Call in the FeeB’s

There’s got to be FeeB’s

Don’t bother, they’re here.

Our own David Robinson called our attention the other day to the curious case of the noted scientific ethicist who seems to have stolen information from the Heartland Institute and perhaps forged some more evidence against them in the process.

The stakes just went up.

FBI called in over climate change mole

By Paul Bedard | The Washington Examiner

The Chicago-based free market Heartland Institute has called in the FBI and threatened other legal action against a global warming proponent who has admitted stealing emails from the institute in a bid to embarrass and discredit the group’s questioning of climate change.

Heartland officials tell Washington Secrets that they have been in talks with the FBI over the case against prominent global warming proponent Peter Gleick, co-founder of the respected Pacific Institute. Heartland is getting ready to reveal their probe of the affair, which they hope the FBI will act on.

Gleick posed online as a board member of the libertarian group to pry embarrassing emails and internal funding reports which ended up online this month. He also is suspected of writing a sensationally mistake-filled “strategy memo” based on the emails and posted online. The Pacific Institute’s board has expressed concern about the case.

Hmm. Wirefraud and Identity Theft, both Federal offenses, right off the bat.  Forgery seems a likely follow on.  I’d say those are causes for “concern.”  As for the Pacific Institute, if Gleick used any of their equipment or staff in his illegal activities (especially since he is the President of their Board of Directors), they too will likely find themselves subject to criminal investigation and civil lawsuits.

Heartland is also seeking legal action, both criminal and civil. Still, they are stumped at why he tried espionage to attack Heartland when he had been invited to publicly challenge climate change doubters at an upcoming benefit dinner. He didn’t RSVP.

That would have required him to actually support his case in the presence of informed disputants. Debate doesn’t seem to be one of the tools in the AGW protagonist’s tool kit.

The case could turn nasty. Heartland wants Gleick penalized, even jailed. Gleick, his career in tatters, wants to take Heartland down by outing its wealthy anonymous donor and probing ties to supportive lawmakers.

Interesting that Gleik wants to follow the money.  One should take it as a given that the Pacific Institute, which Gleik founded, will be looked at very closely as well in terms of who provides their funding.

And speaking of following the money…

Baptists and Bootleggers

By Todd Zywicki | The Volokh Conspiracy

…

Now comes the emerging story of an alliance between leading environmental groups and the natural gas industry to advocate for the elimination of one of natural gas’s leading competitors:

Just four years ago, shale gas king Aubrey K. McClendon told shareholders of Chesapeake Energy that “finally, we made some new friends this year.”

The chief executive sketched a vision of working hand in hand with “leading environmental organizations” on issues “where our interests might be aligned.” He said, “We believe this collaboration is unique in the industry and will benefit both Chesapeake and these environmental organizations for years to come.”

New friendships grew old, then cold. Environmental groups that once took money from McClendon — or considered doing so — to make a common cause against coal power, have stepped back as they weigh the environmental perils of extracting natural gas from shale, a business in which McClendon’s Chesapeake Energy is a leader.

The Sierra Club took $26.1 million in contributions from McClendon and Chesapeake-affiliated companies between 2007 and 2010, a fact that its executive director, Michael Brune, first disclosed to Time magazine earlier this month. Last year, Brune walked away from Chesapeake and an offer of an additional $30 million in donations.

To put the $26.1 million in context, compare the funding for the Heartland Institute, about which one critic stated, “That the Heartland Institute is effectively acting as a front group for big oil and energy, raising money from companies which are threatened by climate policies, so that it can essentially do their dirty work in undermining legislation that threatens their corporate bottom line.”  Heartland received a grand total of $676,500 from Exxon between 1998-2006 and $200,000 from the Koch Foundation in 2011.  If that amount makes Heartland a “front group for big oil and energy,” what does $26 million make the Sierra Club for natural gas?

I’d say that makes the Sierra Club a paid subsidiary of the Natural Gas industry and hypocrites of the first water.

Hat Tip: Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds via Google +

Shortlink:

Posted by Rodney Graves on February 24, 2012.
Filed under Environmentalism, Global Warming, Hypocrisy.
Tagged with: forgery • Gleick • identity theft • wire fraud.


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