New Mexico, is brought to you by big oil, but you wouldn't know it from
reading the Optic's front page story on the event.
According to the Optic's article, "The NMAC conference is sponsored by
San Miguel County, the City of Las Vegas, exhibit sponsors and numerous
vendors and firms that provide professional services to county
governments."
The NMAC's own conference brochure tells a far different tale. The last
page of the document (attached in PNG format) lists the primary sponsor
of the event as Shell Oil. Several other sponsors from the fossil fuels
industry are also listed.
A gold sponsor of the event is Automated Election Services, a Rio
Rancho-based election management firm specializing in tribal elections.
AES came under a shadow last year when allegations surfaced of the
firm's involvement in vote rigging in the Cherokee Nation elections.
All of this at a time when Shell Oil is trying to get into San Miguel
County to frack for natural gas, and the County Commission is working on
an ordinance regulating gas and oil extraction. It's a helluva
coincidence. Maybe MORE than a coincidence, maybe more of an effort to
buy good will and influence the drafting of our county oil and gas
ordinance. You might even think it was newsworthy. The Optic obviously
didn't.
The Optic article, attributed only to "The Staff" goes on in glowing
terms about how the conference will inject an estimated $2 million into
Las Vegas, economy; it never once mentions the man behind the curtain,
the Big Oil lobby that is footing the bill for this show.
http://www.ccwae.org/hot-news-1/headline1