The dirtiest bus tour in America attacks cap and trade bill

While you were off on your summer staycation, a small group of sunny-faced politicos hit the road in a big blue tour bus, armed with clipboards and talking points developed by a former speechwriter for the late Kenneth Lay, the convicted former CEO of Enron. In the manner of insurance and health-industry lobbyists orchestrating faux-grassroots bus tours to fight healthcare reform, the blue tour bus is funded by the American Energy Alliance: the advocacy arm of the Institute for Energy Research.

The IER is a think tank founded by one of the most successful remaining free-market ideologues in the country, 16-year Enron veteran Robert L. Bradley, Jr. As reported by Brad Johnson in the Wonk Room, both the AEA and the IER are front groups for some of America's biggest environmental polluters -- big oil, big coal, big manufacturing, and big utilities -- which do not want a cap-and-trade bill to pass.