Time For Democrats To Take On Big Oil

Taking on the fossil fuel industry isn't just the right thing to do for the climate, it's the right thing to do for the election. Big Oil wasn't the most popular going into this contest and the ongoing investigations into Exxon will only strengthen the case.
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It's Monday morning and I'm riding the Amtrak train down from Boston to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. We're someplace in Connecticut right now, rumbling along at a slow speed past the backs of industrial parks and small family homes. Occasionally I'll catch glimpses of the highway where cars cruise past us, arguably a more comfortable ride than my bench here in the cafe car, with its bad coffee and overpriced, reheated meals.

Don't get me wrong, I love the train. Even with the crowds, delays, and occasional unexplained shut down, riding the rails in 2016 beats highway gridlock and long security lines at the airport. But also, come on: it's 2016. Weren't we supposed to have hoverboards, flying cars, and super-fast elevated bullet trains by now? What happened? And what can we do about it?

That's part of why I'm headed down to Philadelphia this week. It's not a lack of technological smarts that's prevented us from fully embracing a clean energy future (well, maybe on hoverboards), but a lack of political will. And not just a lack of will, but a lack of will in the face of tremendous opposition. While the Democratic Party's past support for climate action can be at best described as lukewarm, the fossil fuel industry's opposition has been red hot. We're still trapped in the fossil fuel age because the industry has fought tooth and nail to keep us here. In other words, this train is slow because Exxon made it so. If we want to see any real progress, that dynamic has to change, and fast.

There are reasons to be optimistic. Earlier this month, the Democrats released their most ambitious party platform on climate ever. The platform doesn't go far enough -- most notably on fracking, offshore drilling, and other fossil fuel extraction -- but it does go farther. The document calls for a WWII like mobilization on clean energy; massive investments in solar, wind, and efficiency; and yes, new investments in mass transit. Taken as a whole, the platform puts the country on the road -- no, make that the rails -- to finally tackling the climate crisis.

Perhaps even more importantly, the party platform has some tough talk for the fossil fuel industry. There's a back story. Over the last 9 months, journalists at Inside Climate News, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere have exposed a decades long plot by ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies to mislead the American people about the dangers of climate change. Internal documents show that Exxon and friends knew about climate change as early as the 1970s, but instead of warning the public, they buried the truth and spent millions on misinformation campaigns and lobbying. A group of Attorneys General led by New York and Massachusetts have launched an investigation to see if Exxon committed fraud, while environmental groups, including 350.org, are pushing for federal investigations and further action.

Now, the Democratic Party is also getting into the mix. According to the party's platform, "Democrats also respectfully request the Department of Justice to investigate allegations of corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies accused of misleading shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change." Respectful as it may be, the request is an important one, because it shows that some Democrats may finally be willing to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.

That's a big development. It took us years to convince President Obama, arguably the most powerful person in the world, to take on Big Oil and reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Last November, he finally did it, and lo and behold, he hasn't turned into a lump of coal or been driven from the White House by a mob of angry oil executives. Instead, his approval ratings have shot up. That's not to say that rejecting the pipeline made him the most popular man in America, but it is evidence that the decision didn't hurt him. And it's a sign that more Democrats could, and should, be moving in that direction.

Taking on the fossil fuel industry isn't just the right thing to do for the climate, it's the right thing to do for the election. Big Oil wasn't the most popular going into this contest and the ongoing investigations into Exxon will only strengthen the case. Just look at last week's report from the Center for International Environmental Law which concluded that it was actually Big Oil who was behind Big Tobacco's public lies about the threats of smoking long before they started lying about the impacts of fossil fuels.

In contrast, people across the country are embracing a clean energy future. The solar industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. Young people are clamoring for climate action. Just this weekend, thousands of people took to the streets of Philadelphia to demand bold climate leadership and environmental justice. If Hillary and the Dems want to drive turn out in November, rallying the country to take on the fossil fuel empire is a good place to start.

Who knows, if we can finally get our politicians to take up the fight with us, then maybe we can all take the fast train down to the next convention in 2020 or 2024. Personally, I'm still holding out for the hoverboard.

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