Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine
Demands a Rapid Shift to Clean Energy

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee

The world’s reliance on oil is empowering Putin. Big Oil is gouging consumers.

And instead of playing offense, Democrats are…somehow playing defense with a muddled message on gas prices?? Not anymore. To win in 2022, Democrats need a better message.

The PCCC is leading a new campaign with a coalition of nearly 100 climate, veteran, foreign policy, and progressive organizations calling on President Biden and Democratic leaders to go on offense and unite behind this clear message:

For the sake of our national security and planet, we call on America’s leaders to take immediate action to invest in domestic clean energy jobs and end our dependence on fossil fuel.”

Signatures will be delivered to the White House and Congress to show widespread support for this clear, concise, popular message. We were proud to organize this campaign in collaboration with Evergreen Action, Common Defense, Win Without War, Indivisible, Sierra Club, and the League of Conservation Voters — and now nearly 100 endorsing organizations!

This is an important moment for Democratic leadership. It would be crazy for Dems to lose in 2022 because of high gas prices when we are the only ones proposing the real solution while Republicans and their Big Oil allies stand in the way.

In reporting on our new coalition campaign, The Washington Post wrote: “There might never have been a better time to convince Americans that a future where no one even worries about the price of gas — or the effect it has on the climate — is absolutely possible.”

PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor is quoted saying, “This is an opportunity to take aim at price-gouging oil companies and reframe clean energy as a national security issue heading into the midterms.”

Abandon Oil: Go Green!

For Democratic leaders to correct course, they need to hear LOTS of people urging them to unite behind our clear message. Tell Democratic leaders to say in one voice: Putin’s invasion reaffirms America must lead on clean energy and end our dependence on fossil fuels! To add your name — along with 100 organizations and thousands of other Americans today, sign here.

Dozens of progressive, climate, veteran, and foreign policy groups are asking Democratic leadership to unite behind a clear message:
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reaffirms that America must lead the world in a clean energy transition.
“Our dependence on fossil fuel empowers authoritarians like Vladimir Putin, rogue oil-producing nations, and price-gouging oil companies.
“For the sake of our national security and planet, we call on America’s leaders to take immediate action to invest in domestic clean energy jobs and end our dependence on fossil fuel.”

Will you join the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Sierra Club, Evergreen Action, League of Conservation Voters, Win Without War, Common Defense, Indivisible, and dozens of other groups in sending this message to Democratic political leaders?

Signatures will be delivered to the White House and allies in Congress to show widespread popular support for this clear, concise, popular message.

Petition Sponsors
Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Crazy Eight PAC, The Six PAC, Progressive Reform Network, LeftNet, The People United, Progress America, National Campaign for Transit Justice, TakeItBack.org, Kesha Ram, Erica Smith, Doyle Canning

ACTION ALERT:
Big Oil – Destroying and Exploiting

Eva Hernandez-Simmons / Sierra Club

(March 26, 2022) — Big Oil and their allies in Congress are already responsible for threatening our planet with fossil fuel production, just to fill their pockets. Now they are exploiting the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine to lock in fossil fuel production on public lands for decades to come.

Just six months after the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) desperately called for a 1.5°C limit to the global temperature rise, they released a new report showing the effects of the climate crisis will soon overwhelm the ability of humanity and nature to adapt to it.

Climate change is the result of our continued dependence on fossil fuels. Yet Big Oil and their allies in Congress haven’t slowed their plans to frack and drill on public lands. And now they are using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to justify building new infrastructure that would lock in fossil fuel production for decades to come — exploiting a humanitarian crisis and sending us hurtling past the tipping point for climate change.
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ighting the climate crisis starts with us permanently protecting the public lands that fossil fuel companies want to drill and frack. We’re pushing for strong investments in climate, care, jobs, and justice, bold legislation to protect communities, and protection of 30% of lands and waters by 2030 — but with only 12% of US lands under environmental protection, and with Trump threatening to run again in 2024 — we need to act fast.

Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying. Yet oil companies are exploiting a humanitarian crisis and war to lock in decades of new fossil fuel infrastructure — which will only continue to drive the worldwide demand for oil that props up countries like Russia.

It means more carbon in the atmosphere, more pollution choking the skies and poisoning the air we all breathe. And while the oil companies get richer, we won’t save a dime at the pump.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We can protect our shared public lands, slow the pace of warming, and avoid the widespread climate disasters and causing havoc around the world. The IPCC report underscores what all the latest climate disasters have shown us about how much this crisis is worsening. But it also tells us that we can still avert the worst of the crisis. And to do that, we must take big and bold action now.

That’s why we’re going all out: working with a broad coalition to push for bold climate legislation, spur investments in clean energy and communities, support the 30×30 initiative, going to court (and winning) to protect lands, and mobilizing our grassroots with unprecedented public support for our goals–because quite frankly, we need all the help we can get.

Eva Hernandez-Simmons is the Managing Director of the Sierra Club