I've just contributed a piece for NRDC's OnEarth about what to make of the snuggly relationship between Republicans and oil interests in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster--and how to get beyond oil politics in general. Here's an excerpt:
Republicans, oil, climate change inaction: Whether you’re talking about conservative think tanks, lobbyists, politicians, or political action (527) groups, the correlation between funding source and position is impossible to mistake. GOP candidates have received almost three times as much money in oil industry campaign donations as Democrats from the 1990 election cycle to the present -- nearly $108 million versus $39 million. In turn, many of the candidates and think tanks supported by Big Oil gladly regurgitate an anti-regulatory and fossilized fuel ideology -- including opposition to strong action on climate change. But if the GOP-oil relationship is well known and predictable, staring too closely at it can also blind us. It can make us overlook Democratic complicity, the increasing diversity of industrial interests, and most of all, the need for new grassroots ways of shaking up our political system....
You can read the full piece here.
