Big Coal and Big Oil Shill Ed Martin Hates Investment in Clean Energy

You would think that after the disastrous BP oil fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico that has ruined ecosystems, destroyed ways of life, and caused a huge amount of needless suffering, and the 2008 disaster where 500 million gallons of toxic coal sludge broke through a retention wall in Tennessee, people would be happy to see the government invest in energy sources that don't actually destroy the planet. After all, the U.S. government provides billions of dollars in subsidies for oil and coal companies every year: wouldn't it make sense for them to also invest in clean, renewable energy sources? Not if you're former Matt Blunt chief of staff and current coal and oil shill Ed Martin, who today launched a website called 90 Million Dollar Carnahan attacking the U.S. Government (and particularly, Congressman Russ Carnahan) for investing money in Tom Carnahan's wind farm project in Northwest Missouri.

It's not exactly surprising that Martin would be such a huge opponent of renewable energy. After all, he had his friends in the coal and oil industry purchase billboards in Missouri attacking Russ Carnahan for supporting environmental legislation. The group behind the billboards, ACARE, is led by Mike Carey, the President of the Ohio Coal Association. At a St. Louis Tea Party last year, Carey said that the solution to our energy problems was to "Drill, baby, drill and mine, baby mine!" The group claims on its website that somehow all of our environmental problems will be solved by unrestricted capitalism, and is apparently completely oblivious to the fact that giving billions of dollars of subsidies to coal and oil companies every year is not exactly a "free market." Then of course there's the fact that Ed Martin is apparently a climate change denier, choosing to align himself with corporate shills and ignoring the research of actual scientists.

Martin's new website was a response to the website Two Million Dollar Man, which details how Ed Martin as the former Chief of Staff for Matt Blunt wasted over $2 million dollars in taxpayer money by illegally firing and trying to destroy a whistleblower who was asking him to follow the state Sunshine laws. That is $2 million dollars of taxpayer money flushed down a toilet. For no reason at all. Except, maybe, to prevent taxpayers from learning about how Ed Martin liked to use his position to try to get free hunting permits. On the other hand, the $90 million dollars in federal stimulus money goes towards creating jobs and creating energy from a source that's guaranteed not to collapse and kill miners, spill toxic sludge into rivers, or dump millions of gallons of oil into the ocean. In contrast to Ed Martin and his big oil and big coal buddies, i think the last few years have shown that we need to be investing far more into renewable energy, not less.