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A House subcommittee just voted to lift the 40 year old ban on exporting crude oil. And a dangerous number of senators are leaning towards approving Murkowski's bill to do the same. Click here to help us run ads urging Harry Reid and other senators not to make a crude capitulation and unleash climate catastrophe. 

Friend,

The quest to lift the 40 year ban on crude oil exports just scored a major victory. Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee passed a bill that would lift the ban with bi-partisan support -- a full House vote is expected soon.1

Meanwhile in the Senate, a similar bill passed in committee last month and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he's willing to make a deal that would allow it to pass. Reid isn't not alone: Senator Michael Bennett (D-CO) also indicated he's willing to lift the ban and he even believes exporting crude oil can be, "part of a more comprehensive plan that includes steps to address climate change and give the country and world a more sustainable future."2 While other Senators, even climate-champions like Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), have said they could be plied by the right offer from Murkowski.

Seeing the finish line in front of them, Big Oil's trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, just launched an ad blitz in 12 states and D.C. to spread their petroleum propaganda. The ads include the same line of lies we've been hearing for years: More drilling means more jobs, lower prices and greater energy independence. Added to the $823 million Big Oil has spent greasing politicians in the last five years, the product could be a crude climate catastrophe -- unless we act fast.3

Charles Spurgeon once said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." That's why we need to launch a serious ad blitz of our own that tells the truth about the consequences of lifting the crude export ban. We need to let senators like Reid, Bennett, Whitehouse and others know that there is no deal to be made on the issue of crude oil exports: we need to lock that carbon underground, switch off polluting industries and switch on a renewable energy future for all. Click here to donate to the Operation Crude Truth fund and help us send this message.

Here's the truth about the consequences of lifting the crude export ban: Oil companies could drill an average of 26,385 new oil wells in the United States every year between 2016 and 2030.4 And those new wells have a good chance of spilling, exploding or crashing aground since they'll be drilled in new and extreme places like the Arctic. Those new wells would leas to as much as 515 million metric tons of carbon pollution per year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 108 million passenger cars or 135 coal-fired power plants.5

Not to mention the swaths of public land and wildlife habitat that will be lost or the communities put as risk as more and more bomb trains, pipelines and tankers traverse our nation and the world carrying perilous petroleum. That's why a majority of Americans including 75 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of Independents and 61 percent of Republicans all oppose lifting the ban -- and that's the truth.6

This is the story we need to tell in states like Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Maine whose senators are slowly being swayed by Big Oil's petroleum prevarications. That's why we've started Operation Crude Truth, to stop senators from these states and others from crude intentions. But we can only reach as many people as we need, in as many states as there are wavering senators, with your support. Because we're thrifty, we can start an ad campaign in any one of these states for about $500. But there are at least seven senators wavering on oil exports right now. That means we need to raise $3,500 right away -- before Murkowski and her Big Oil backers can ram through a vote in the Senate.

Please click here and help us get Operation Crude Truth off the ground, so we can leave fossil fuels where they belong -- in the ground.

Thanks for supporting our climate,

Anthony and the Operation Crude Truth Crew

1 - Wingfield, Brian. House Panel Approves Repeal Of U.S. Crude-Export Ban. Bloomberg Business. September 10, 2015.

2 - Allied Progress: The People of Colorado Shouldn't Be Getting The Raw End Of  Sen. Bennet's Bad Deal With Big Oil. September 4, 2015. 

3 - Henry, Devin. Oil Group Launches Ads Hitting Crude Export Ban. The Hill. September 9, 2015,

4 - Center for American Progress: Annual Lobbying on Oil and Gas.

5 - Matt Lee-Ashley and Alison Cassady, The Environmental Impacts of Exporting More American Crude Oil, Center for American Progress, August 21, 2015.

6 - Hart Research Associates, Public Opinion on the Use of Domestic Oil, December 19, 2014

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