Dear John,

Sign our petition: Tell Congress and President Biden to weaken Vladimir Putin by moving the U.S. away from fossil fuels to 100% clean energy.

Vladimir Putin's government was able to invade another country and expect to get away with it because Russia’s massive oil and gas industry is so powerful—it has fueled and financed Putin's war machine and made it hard for other countries to push back against him because of his big role in global energy prices.¹

And now, Big Oil is exploiting the Ukraine crisis to drive its pro-drilling agenda in the U.S.²

Even before President Biden banned Russian oil imports, lobbyists for some of the world's richest companies were pushing to ramp up U.S. fossil fuel production—even though oil companies are already sitting on major oil and gas reserves that they've chosen not to drill so the price they can charge stays high.³ Now, the industry's lobbyists have reworked the same talking points to position more drilling as the way to replace Russian oil in the U.S. and Europe, despite the fact that it would take months or years for a single drop of oil to flow to gas pumps.⁴

The only long-term path to minimize the power that Putin and other petro-dictators have is to get off fossil fuels altogether and go to 100% clean energy as soon as possible. We will never be safe so long as fossil fuels run our economy.

Sign the petition telling Congress and President Biden to counter Putin by getting us off of fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

Sign Now

If you're an oil executive, every crisis looks like an opportunity to expand our addiction to fossil fuels. But if you're anyone else, this is just another sickening reminder that fossil fuels are never far away from death and destruction. Where we see a tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, the oil industry and their lackeys see a chance to make money. Drilling more oil is not the solution—it's how we got into this mess, and it’ll keep making Putin richer for longer.

Weakening authoritarians like Putin is a great reason to get off oil, but it's far from the only one. From extracting it from the earth to transporting it across continents to refining it in poor communities to burning it in our cars and homes, fossil fuels leave a trail of toxic chemicals that give people cancer, asthma, and much more. And the global warming pollution they emit is barreling us all toward a point of no return for a livable planet, as the latest science tells us with frightening clarity.⁵

But it doesn't have to be this way. Instead of doubling down on fossil fuels, we have an important opportunity to lean into clean energy now while our country's attention is focused on decreasing our reliance on Putin's oil. Let's not replace one bad thing with another—let's end our addiction to oil entirely and chart a course to a sustainable future.

Sign the petition: 100% clean energy is the only way to limit Putin's power, long-term.

Thanks for all you do,

— MoveOn

P.S. This petition was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online petitions. You can start your own petition to push for progressive change here.

Sources:

1. "Buying Russian gas and oil has funded Putin’s war, says top EU official." The Guardian, March 14, 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/09/russian-gas-oil-vladimir-putin-war-europe-eu-official

2. "US fossil fuel industry leaps on Russia's invasion of Ukraine to argue for more drilling," The Guardian, February 26, 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/26/us-fossil-fuel-industry-russia-ukraine-drilling

3. "Vultures are circling the Ukraine crisis," The New Republic, February 24, 2022 https://newrepublic.com/article/165487/russia-war-ukraine-us-oil-gas-profits

4. "Domestic oil could increase supply—but it won't be cheap or quick," Marketplace, March 9, 2022 https://www.marketplace.org/2022/03/09/domestic-oil-could-increase-supply-but-it-wont-be-cheap-or-quick/

5. "Delay mean death' - UN climate report urges immediate, drastic action," Reuters, February 28, 2022 https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/delay-means-death-un-climate-report-urges-immediate-drastic-action-2022-02-28/

PAID FOR BY MOVEON CIVIC ACTION. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.