[Rantman] Important media hoax and adroit legal followup. >> Fwd: Legal threat to coalcares.org from Peabody Energy

[Richard Pauli]

The Yes Men strike again - this time with a new and meaningful prank web 
site http://www.coalcares.org/
offering "Free Asthma Inhalers" to any child living close to a coal 
plant.   A powerful hoax.

The reaction was swift - from the http://theyesmen.org/peabody  and 
described below.

It happened very fast - just less than a day.  And since it involves the 
coal industry - which is a heavy advertiser to mainstream media  - there 
will probably be very little coverage of this media event.  So I deem it 
worth an email notice and event review.    I am happy to forward this.

RP



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Legal threat to coalcares.org from Peabody Energy
Date: 	Fri, 13 May 2011 18:45:35 +0200 (CEST)
From: 	The Yes Lab <coalcaresmail at yeslab.org>
Reply-To: 	coalcares at yeslab.org

	

                       (You're receiving this email because you're on 
the Yes Men mailing list.)

The following letter has been sent to lawyers for Peabody Energy in 
response to their threat <http://www.coalcares.org/peabodythreat.pdf>:

Dear Andrew Baum, Foley Lardner LLP, and Peabody Energy,

Thank you for your thoughtful letter 
<http://www.coalcares.org/peabodythreat.pdf> demanding that we remove 
Peabody's name from www.coalcares.org <http://www.coalcares.org> and 
cease falsely suggesting that Peabody cares about kids made sick by coal 
<http://www.lungusa.org/press-room/press-releases/power-plants-epa.html>.

Your threat, although entirely baseless (see this response 
<http://www.coalcares.org/EFFresponse.pdf>, and the EFF's blog post 
later today <http://www.eff.org/>), did make us realize one thing: that 
Peabody, despite being our country's largest coal producer, and one of 
the largest lobbyists 
<http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000020856&year=2010> 
against common-sense policy 
<http://www.desmogblog.com/industry-already-protesting-epas-first-ever-limits-mercury-pollution>, 
accounts for a mere 17% of U.S. coal production. The remaining 83% comes 
from 28 other companies 
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/table10.html>, who are, 
every bit as much as Peabody, giving kids asthma attacks 
<http://www.lungusa.org/press-room/press-releases/power-plants-epa.html> 
and other illnesses.

As even you may agree, the root of the problem is not Peabody, but 
rather our system of subsidies, regulations, and lobbying that lets your 
whole industry continue its lethal work. To make this clear, we have 
changed every instance of the word "Peabody" on www.coalcares.org 
<http://www.coalcares.org> to a rotating selection of the names of other 
large U.S. coal producers who, like Peabody, also need to be stopped 
from killing kids.

Very truly yours,
Coal is Killing Kids and the Yes Lab
coalcares at yeslab.org <mailto:coalcares at yeslab.org>, (314) 472-5539

P.S. You suggest in your letter 
<http://www.coalcares.org/peabodythreat.pdf> that "Peabody has a First 
Amendment right not to be involved with the dissemination of a message 
with which it does not agree," a statement which, while completely 
untrue, does recall the World Resources Institute's longstanding demand 
that you cease falsely attributing to them 
<http://www.wri.org/press/2011/05/wri-statement-energy-production-and-human-health> 
the nonsense statistic that "for every 10-fold increase in per-capita 
energy use, individuals live 10 years longer." As the WRI notes:

    First, WRI has never made such an assertion and has never done
    analysis to that effect. Second, this conclusion ignores critical
    factors related to energy production and human health. WRI's
    longstanding support for a global transition to cleaner, low-carbon
    energy is well-documented. 

We would be grateful if you would stop misquoting WRI and issue a 
corrective statement within the next 24 hours.
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