This bird wants an “all of the above” energy policy?!
Spineless eco-lobbyists and right-wing bureaucrats unite against “extremists”
National Audubon and many of the organization’s state groups have long served as a lobbying force in favor of compromise-induced industrial pillage (For those in Florida, think: Eric Draper). Today, they’re stepping it up a notch.
In a statement entitled “Audubon and GOP ConservAmerica launch campaign to bridge partisan divide on environment and energy,” The National Audubon Society and Republican group ConservAmerica announce a “groundbreaking” campaign aimed at “bridging the nation’s bitter partisan divides over energy and the environment.”
The American Eagle Compact supposedly targets conservation and energy development to “counter the partisanship has confused and polarized voters and jeopardized America’s commitment to conserving natural resources for the health of people and wildlife.”
But president and CEO of the National Audubon Society, David Yarnold, lays it out a bit clearer: “Extremists on both sides of the political divide have hijacked America’s conservation movement.”
This amounts to little more than an attempt at greenwashing the GOP on the verge of an election where the biggest, dirtiest industrial interests have dumped millions into a victory for Republicans who promise to gut what few pathetic concessions the current administration has made towards averting the global ecological crisis we are in.
Joe Browder, a longtime conservation activist, Everglades advocate, and a former-Audubon lobbyist himself, had this to say in response: “Most of us have differences, from time to time, over some specific issues, but the accusation by Audubon that the American conservation movement has been hijacked by extremists is not accurate, is harmful, is at best politically inept, and is right out of the anti-environmental extremists’ playbook.”
I’ve heard that poles show even majorities of Republicans favor conservation, but they’d never work with us because they’re scared of our counter-cultural tendencies. Perhaps this is an effort to reach out to people who could be allies, and maybe it could have some benefits for conservation in general? I don’t know, but I’m trying to think optimistically.