About ten minutes ago a letter went out from the heads of almost all the country's environmental groups and many of its civil rights, indigenous, and other progressive campaigns. It called--as Bernie Sanders and now Hillary Clinton have also called--for a DOJ probe of the remarkable revelations about Exxon's long knowledge, and its long, paralyzing public denial, of climate change.
The list of signers is remarkable. It includes the leaders of what we usually think of as the most corporate-friendly enviro groups, like EDF, and it includes Greenpeace. The leaders of the Hip Hop Caucus and the Audubon Society. The leaders of the Freddy Gray project and of the Sierra Club. It reflects the remarkable leadership indigenous North Americans have offered in recent years, and it has leaders from the fast-emerging environmental faith communities. Maybe most moving for me is the name Dr. Robert Bullard, a progenitor of what we now call the environmental justice movement.
I was very worried a few weeks ago that the remarkable revelations of journalists from Inside Climate News and the LA Times might fade away into the noisy digital clutter. I'm less worried about that all the time. This unity around #exxonknew reminds me of the spirit that marked the early days of the Keystone campaign, and that indeed has sustained it throughout.
Let's hope the DOJ retains the capacity to take on the richest and most powerful company in America. But let's do more than hope. Please contact your Congressperson and ask them to join in the letter being circulated by Cong. Lieu, DeSaulnier, and Welch asking for the same kind of probe. And please keep spreading the word about #exxonknew. The fight against climate change depends utterly on weakening the power of the fossil fuel industry, and these revelations about Exxon's utter mendacity are a remarkable opportunity to do just that. But even if that fight were lost they let us set the historical record straight, which is important too.