Will you vote 4 energy? A new Greenpeace video spoof suggests citizens should think twice about the latest ad campaign from the American Petroleum Institute (API).
The Greenpeace video, seen below, takes aim at the API's recently announced "Vote4Energy" campaign. API President and CEO Jack Gerard announced this week that his group intends to spend "significant" amounts of money to promote discussion and debate over energy and oil policy issues.
While the API claims its campaign will not go so far as to endorse any candidate, the organization maintains a strong stance on issues important to the oil and natural gas industries. In his "State of American Energy" speech this week, Gerard said it would be a "huge mistake" with "huge electoral consequences" for President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
Gerard and the API also emphasize the possibility of future American prosperity through increased domestic fossil fuel production. They highlight revenue and job creation potential from lifting restrictions on offshore drilling and oil production on protected government lands, according to AOL Energy.
With its parody ad, Greenpeace hopes to challenge the API's priorities. Greenpeace Research Director Kert Davies said in a press release, "As Big Oil's top lobbying group, the American Petroleum Institute has repeatedly spent millions to block clean energy solutions and fake grassroots support for Big Oil. Meanwhile, taxpayers are forced to pay large handouts to the oil industry, the most profitable industry on Earth."
He added, "The American Petroleum Institute's Vote4Energy astroturf commercial encourages voters to continue welfare payments to Big Oil for dirty energy projects."
Last month, a Greenpeace activist infiltrated the API's "Vote4Energy" commercial shoot and rallied against the oil industry and the API campaign while on camera. Connor Gibson's audio recordings of the event suggest that the "Energy Citizens" who were cast for the commercial to give their own views on energy policy were actually put in costume and "fed lines by a director," reported Yahoo! News.
The American Petroleum Institute's original "Vote4Energy" television commercial can be seen on the organization's website. For more information about Greenpeace's anti-API campaign, visit their parody website vote-4-energy.org.
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