Long before BP’s Deepwater Horizon well began belching oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP and the rest of the energy industry had turned loose a gusher of cash in Washington, saturating Congress and federal regulators. (See our new research on how campaign cash from big energy companies greases decision-making in Washington!)

It's plainly obvious that we need to break the financial ties between oil companies and the elected officials that are supposed to regulate them. Political leaders who are serious about helping America achieve energy independence need to declare their own political independence by scrapping a system that relies too heavily on special interest money to finance campaigns.

Tell your member of Congress that it's time to pass the Fair Elections Now Act, so that we can have a government of, by and for the people – not of, by and for the corporations.