Separate Oil & State is a US campaign to get oil money out of politics. The greatest barriers to clean energy are political, not technical—and these barriers are largely fueled by the oil industry. We know that in order to achieve a clean energy future, we have to expose and eradicate the political influence of the oil industry; we have to achieve a separation of oil & state.

We are making progress. In the 2006 election:

• ALL of the incumbents who took no oil money won. Each and every one of the Congressional incumbents of either party that refrained from accepting campaign contributions from Big Oil in 2006 was successfully re-elected to office.

• Big Oil’s biggest friends lost. Four of the top five Congressional recipients of campaign contributions from Big Oil during the 2006 election cycle lost to cleaner candidates in close Senate races.

• The 110th Congress is the least beholden to the oil industry in a generation. Roughly one quarter of Congress is completely free of oil industry campaign donations, and the majority takes less than $5,000 in each election cycle.

Hundreds of thousands of emails sent from citizens just like you contributed to these trends. You can help make the 2008 Congress even cleaner by using our Follow the Oil Money tool to find out how much money your members of Congress have taken from Big Oil. You can search by zip code, U.S. Congress, or Presidential Race — and then take action to demand they begin a Separation of Oil and State.

Our addiction to oil is at the core of several of the most pressing issues of our time, including the health of our communities, global warming, war, and global debt. The first step in ending our collective addiction to oil is reducing oil’s influence over our politicians. It’s time to ensure that our representatives represent us, not Big Oil!

- Learn more about the impact of Big Oil money on climate, energy and war legislation

- Download a factsheet on the SOS campaign (192K PDF)

- Learn about the ways in which the US government supports the oil industry

- Learn how governments around the world support the oil industry

- Write to your member of Congress today to demand a Separation of Oil and State

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The best answer we have found for why we need a Separation of Oil & State comes from Dr. Robert Engler in his seminal 1961 work, The Politics of Oil:

“The petroleum industry has harnessed public law, governmental machinery, and opinion to ends that directly challenge public rule. In the name of prosperity and technology, the industry has been able to destroy competition and limit abundance. In the name of national interest it has received privileges beyond those accorded to other industries. In the name of national security, oil has influenced and profited from a foreign policy that has supported the chauvinism of a few rather than generosity to the aspirations of the many in underdeveloped areas. In the name of private enterprise, it has contributed to the attenuation of vital portions of democratic life, from education to civic morality. In the name of the right of representation, it has so entrenched itself within the political processes that it becomes impossible to distinguish public from private actions. In the name of freedom, the oil industry has received substantial immunity from public accountability.”

All this before climate change or wars for oil were concerns. Dr Engler passed away in 2007, at the age of 84. Although we never met him, we recognize we are standing on his, and many others’ shoulders, as we work towards a Separation of Oil and State.