Another Peters' investment in 'dirty energy' raises questions

Senate candidate Gary Peters’ recent purchase of coal company bonds marks the second time in a week that revelations about his personal investments clash with his campaign commitments to champion environmental causes.
According to the Democratic congressman’s financial disclosure statements, Peters purchased thousands of dollars in bonds in Cliff’s Natural Resources, a firm that operates seven coal mining operations in the U.S.
That investment seems to stand in contrast to Peters’ past position that the coal industry must be reined in because of its leading role in affecting climate change. The congressman voted in 2009 for a “cap-and-trade” bill in the House that would have substantially restricted carbon emissions from coal-fired plants.

In a 2013 press release, the lawmaker explained that vote and trumpeted his pro-environment stance:

“In 2009, I proudly voted for the American Clean Energy and Security Act to invest in renewable energy sources, reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions and lay the groundwork for a clean-energy economy. By pursuing clean-energy technologies, we'll break our nation's addiction to foreign fossil fuels and create thousands of American jobs. All of us must do our part to fight global climate change and that's why I’ll keep fighting for important legislation like this.”

Peters’ Republican opponent in the Senate race, Terri Lynn Land, pounced on Peters’ investments.

"Congressman Peters … claims he is for the environment but he … personally invested tens of thousands of dollars in coal, oil and petcoke--the very substances he campaigns against in the media.  Congressman Peters needs to come clean about his hypocritical investments and tell the truth about where he really stands on energy and cap-and-trade,” said Heather Swift, a Land campaign spokeswoman.
The Land camp goes so far as to suggest that Peters’ noncommittal answer to questions about cap-and-trade at the May Mackinac Island Policy Conference was reflective of a change of heart by the Senate hopeful after becoming an investor in “dirty energy.”

The Peters campaign responded that Land is misrepresenting the congressman’s investments and twisting his views by trying to portray him as an extremist on environmental issues.

The candidate routinely refers to his preferred energy policy as “all of the above” – one that relies upon domestic production of oil and natural gas, plus green energy such as wind and solar.
“He is pro-business and pro-environment,” Morris said. “As Gary has said many times, they are ‘not mutually exclusive.’”

Congressional disclosure forms require members of Congress and congressional candidates to identify the value of their assets in financial categories. Peters reported that his investment in Cliffs Natural Resources was between $1,000 and $15,000.  The company’s mines, located in West Virginia and Alabama, produce up to 9.4 million tons of coal annually.

Last week, it was reported that Peters owns stock in a French oil company, Total S.A. France, the fifth-largest publicly traded international oil and gas company in the world. The company’s American affiliate runs a large refinery in Port Arthur Texas that produces petroleum coke, or “petcoke,” a dusty byproduct of refining tar sands oil.
At the same time, Peters emerged last year as a leading critic of petcoke after mounds of it were piled on the banks of the Detroit River by the Marathon Refinery. An outspoken opponent of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the congressman has said that expanding the flow of Canadian tar sands oil into the U.S. will lead to petcoke problems in many states.

In a May 2013 interview he said, “You’re going to see these piles of petcoke in other cities all across America.”

 The congressman has said he wants to create new regulations that ensure petcoke piles are properly managed and stored. He does not want to ban petcoke.

They also argue that his investments in oil and coal companies represents only a tiny percentage of his stock portfolio and both of those companies engage in a variety of business activities.

Cliffs Natural Resources, formerly known as Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., also runs iron ore mines, including two in the Upper Peninsula. With nearly 1,700 employees, those two mines represent one of the largest employers in the U.P.
Total S.A. France holds interests in 21 refineries around the world, including in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and China. They have 60 facilities throughout the U.S. in addition to manufacturing facilities in 24 states.

"Terri Lynn Land is a hypocrite for attacking Gary for investing in a Michigan business that employs hundreds of folks in the UP when she's being bankrolled by two out-of-state oil billionaires who laid off hundreds of Michiganders and put our Great Lakes at risk,” Morris said. “The oil billionaire Koch Brothers have invested more than $5 million in false attacks to boost Land because she will give them and other oil companies new tax breaks at the expense of Michigan's middle class.