Later this afternoon, Senator John Barrasso will keynote a panel discussion on “The Future of Clean Energy” hosted by the American Action Forum. While this may seem more fit for the likes of an Onion article, AAF, a Republican front group, has chosen a speaker who has received more than $2.2 million in campaign donations from corporate polluters during his career, who recently said the U.S. will use “affordable and abundant fossil fuels, including coal, to power our economies for decades to come,” who has denied climate science for years, and who has tried to undermine the bold vision of the Green New Deal by ridiculously claiming that the resolution will prevent the American people from having ice cream.
And it’s no surprise that AAF would choose a climate denier like Senator Barrasso to headline an event on their so-called ‘clean energy’ future. The American Action Forum itself has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Koch brothers and the oil and gas industry over the years. Recently, AAF put forth a baseless report on the nonbinding Green New Deal resolution proposed by Senator Markey and Representative Ocasio-Cortez. As Senator Markey rightly noted about AAF’s exhorbitant estimate, it relies entirely on inflated numbers and assumptions about policies that aren’t even in the resolution. Meanwhile, in November, 13 U.S. federal agencies reported that if we do nothing to reduce carbon emissions, it will cost the American people $500 billion per year in labor and agricultural losses, sea level rise, and adapting to extreme weather events.
While Republican think tanks and Senator Barrasso promote baseless claims to protect their corporate polluting donors, the American people are overwhelmingly demanding immediate climate action. Washington Republicans would be best served listing to their constituents and working to protect our communities rather than the fossil fuel industry’s profit margin.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.