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Dark money, secrecy, conflicts of interest, and luxury travel

Republican leaders continue to stay busy advocating against public health and environmental protections, as well as personally enriching themselves. Highlights of the last two weeks:

  1. GOP pushes 80 anti-environment riders, dark money rule changes in spending bill
  2. EPA Chief’s clean-water rollback shaped by secrecy, luxury travel and handpicked audiences
  3. Jeff sessions has a huge conflict of interest in a federal bribery case—and it keeps getting worse
  4. Energy Secretary Rick Perry says moving from fossil fuels to renewables is ‘immoral’ while wasting $1.6 trillion on dirty energy that puts millions of lives at risk 

What do we do with all this corruption and greed? The short answer is that we do what we can.

Of course, we can call our representatives in Congress and our Senators and let them know we are paying attention. Also, we can hold corporations accountable through signing online petitions, engaging in boycotts, and patronizing companies that commit to using 100% renewable energy. Lastly, we can seek local solutions like Community Choice Energy that funnel money back into local communities.

These kinds of headlines are disheartening, however billions of people are committed to growing a clean energy global economy. American politicians engaged in this kind of corruption will eventually be swallowed up by the larger shift underway. Let’s hope it’s soon enough.