Americans for Balanced Energy Choices Signs People Up Without their Permission

Yesterday I received in the mail a letter from the Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) (Warning: Music). This letter said that I have just joined the organization. Huh? I don't remember explicitly joining such a group. I have been a member of CCAN (Chesapeake Climate Action Network) and my church's Earth Committee. These organizations seek to combat global warming and other environmental concerns through a variety of methods. I went to a conference in Wilmington, NC on global warming. I have been attending meetings of the Charlottesville Peak Oil group, and have been concerned about peak oil for some time. Did I somehow join up for something that I did not remember, or did my signing something get me to be a member of yet another environmental group that fights pollution through oil, natural gas, and coal production, among other things?

I looked at the letter. It talks about providing affordable energy. Good enough. But you can't tell organizations from their own literature any more. That is not where you get the truth. I go to something independent of ABEC; in particular, Wikipedia. Surprise! I find that it is a political action committee promoting the coal industry. I would have never signed up for something like this. Although I think we should consider coal as an option, I know from my own calculations that the disasters spoken of by the global warming people can happen only because of the use of coal. So given this, do you think I would support a group that promotes coal production? That promotes civilizational suicide?

The only way I would support coal production and other coal activities, such as coal to oil conversion, is if it does not contribute to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and only as a last resort after other actions are taken. This group signed me up without my permission. They evidently seek to sign up people without their knowledge and then say this is a grass-roots effort on the behalf of the coal industry. I beg your pardon, ABEC. This is not grass-roots. This type of lying is more aptly described as Astroturf.

I request, ABEC, that you drop me from your membership rolls, and drop everyone else that you signed up without their permission.