Best way to clean up the environment: Divorce money from politics
Protect the planet by strengthening democracy
By James Gustave Speth
The Herald News
On this Earth Day, I take a measure of hope about the future of America’s environmental policy. We have a president and Congress who at long last acknowledge the reality of global warming, and we have a groundswell of public support to back them up.
But before we rejoice, let’s not forget just how long it has taken the government to face the facts about our overheating globe, nor the high hurdles that still remain to implementing sound policies on energy and the environment. Why have we consistently failed to address these issues in the past in the face of overwhelming consensus among scientists? Is our political system in Washington up to the task?
When I look at the numbers, one answer seems clear: special interest money. According to analysis by Americans for Campaign Reform, the energy industry contributed heftily to the campaign coffers of candidates running for Congress. This includes oil and gas companies, electric utilities, and mining groups, whose total contributions to federal election campaigns exceeded $470 million from 1990 to 2008. Members of the House and the Senate received an average of $53,074 and $197,953, respectively, in industry contributions in 2008. And this doesn’t even include the $2.3 billion oil and coal companies spent on lobbying over the last decade.
(Continued here. Speth is Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, co-founder of the National Resources Defense Council and author of numerous books on environment and the economy, including "The Bridge at the End of the World".)
By James Gustave Speth
The Herald News
On this Earth Day, I take a measure of hope about the future of America’s environmental policy. We have a president and Congress who at long last acknowledge the reality of global warming, and we have a groundswell of public support to back them up.
But before we rejoice, let’s not forget just how long it has taken the government to face the facts about our overheating globe, nor the high hurdles that still remain to implementing sound policies on energy and the environment. Why have we consistently failed to address these issues in the past in the face of overwhelming consensus among scientists? Is our political system in Washington up to the task?
When I look at the numbers, one answer seems clear: special interest money. According to analysis by Americans for Campaign Reform, the energy industry contributed heftily to the campaign coffers of candidates running for Congress. This includes oil and gas companies, electric utilities, and mining groups, whose total contributions to federal election campaigns exceeded $470 million from 1990 to 2008. Members of the House and the Senate received an average of $53,074 and $197,953, respectively, in industry contributions in 2008. And this doesn’t even include the $2.3 billion oil and coal companies spent on lobbying over the last decade.
(Continued here. Speth is Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, co-founder of the National Resources Defense Council and author of numerous books on environment and the economy, including "The Bridge at the End of the World".)
Labels: campaign contributions, Earth Day, environment, Fair Elections Now Act, lobbyists
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