Big Oil Behind Tea Party Movement
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Further proof that James Hansen’s analysis is correct and that it is “special interests” who are holding up responsible action on climate change…
Nearly all Republican Party candidates for the US mid-term elections in November deny the science of climate change. And hey, who’d have thought it, the Tea Party movement they are pandering to was kick-started by a couple of billionaire oil tycoons.
Back in January, a Greenpeace investigation exposed the Koch brothers’ secret funding of climate change denial and today’s Huffington Post has some detail of direct funding by fossil fuel corporations (including Koch) of Republican climate change deniers.
Will support drain away from the movement once Americans get a whiff that they are being manipulated by big business and it is not the grassroots movement they believe it to be? If not, we can wave goodbye to Obama getting climate change legislation through congress.
The good news is that the Evnironmental Protection Agency retains its power to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act and no new legislation is needed for the US to make science-based cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. And the EPA won’t be bothered with all that cap and trade nonsense. But political will is needed to make this a reality and that’s a resource that’s currently in short supply. Which is why 350.org, Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network have called for a new direct action movement in the US.
The evidence base showing how fossil fuel companies throwing their weight around continues to mount:
- Tea Party climate change deniers funded by BP and other major polluters
- Big oil and special interest funding of anti-clean energy ads $68.5 m since January 2010
- Fossil fuel lobbying in US totals $543 m in the 18 months to June 2010
- Polluters’ attempt legal challenges to EPA authority
- US Chamber of Commerce $75m campaign to unseat democrats on behalf of big oil (October 2010)
- Koch-funded climate sceptic misled Congress (25 Jan 2011)
Updates:
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