FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 9, 2008
Contact: Annie Patnaude, (202) 349-5880 or annie@afphq.org

Second Swing of Cross-Country “Hot Air Tour” Begins June 17

South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Ohio

WASHINGTON – The free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) today announced it will begin the second leg of its nationwide hot air balloon tour on June 17, highlighting the economic consequences of so-called global warming “solutions” with seven events in six states. The Hot Air Tour has the goal of building grassroots pressure against costly state, local, and federal climate change policies. Although the U.S. Senate last week rejected the $1.2 trillion Lieberman-Warner climate tax hike bill, AFP has pledged to continue to mobilize citizens in order to fight off any future attempts to pass a cap-and-trade regulatory scheme. More information about the Tour, including a full schedule of events, is available online at www.CostofHotAir.org.

“Elected officials at all levels of government are converting global warming alarmism into policies that will have devastating consequences for our economy,” said AFP President Tim Phillips. “We think American families need to know what these proposals will cost them – lost jobs, even higher energy prices, and less freedom. We are going to educate citizens on unaffordable climate change schemes.”

From June 17 to June 21, the second leg of AFP’s Hot Air Tour will make stops in Spartanburg, S.C. Savannah, Ga., Jacksonville, Fla., Marietta, Ga., Birmingham, Ala., Nashville, Tenn., and Cincinnati, Ohio. The Tour, which was launched on April 21 in Washington, DC, will hold events in a total of at least two-dozen key locations around the country. AFP’s Hot Air Tour has already educated and mobilized hundreds of citizens with stops last month in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.

“Alarmists who are pushing economically-devastating climate change policies are out of touch with average Americans,” Phillips concluded. “Despite the propaganda being spread about climate change, Americans continue to be most concerned about the economic situation and higher energy prices. With record gas prices and higher food costs already putting a squeeze on household budgets and creating economic uncertainty, it would be foolhardy to enact any regulation that would transfer dollars from families to bureaucratic big-government.”

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org

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