Somehow it's fitting that Houston -- home to the Astrodome, where the Astros used to play baseball -- would be the latest place that we'd find Astroturf. 

We had a double-header today with two more revelations about phony acts designed to spread fear around clean energy and climate legislation.

First, there was an "Energy Citizens" rally in Houston - brought to us by the oil industry supported American Petroleum Institute (API). On Monday, I wrote about the critical media coverage in advance of the American Petroleum Institute's "Energy Citizen" rally kick-off in Houston.

And, today, Clifford Krauss and Jad Mouawad at the New York Times weren't exactly buying it, either. As they describe:

"Hundreds of people packed a downtown theater here on Tuesday for a lunchtime rally that was as much a celebration of oil's traditional role in the Texas way of life as it was a political protest against Washington's energy policies..."

Naturally, the scene was rounded out with people wearing "I'll pass on $4 gas" t-shirts. This, of course, is dripping with irony since the last time America had $4 gas was last summer, as the oil industry reaped record profits.

Even the city's hometown paper - the Houston Chronicle - was rolling its eyes about the whole thing. In a pointedly-titled article, "Energy workers rally against climate plan," the Chronicle noted that Chevron, among others, was actively pushing its employees to attend this event:

"Chevron has invited Houston employees and retirees to participate in the event, and will provide transportation, so they can be part of the policy discussion, said spokesman Scott Walker in an e-mail."

Meanwhile back in Washington, D.C., another batch of forged letters was uncovered by the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

The Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog reported on this most recent embarrassment for ACCCE:

"The bad publicity keeps coming for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. On Tuesday, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Rep. Edward Markey, (D., Mass)., announced that his investigation of the group - which represents major coal producers, electric utilities and railroads - has discovered five new letters fraudulently sent by Bonner & Associates. Bonner is a Washington-based company subcontracted by the coalition to influence members of Congress on the recently-passed House climate legislation."

As noted by the Washington Post, one of the letters was written on the letterhead of the North Carolina-based Senior Center Inc., which the Post describes as "a 49-year-old organization in Charlottesville that offers services like classes, sports and blood-pressure screenings."

Needless to say, the organization's executive director, Peter Thompson, felt "victimized" by this abuse.

Chairman Markey issued the following statement (as reported by WSJ):

"We've seen fear-mongering with our nation's senior citizens with health care, and now we're seeing fraud-mongering with senior citizens on clean energy," Mr. Markey said in a written statement. "We must return to an honest discussion of the issues, and ensure that this sort of campaign does not further poison the well of trustworthy debate."

This captures the heart of the matter because whether its fake letters or fake events, both are intended to spread fear and doubt in the minds of Americans.

When I was growing up, I used to think that Astroturf has no place in baseball. And, I know for sure it has no place in a productive, honest discussion about America's clean energy future.