Fight Back Blog: What We Face

01.15.2010 Posted By: Brian Young

There's no doubt whatsoever that to really change the status quo when it comes to energy, we're up against one of the most powerful and formidable foes we can have. I mean, there's no surprise there: changing the status quo is by definition going to go up against some powerful entrenched interests.

And when the issue at stake is the very energy sources our economy runs on, well ... it's going to be some rich, connected, and powerful interests that are going to be interested in keeping things the way they are.

We'll be looking at this throughout our time here - it is, after all, one of the very central purposes of this site - but let's start off with a link to a Rolling Stone story on the lobbying effort Big Oil and their allies have mounted.

Our collective response to the emerging catastrophe verges on suicidal. World leaders have been talking about tackling climate change for nearly 20 years now — yet carbon emissions keep going up and up. "We are in a race against time," says Rep. Jay Inslee, a Democrat from Washington who has fought for sharp reductions in planet-warming pollution. "Mother Nature isn't sitting around waiting for us to get our political act together." In fact, our failure to confront global warming is more than simply political incompetence. Over the past year, the corporations and special interests most responsible for climate change waged an all-out war to prevent Congress from cracking down on carbon pollution in time for Copenhagen. The oil and coal industries deployed an unprecedented army of lobbyists, spent millions on misleading studies and engaged in outright deception to derail climate legislation. "It was the most aggressive and corrupt lobbying campaign I've ever seen," says Paul Begala, a veteran Democratic consultant.

As they say ... read the whole thing.

And then get ready to fight back.