Can You Afford To Fund Big Oil?

There is a wealth of misinformation and empty rhetoric regarding renewable resources. These efforts endanger more than the emergence of new markets, they endanger human life around the globe.

CO₂ emissions are widely regarded as the primary contribution to anthropogenic climate change. As James Hansen states in a recent New York Times article human dependence on fossil fuels will likely be our undoing. Fossil fuels are federally subsidized at nearly six times the rate of renewable energy technologies on an annual basis, and have been for the last century.

On Thursday, Representative Keith Ellison and Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the “End Polluter Welfare Act,” bicameral legislation that would do away with tax breaks, financial assistance, royalty relief, and other loopholes that benefit the fossil fuel industry. Human civilization is dependent upon the adoption of clean, renewable energy resources, and the re-allocation of federal fossil fuel money would be a great place to start. Currently, more than $113 billion in federal subsidies would go to oil, coal and gas industries in the coming decade. Is this where you want your money going?

Read the full bill text, as well as Senator Sanders comments and Representative Ellison’s comments.

Contact your congressional representatives and urge them to cosponsor S. 3080, the “End Polluter Welfare Act.”