Oil front group to air pro-CO2 ads

Hopefully the trend of thinly disguising industry propaganda outlets as concerned grassroots groups will bite the dust soon. The tactic has been used wholesale by Republican lawmakers, like Enzi's ironically-named "Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act," which would have permitted insurance companies to provide fewer services. Now we're seeing groups like "Hands Off the Internet," funded by telecom giants to push legislation that would allow them to control and charge for Internet content.

Another ironically-named group is the Competitive Enterprise Institute, funded in large part by big oil, which seeks to squelch competitive enterprise by promoting the use of fossil fuels.

Today, the Competitivie Enterprise Institute (CEI) will unveil two 60-second TV ads focusing on what it calls “global warming alarmism and the call by some environmental groups and politicians to reduce fossil fuel and carbon dioxide emissions.” The ad, which will be aired in more than a dozen cities across the country, is being released just a week before the May 24th opening (in LA and NYC) of Al Gore’s new movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.

The final line in one of the ads? "Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life."

It's corporate spokespeople (and Michael Crichton) on one side, and pretty much every scientist alive on the other. Guess who Fox News is siding with?