As all of us consider donations for the end of the year, here’s one acknowledgment letter that you should receive, but won’t:
Dear average American taxpayer,
As 2010 comes to a close, your friends in the oil industry would like to acknowledge your ongoing generosity and support.
Last year, in addition to the roughly $2300 you spent on gasoline, you gave us at least $10 billion in subsidies. You have our assurances that this money will be used to continue to buy your government, violate human rights, pollute your backyard and the whole planet, and greenwash our image. We’re sorry about that little issue with the Gulf of Mexico, but we’d like you to believe its all gone now, and so we’ll spend several tens of millions more on an advertising campaign to reassure you.
Your contributions to the oil industry are generously matched by, well, no one. You give us the most. Thanks.
Over the coming year we’ll keep buying your democracy, you keep giving us billions, and it’ll all be good.
Sincerely,
Big Oil & Fracking Gas
Seriously, you should get that letter, but you won’t.
Instead you got this letter from us, asking for your support for a Separation of Oil and State.
At Oil Change International, we’ve accomplished much this year, but it couldn’t be clearer that we all need to do more.
So that’s what we’re set to do. We’ve doubled our staff size and budget from last year, and we’re gearing up to do more than ever before to identify and overcome barriers to a clean energy transition.
But we know we don’t do this alone. We work with great organizational partners, and we work with you. Yes, it was a rough year in many respects. The next several years are likely to be rough as well – we need your help to fight Big Oil and Fracking Gas.
Thanks for everything you’re already doing, and I know you know that we all have to do more. Enjoy your New Year’s celebration, take a deep breath, and let’s keep going in 2011.
Peace,
Steve Kretzmann
Executive Director
Oil Change International