, while one of the bill's sponsors, Representative Ed Markey, said that his Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming would launch a formal investigation into the forged letters.

"This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress," he said in a statement.