Big Coal flexes $100 million PR muscle on soft sell

[theHandpuppet]

I have to tell you, this article could have been ripped right from the pages of any newspaper in Appalachia. Whether it's "Friends of Coal" in West Virginia or "Australians for Coal", the tactics are exactly the same. I don't think folks really comprehend the amount of PR money the coal industry is spending worldwide.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/big-coal-flexes-100-million-pr-muscle-on-soft-sell-20140507-zr5kq.html
The Canberra Times
Big Coal flexes $100 million PR muscle on soft sell
Bob Burton

The muscle of the coal industry’s lobbying machine was flexed last month with the launch of the latest industry-co-ordinated PR campaign ''Australians for Coal'', pleading the case for ongoing support of the industry in the face of a market slump and increasing community opposition. It takes a large reservoir of funds to reach both the halls of power and millions of lounge rooms at primetime, but the release of the Minerals Council of Australia’s annual report this week reveals the huge amount of money being spent to push Big Coal’s case.

A best-guess estimate is that in the last two years Australia’s coal industry has spent the best part of $100 million attempting to defend its increasingly tattered social licence.

Renewable power and energy efficiency are eroding profitability in the domestic coal power sector and undermining demand in key markets such as China, but Australia’s coal lobby shows no sign of acknowledging that times have changed.

If Australians are looking for an explanation as to why coal-belt states and the federal government are bending over backwards to support the industry, despite the increasing outcry at the damage the industry does to Australia’s land and water resources, and the global climate, the single biggest reason is the sheer scale of Big Coal’s largely behind-the-scenes lobbying machine. As growing farmer and community opposition, tough market conditions and political scandals rapidly undermine its standing, the industry appears to be cranking up its PR machine.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/big-coal-flexes-100-million-pr-muscle-on-soft-sell-20140507-zr5kq.html#ixzz33aTXLRZv

[Fairgo]

1. Forsaking the Carbon Tax

Thanks for that. There is the smell of desperation in the Aussie coal family. Can't sell off the nations resources fast enough...anything left in the ground when China finally pushes back from the trough is opportunity and wealth squandered. And now we are treated to the soap opera lives of the oligarchs of open pit mining, a sop for our discontented lives in the downward gyre. And then, the jarring image of Al Gore standing shoulder to shoulder with Clive Palmer...killing the carbon tax in some strategic end game i could not reckon. Its like they can't lose for trying. They are outright and overtly gutting what's left of the great barrier reef, dumping their trash and giving us all the finger. There's more than money driving these people mad...its power. They would sell all the water in NSW and let it all burn, just for a little more of that sweet coal flavoured influence. Junky behaviour...

[Matilda]

2. Where they do currently have power is with the Abbott government.

Abbott and Co. are firmly in the corner of Big Coal, not even excepting the so-called Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt (some people like to vary the spelling of his second name).

Never do I recall such a short-sighted government, so firmly in bed with the biggest polluters; the industrials and the mining industry. It's hard to know what their long-term plans for the country are - I'm inclined to believe they're thinking only of the cushy jobs waiting for them when their term in power has ended, because it's truly very hard to discern what their ultimate goals are if they're not simply acting in their own self-interest.

We can only hope that, like Big Tobacco, constant lobbying by people who really think will gradually change public opinion. If Abbott's polling is any indication, it seems he's not taking the whole country with him, not by a long shot, and I hope he will be a one-term prime minister.

But I could wish for a bit more life and energy to be breathed into Opposition Leader Bill Shorten - he's got nothing to lose by taking the fight directly to the government, but he's strangely listless, and we can only fear what damage will be done in the next two years by Abbott while Labor gives him a clear run.