Why LCV is Our Favorite Environmental Organization

According to U.S. law, non-profit organizations which endorse candidates for elected office are not tax deductible. As a result, many organization which should be more political are not so: they’re great at saying what should be done, but they have unilaterally disarmed themselves in the political arena: they can neither help their friends nor punish their enemies. Most environmental organizations fall into this category.

Education, which is the stated role of many good groups, only goes for far. Look at how far our politics lag behind public awareness. Everyone knows that CO2 emmissions are going to change the global climate, resulting in dire environmental consequences including food shortages, island nations going underwater, and large scale extinctions. Meanwhile, despite the emergence of new technologies, the U.S. hasn’t raised fuel economy standars for cars in 15 years, and hasn’t even closed that awful loophole which lets SUVs count as "light trucks" and get even worse mileage, with the result that average miles per gallon has fallen over the past decade, despite the emergence of Global Climate Change as a serious concern.

Look at organizations which have made a large political impact: Senior citizens have ensured that virtually none of them fall below the poverty line at a time that one child in 4 does. They can thank the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) for that. The AARP plays serious political hardball.

Israel, which is worthless as an ally (Note: we’re not bashing Israel, but the fact remains that every time there is fighting in the Middle East the United States BEGS them to not join our coalition.), and has one of the highest per-capita incomes in the world, remains the single largest recipient of foreign aid. Israel can thank AIPAC (The American-Israel Political Action Committee) and other large Jewish organizations for that.

Again and again, the groups which play serious political hardball get real results, while the groups which publish wonderful recommendations, reports, and other hints, but don’t back them up with solid political muscle, typically get ignored, at least by the government.

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is the one environmental organization which has entirely forsaken its tax status in order to step up and fight politically for the laws we need. (I believe the Sierra Club has a special political branch which does the same thing, but this branch is smaller than LCV.) LCV publish a scorecard of how often each congressperson votes “pro-environment” on key votes, endose candidates, and run ads for good candidates and against bad ones. While it is less radical than some other groups (Its definition of the environment is usually limited to preserving land and reducing pollution, with maybe one vote on international family planning. Areas such as trade, nuclear weapons, and global poverty are ignored. The good news is that candidates with good environmental records are almost always better on these broader issues as well.), we are convinced that a dollar to LCV does as much good as 5-10 dollars given elsewhere. Over the past 5 years we have given LCV over $5000.

Follow this link to the LCV website. You can join the orgainization by following their "support" link.

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