People Power on the 'Net

Tom "The World Is Flat" Friedman has a column in today's NYT that chronicles the changing face of the US environmental movement and the role of PR.

Before embarking on their recent leveraged buyout of TXU Energy, the firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group sat down with enviro groups Environmental Defense and National Resources Defense Council to get the groups' approval of the merger. Why would buyout firms care about two environmental groups with no financial stake in the transaction? Because the groups were in the middle of a messy online fight with TXU about its plans to build new coal-fired power plants and the buyout firms wanted to resolve the issue before sealing the deal. Before okaying the buyout, the enviro groups were successful in negotiating down the number of planned coal plants from 11 to 3, among other compromises.

Friedman thinks online activism is the sit-in of the new millenium.

Fred Krupp, head of Environmental Defense explains:

“The reputations of companies are going to be less determined by the quality of their P.R. people and more by their actual actions — and that empowers more of an honest debate on the merits,” said Mr. Krupp, adding, “It’s just harder to keep bad environmental news secret and expect the public to sit on its hands in the Internet era.”

Sounds about right to me.

Read the whole story here (subscription required).