According to a new profile in the Washington Post, a four-year-old lobbying group calling itself “Consumers for Paper Options” turns out to be an astroturfing group funded by the Envelope Manufacturers Association (EMA) and “the paper industry’s largest trade group, several of North America’s biggest paper manufacturers.”

What do these paper-pushing people want? More paper delivery of government statements in the name of the elderly and those with slow or no Internet access. The Post notes that the group recently managed to add a provision to a bill that would require “the government to plan for resuming paper delivery of annual Social Security earnings statements to some of the nation’s 150 million future retirees.”

Despite the fact that the group claims to represent digitally challenged consumers, its executive director is John Runyon, a veteran DC lobbyist.

The Social Security Administration decided to stop nearly all paper statement mailings a couple of years ago, saying that the decision saves the government $72 million per year.

“I wish we had launched this [lobbying] effort 10 years ago,” said Thomas Howard, vice president of government relations for Domtar, one of North America’s largest paper manufacturers and a financial backer of Consumers for Paper Options, told the Post. “But we’re on top of things now. Government agencies are in effect slamming citizens by determining how they will receive vital information.”