We Campaign Takes On ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Propaganda Machine

Last month, the Wonk Room reported that the oil and coal industries and their conservative allies are spending two million dollars a day “to influence public opinion and public policy” this year. Most visible in this lobbying, advertising, and campaign donating machine has been Newt Gingrich’s “Drill Here, Drill Now” campaign, which has successfully driven the energy debate onto the false shoals of expanded drilling.

Evidently, Al Gore and the We Campaign have had enough. They’ve released a new ad, which they hope to run on national television, directly attacking industry propaganda and making reference to the recent sex, drugs, and oil scandal rocking the Bush administration.

Watch it:

The policy goal underlying the “Drill, Baby, Drill” message — lifting decades-old protections on America’s lands and waters — would help only Big Oil’s already obscene profits. But the primary political goal has been to prevent Congress from enacting genuine change, by killing climate legislation, blocking renewable energy investments and standards like those called for by the We Campaign, demonizing biofuels, and corrupting the media — drilling us deeper into the pollution economy just when we need to build our way out.

Today, Center for American Progress Action Fund fellow Bracken Hendricks is testifying before the House Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming about the Center’s plan for a Green Recovery. You can watch watch the webcast live at 1:30 pm.

The Green Jobs Now Day of Action, on September 27, is now little more than a week away.

Transcript:

The solution to our climate crisis seems simple: Repower America with wind and solar. End our dependence on foreign oil. A stronger economy.

So why are we still stuck with dirty and expensive energy? Because Big Oil spends hundreds of millions of dollars to block clean energy. Lobbyists, ads, even scandals. All to increase their profits, while America suffers. Breaking big oil’s lock on our government … Now that’s change.

We’re the American people and we approve this message.