This Is It: Push Congress to Pass Comprehensive Climate Bill

YOUR HELP NEEDED TO PASS STRONG ENERGY AND CLIMATE LEGISLATION!
June 2010

The effort to ensure the U.S. seizes this critical moment to address our energy needs and carve out a clean energy future is NOW.

The Senate will meet in the coming weeks before the August summer recess to decide whether or not to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation. Across the nation, climate action advocates are mobilizing in ways they never have before. That’s because, in many ways, this is a make-or-break moment. There is no better time.

Check out what VNRC's friends at 350.org are saying about this pivotal moment.

Read a 'Global Warming Fact Sheet' on what a 'comprehensive energy bill' means from VNRC's national affiliate - the National Wildlife Federation.

What can you do? Vermont's U.S. Senators — Senator Sanders and Senator Leahy — have been long champions of clean energy and efforts to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. But many members of Congress are beholden to the oil industry. Some even deny climate change is happening. The fact of the matter is this kind of thinking is dangerous. The oil age is over and a strong 21st century economy relies on this nation transitioning to more efficient, clean, renewable energy technologies. This nation needs forward-looking leaders to stand up, stand strong and bring their colleagues along with them. Senators Sanders and Leahy are a pivotal piece to this equation. They need to hear from you.

Will you take some time in the coming weeks to ensure this nation seizes this opportunity? Here’s how you can help:

• Make a call to Senator Leahy and Senator Sanders. Thank them for their leadership and ask for their continued help and leadership at this critical moment. Reach Senator Leahy at 800-642-3193. Reach Senator Sanders at 800-339-9834.
• Call their offices and set up a face-to-face meeting with them while they are home for the July 4th recess.
• Email them. Email Leahy at: senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov. Email Sanders at: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/comments/
• Write a letter to the editor. Find tips and contact information for writing letters to the editor here.
• Pen an op-ed and submit it to your local paper, Seven Days, the Burlington Free Press and beyond. Tell your story and lend your perspective as to why strong energy and climate action — in the form of meaningful legislation — is essential.
• Ask your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and others to take action too. Spread the call on Facebook, via email, at a community potluck.
• Do not let this opportunity die! Before the August summer recess, Congress will either pass meaningful energy and climate reform … or, likely, this critical conversation will be shelved again. (At least eight presidents, Republicans and Democrats alike, have made impassioned calls for transitioning away from dirty, dwindling and dangerous fossil fuels to a clean energy economy. Yet nothing has changed.)

 

Energy & Climate Effort: Talking Points

First, it’s important to note: There have been several bills under consideration in Congress. To that end, keeping comments directed at the end goal — one, strong energy AND climate bill — as opposed to any particular bill is  advised.

WHY DOES THE U.S. NEED CLIMATE ACTION NOW?

• The Gulf Coast oil catastrophe is the epitome of what’s wrong with our national energy policy and a clarion call for taking action now to cut our oil dependence.
• The BP oil catastrophe is the largest oil spill in U.S. history and it is a heartbreaking tragedy – America and the world are shaken by the events unfolding in the Gulf.  Eleven workers killed, oil in our wetlands, tourism and fishing economies in a shambles, sea turtles and sea birds coated in oil, and perhaps most devastating for the long term is the potential for wide scale dead zones in what has been one of the America’s most vital natural places.  As tragic as this spill is, I wish I could say it was completely unexpected.  Drilling for oil is dirty business and it is happening today in many of our most fragile and precious waters because of an aggressive industry and our nation's over-dependence on oil.
• The Gusher in the Gulf is the epitome of what’s wrong with our national energy policy and a clarion call for taking action now to cut our oil dependence.  We need to heed the warnings from the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and dramatically change course on the nation’s energy policy.
• It is time to stop wishing that our reliance on fossil fuels like oil is anything but a dirty and dangerous business. We need to do everything we can to stop the spill, lessen the extensive damage caused in the Gulf, and reinvent our energy system so that it can’t happen again.
• Right now, the BP oil catastrophe – the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history - is unfolding in the Gulf Coast, costing the U.S. millions in lost income; and threatening our shores, ocean ecology, birds and sea life.
• Americans – working in tourism, hotels, fishing and other sea industries – are suffering as millions of gallons of oil surge into the Gulf.
• Millions of people across America want the White House and the Senate to move forward with energy reform that will reduce our dependence on oil and lead the U.S. to clean American energy. We need to the Senate to pass clean energy and climate legislation this year.
• Americans are outraged over the Gulf Coast oil catastrophe and hold our elected officials accountable for these crises and are looking to leaders in Washington for solutions that will put us in control of our energy future.
• For too long, Big Oil lobbyists and their dirty energy allies have held America hostage by blocking action on clean energy to protect their profits and their bottom line. The consequences and costs stemming from our addiction to oil are simply too large for lawmakers to ignore.
• Last year, the House passed a historic clean energy and climate bill. So far, the Senate has failed to act on a new comprehensive clean energy and climate policy. Now it is up them to take action to lead America to a clean energy future.

This is the moment for a change in our national energy policy. Now is the time to act. Americans can’t afford any further delays.