June 17, 2016
Greenpeace will testify before the Democratic Party’s Platform Committee in Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow on why reducing the influence of corporate money in politics will progress urgent action on climate change. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the Platform Drafting Committee, announced hearings in Washington, Phoenix, St. Louis and Orlando to hear from policy and issue experts.
Greenpeace Communications Director and Democracy Team Leader Molly Dorozenski will testify before the platform committee asking the committee to commit to several campaign finance and voting rights reforms as well as keeping fossil fuels in the ground and holding fossil fuel companies accountable for deceiving the public about climate change.
“In this important election year, Greenpeace has turned to what we have identified as one of the root causes of our inability to act on climate change: a broken but fixable political system that takes power from the people and puts it into the hands of a few wealthy individuals and corporations,” Dorozenski says in her testimony. “The combination of the restriction of voting rights and the outsized influence of money in politics has caused a crisis in our democracy.”
Read the full testimony from Greenpeace.
Greenpeace launched a pledge in January asking all presidential candidates to refuse future campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry and to strengthen and restore voter rights. While Senator Bernie Sanders was the only candidate to fully commit to the pledge, Secretary Hillary Clinton did commit to restoring the Voting Rights Act and reversing the impacts of Citizens United.
Contact:
Cassady Sharp, [email protected], 828-817-3328
Molly Dorozenski. [email protected], 917-864-3724
