431
edits
Changes
SW: added slapp suit
According to a March 30, 2008 article in the ''Kansas City Star'', Western Fuels and its director Fred Palmer targeted a message to farmers, small-town officials and rural legislators in the 1990s to promote the idea that considerable doubt existed about the effect of carbon dioxide on global warming. Palmer is now a senior vice president at Peabody Energy, , which partnered with Sunflower in 2007 to buy pro-coal newspaper ads featuring Chavez, Ahmadinejad and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, warning that Kansas would have to import natural gas from Venezuela, Iran and Russia if no new coal plants were built.<ref>[http://www.allbusiness.com/government/elections-politics-campaigns-elections/12163685-1.html "Lots of cash behind coal plant clash,"] Karen Dillon and David Klepper, ''The Kansas City'' (MO) Star March 30, 2008.</ref>
Previously, the Association had, at the inspiration of Palmer, sued Friends of the Earth, the Earth Island Institute, Rain Forest Action Network, Turning Point Project, the International Center for Technology Assessment and Ozone Action, in Western Fuels Association v. Turning Point Project, No. 00-CV-074-D (D. Wyo. 2001), challenging the truthfulness of an advertisement in the ''New York Times'' on December 13, 1999, entitled "Global Warming-How Will It End?" that called attention to the problem of global warming. The lawsuit attempted to establish a new legal precedent involving political speech by invoking the federal Lanham Act, which applies to commercial speech among competitors. <ref> [http://www.pawalaw.com/assets/docs/corporate_legal_times_article.pdf "Six Environmental Groups Slapped by Coal Association: The Global Warming Debate Heats Up,"] David Rubenstein, ''Corporate Legal Times'', July, 2000.</ref> The suit was dismissed. <ref> {http://web.archive.org/web/20070716185454/www.icta.org/press/release.cfm?news_id=17 Environmental Organizations Defeat Coal Industry SLAPP Suit: Federal Judge Dismisses Coal Industry Suit Attempting to Prevent Debate over Global Warming," News release, April 5, 2001.</ref>
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