$69.1 Million Wasted: Balch’s Alleged Sugar Daddy Bites Himself in the Rear

An incredible and explosive exposé of Southern Company, Alabama Power’s parent company and Balch & Bingham’s alleged Sugar Daddy, was published this morning by The Guardian, a major media outlet in the United Kingdom, based on an outstanding investigative report of the Energy and Policy Institute. The Guardian writes:

Years after receiving multiple credible warnings about the atmospheric damage caused by its reliance on burning fossil fuels, Southern Company paid over $62m to organizations with a long record of spreading disinformation about climate change, a report released today by a fossil fuel watchdog called the Energy and Policy Institute has found.

Southern has now become the third-largest greenhouse gas polluter in the US due to its fleet of coal and gas-burning power plants, and until relatively recently was still denying the science behind global temperature rise. “Do you think it’s been proven that CO₂ is the primary climate control knob?” the Southern Company CEO, Tom Fanning, was asked on CNBC in 2017. “No, certainly not,” he replied.

Although we, the CDLU, are not environmentalists, we believe this report by EPI exposes the alleged massive and consistent deception, lies, manipulation, and disinformation that appear to be the “stock and trade” of Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power, and Southern Company.

As The Guardian noted:

The total of $62.1m is probably just a small snapshot of Southern Company’s denial funding too, the report explains, because after 2005 Congress changed SEC filing requirements for utility holding companies “and the money trail largely faded”.

The money went to law firms, public relations companies, industry groups and rightwing thinktanks that have at some point disputed the scientific consensus for climate change or attacked legislative solutions that could transition the US economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

Exxon, by comparison, paid over $33m to such groups over a period of 18 years.

Undoubtedly, over the years, Balch & Bingham, Matrix, and their stooges were possible beneficiaries of this $69.1 million windfall.

Now with allegations of fear and intimidation; ghost candidates; criminal obstruction of justice; staged events and actors; manipulation of the court system; and other alleged crimes, the report from the Energy and Policy Institute confirms not only are the polluters and their high-paid stooges apparent liars; they will spend unlimited resources to manipulate and game the system with impunity.

Federal investigators should look at these associated acts not as corporate mischief but as a criminal enterprise.