Voters Want a Level Playing Field for Renewable Energy

The Writer’s Almanac reminds us that it’s the birthday of the French thinker and historian Alexis de Tocqueville whose visits to the fledgling U.S. in the early 19^th Century culminated in his famous book, Democracy in America. According to the Almanac:

During his tour, the aristocratic Tocqueville was impressed by the fact that American Democracy actually worked. He wrote: “There is one thing which America demonstrates invincibly, and of which I had been in doubt up till now: it is that the middle classes can govern a state…They are adequate for the ordinary run of society. In spite of their petty passions, their incomplete education and their vulgar manners, they clearly can provide practical intelligence, and that is found to be enough.”

I’m not sure that he’d draw the same conclusion at this point. Almost 200 years later, American democracy lies in a twisted heap, hijacked by special interests that were powerfully emboldened by the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court Decision “Citizens United,” which provided corporations unlimited rights to spend money influencing our elections.

How does this affect the clean energy debate? Let me frame it like this:

Do you think for a minute that the majority of American voters favor continuing subsidies for fossil fuel companies, in which their taxpayer dollars are being systematically transferred to the coffers of the wealthiest industry on Earth? Put another way, do you think it’s likely that Americans would vote against a fair and level playing field, in which all forms of energy pay their own way and clean up after themselves?

Then ask yourself this: How much progress are we making on this on Capitol Hill? You can measure it with an eyedropper.

I’ll close with my usual refrain in which I urge readers to connect up with MoveToAmend, an effort to overturn Citizens United while we still have some tiny voice remaining.