Why We Need to Confront Dirty Energy Money

The current Congress is awash in Dirty Energy Money, and the fossil fuel industry is certainly getting its money’s worth these days. In the face of rising gas prices, the top 5 oil companies have reported nearly a trillion (yes, trillion) dollars in profits over the past ten years. Yet these same companies receive billions of dollars a year in government handouts. Meanwhile, the current dirty energy fueled Congress seems hell-bent on gutting the Clean Air Act and attacking the scientific consensus that climate change is a real, man-made and an immediate threat.

In the last election cycle the oil, coal and gas industries gave over $30 million in campaign contributions to members of Congress. This is on top of the hundreds of millions the oil industry alone has spent lobbying Congress in recent years. Not surprisingly, the recipients of this largess have been the most vocal in defending the fossil fuel industry and attacking common sense solutions to America’s energy problems, despite overwhelming public support for ending subsidies to the oil industry and opposition to weakening the Clean Air Act.

It’s time to confront the corrosive influence of Dirty Energy Money on Congress, before it’s too late.