Fighting Fire With Fire: The Case for a National Environmental Association
There’s a common narrative in politics that legislators can be bought and sold by rich corporations to tailor the laws to these companies’ liking. The reality is a little more complicated than that, as lobbying takes many forms and is done through so many different kinds of groups. But what makes corporate lobbying stand out from the rest? Why do they seem to be so effective? The answer is that it’s not corporate lobbying, it’s lobbying from an entire industry coming together to advocate for their interests. This is the trade association and it’s exactly what the environmental movement needs.
The American Petroleum Institute, or API for short, is one of the most controversial trade associations in the country as we’ll see later, yet also one of the most effective. If you’ve seen their name in the news, you can be positive that it’ll be about something they’ve accomplished, or that they’re already carrying out. In 2022 alone, they’ve lobbied on 40 bills that cover a wide array of issues including infrastructure, worker’s rights, national defense, and of course, energy.
You might be saying to yourself: “Well, money talks.” But not exactly. To cover their interests across many contemporary issues, the API spent only $3.6 million dollars in lobbying this year. That may sound like a lot, but it amounts to roughly $90k per bill, and this includes huge legislation like the Build Back Better Plan. Considering the members of the API (which we’ll get into later) and the kind of money they make, that is an absolute steal.
What do they have to show for it, though? Well, consider that the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement among nations to reduce carbon emissions, was signed by over 150 countries, including the United States; but when the time came to ratify their signature, the API attacked President Clinton’s support for the commitment by disguising climate science with misinformation that effectively killed America’s entry into the protocol. This was in 1998. If $3.6 million dollars today can produce those kinds of results nationally, imagine what a smaller budget could bring us on the state and local levels.
The complicated reality of lobbying is that being in office is not a profitable venture. The legislators typically do what they do not to make money, but to get reelected. As all votes are equal, it’s not enough for associations to just let their issues be known to lawmakers or donate to sympathetic campaigns, they also have to make sure public opinion is in their ball-court. The API is no different.
For years, the association was known for its ardent climate denial. Recently, however, they’ve undergone a PR makeover as an environmentally-conscious coalition, a fighter for clean energy who just so happens to harbor an unshakable belief that fossil fuels will be pivotal to our future. Where once the API wouldn’t tolerate one negative word towards its industry, now it supports carbon taxing and commends clean extraction of fossil fuels.
It may sound ridiculous, but this works towards influencing people’s choices. During the 2020 election, the group advertised specifically in battleground states, framing the fight against climate change and America’s continued dependence on oil as compatible goals. It’s impossible to say how many people the API think they’re fooling, but make no mistake, the average company or advocacy group could not make this concentrated an effort at this scale; yet associations like the API engage in heavy advertising like clockwork.
If advertising like this could go into a truthful message, like that of environmental organizations, people would more likely view our movement on the movement’s terms, instead of what our opponents may tell them and legislation that we all support would get more votes as a result. Short and to the point, through an association, the environmental movement would not only be more visible, but more politically savvy as well.
A caveat you might be thinking of is that the API must be backed by huge companies with lots of revenue, something the environmental movement isn’t capable of reproducing. To a certain extent, this is true, however, it’s worth noting that the API is not just the face of oil corporations like Exxon Mobil and Shell. In fact, the API has hundreds of members from across the country. If it’s an oil company, big or small, national or local, it’s likely part of the API. Say what you will about the association, but it truly does represent the American oil industry, and that’s the key, it represents the industry.
Many environmental organizations have different priorities. We focus on cleanups, but others might be worried about water pollution, or deforestation. The environment is the world around us, so to list all the things that are advocated within that sphere would render a syllabus for the most exhaustive Biology course. The point of a trade association isn’t to rally around a single message, but to keep its members’ interests protected no matter what; the message is only a byproduct of that.
However, it’s that message that allows associations to bring people in. Take, for example, Energy Citizens: a grassroots front by the API that, according to the Atlantic, “encouraged New Mexicans to support a state-highway bill, exhorted Pennsylvanians to reject an infrastructure bill, and endorsed President Trump’s trade deal with Mexico and Canada”. The campaign already has 1.6 million members, regular voters who have eaten up the API’s messaging. They’re not concerned over company #1 or #346, they’re concerned with the industry as a whole. There is no reason why we couldn’t have something like this too. Sure, rallying behind the “environment” is vague, but if you make it known how connected our environment is, how dependent every element is on one another, suddenly that one word means a whole lot more.
The API has been a thorn in the environment’s side for decades now, but they’re just one of many associations in America. Dozens upon dozens of interests are fought for every day, yet the interest for humanity, for the planet, remains disparate. What is stopping us from fighting fire with fire here? Groups will come and go alone. An alliance sets precedence and stays together. As an ideological movement, we could keep going in our current state, but as a political/social/educational entity, we’ll forever ebb and flow unless we come together. It’s an easier-said-than-done process to be sure, but not impossible. The law does not work for only certain people; the law works for anyone who makes it so. Whether we lobby Congress, or try and educate communities at large, the Earth must be fought for; and we can’t do that by remaining apart.
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