CHARLOTTESVILLE — A congressional panel will hold an investigative hearing this week into the forged letters sent to U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, and two other congressmen urging them to vote against a landmark clean energy bill.
The 13 letters were falsified to appear as if they were sent by community groups, including the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, the Albemarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP, Creciendo Juntos, the Senior Center Inc. and others.
In truth, however, the letters were sent to the congressmen by an employee of Bonner & Associates, a Washington “grassroots” lobbying firm that was working on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
Chairman Edward J. Markey of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will convene his committee Thursday to look into the phony letter scandal.
“The Select Committee has now discovered more than a dozen fraudulent letters that were sent to several members of Congress as part of an ‘Astroturf’ campaign run by the firm, Bonner & Associates, and contracted by the American Clean Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity,” a news release from Markey’s office states. “This campaign was designed to influence members of Congress on the House-passed Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill.”
Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for the House select committee on global warming, said the hearing is intended to delve into the details of what he called a “fraud perpetrated upon Congress.”
“They have to answer to Congress and explain how it happened and hopefully how it won’t happen again,” he said.
Brian McNeill is a staff writer for the Daily Progress in Charlottesville.
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