A recent report found that "Pennsylvania's natural gas industry and its trade groups spent $3.37 million on lobbying between January and September 2011." During the same timeframe environmental groups spent $178,909. That's an 18 fold difference in spending between PA's natural gas industry and Pennsylvania's environmental groups interested in human and environmental health.
Similar lop-sided spending ratios can be seen throughout the country. In Virginia in particular, the flood of congressional lobbyists under the wing of one company, Virginia Uranium Inc. is a testament to the enormous spending disadvantage that Virginia's environmental groups have related to industry giants. But environmental groups in Virginia have something that money still can't buy on an effectively sustained basis: the power of people to mobilize around particular issues and affect the eventual outcome.
Once cynically scoffed at by executive heads of powerful energy companies like Dominion VA Power, the power of the people has manifested itself in effective political ways over the past year, culminating in one of the people's biggest victories on the human and environmental health front: the delay of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
While it's true that the environmental community in VA alone put a lot of valuable time and effort into mobilizing people around the Keystone XL pipeline, it was a policy victory that even some within the environmental community didn't foresee. It's the power of the people, stupid!
Our democratic political system rises and falls on the legitimacy of its political institutions. Even though Citizens United unleashed the spending frenzy of big corporations from across the country, our political leaders are still beholden to the majority will of the people. Thus, if the people come out and get involved in issues important to their lives, there's the strong potential to make a significant public policy impact that can help build a better future in Virginia and the country as a whole.
Success in the environmental and human health arenas won't be easy. But with sustained participation and enthusiasm, "we the people" can gain a greater portion of the reigns to our future. The future is ours for the taking, so let's take it! |
