Obama’s group Organizing for Action finally takes up climate change … sort of
By Lisa Hymas
It’s about time. So far this year, President Obama and his advocacy nonprofit Organizing for Action have been making big pushes for gun control and immigration reform, while largely ignoring climate change. Today that’s starting to change.
From The Huffington Post:
Organizing for Action, the advocacy arm pushing the Obama administration’s agenda, will begin its next big policy push on Thursday with a focus on climate change.
The group, which was formed using the 2012 Obama campaign’s machinery, will begin what organizers view as a potential multi-year effort to lay the groundwork for legislative action on climate change. The first steps will come in the form of an email blast to the group’s reported 20 million subscribers Thursday morning featuring a “greatest hits” video compilation of what it calls the climate deniers in Congress.
From the email: “If we ever want to see real progress on climate change, we need to change the conversation in Washington — right now. We need every member of Congress to be part of the solution. OFA is going to hold these climate deniers accountable — even if we have to go one by one.”
Here’s the video:
More from HuffPo:
Climate change activists likely will be heartened by OFA’s decision to tackle the subject, which has remained in the backdrop since Congress failed to pass cap-and-trade legislation in 2009. But a closer look at the specific objectives of the campaign is less likely to satisfy the growing community of scientists and advocates who see an immediate need for bold action.
OFA is not advocating any specific policy prescription, nor does its campaign address the lingering question of whether the president will sign off on the construction of the [upper] part of the Keystone XL, the controversial pipeline that would carry heavy crude oil from Canada to refineries in Oklahoma. Instead, OFA’s goal is simply getting lawmakers to acknowledge the reality of anthropogenic climate change.
So: Immigration-reform legislation is actually making progress through our bitterly divided Congress. Gun-control legislation at least got a vote, and is expected to return to the Senate floor. On climate change, the Obama team isn’t backing any legislation at all — it’s just trying to shame GOP deniers, who are notoriously shameless, by getting you to sign a petition.
I guess that’s progress?
Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist. You can follow her on
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Obama’s group Organizing for Action finally takes up climate change … sort of
