As Government Moves forward on Global Warming, Citizens Must Help

The solutions for curbing global warming and saving our economy are right here in America, League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski says. But now that Congress is finally going to address the issue of climate change, it's more important than ever for voters to push elected officials to embrace the changes that need to be made to wean the country off of foreign oil.

As Congressman Blumenauer knows, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, currently being examined by the Energy and Environment sub-committee, is not only a key step towards reigning in the threat of global warming, it is also a vital part of President Obama's plan to reinvigorate our economy with clean, renewable energy.

In the next few weeks, advocates will work to pass the bill out of the Energy and Environment Sub-Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Businesses, religious leaders, unions, national security experts, and environmentalists will all be working with President Obama, but we're up against the powerful lobbyists of the oil industry and the equally powerful force of inertia. Our government is moving forward, but it needs our help.

For too long now we've gotten the majority of our energy from burning foreign oil, dirty coal and precious U.S. dollars. President Obama has called for change, for a new approach to America's energy policy that focuses on our health, our safety, and our prosperity.

That clean energy future is within our reach, and the way forward is simple: limit the amount of global warming pollution that corporate polluters can dump into our air and make them pay for the right to pollute. It's simple and it's fair. When companies are forced to pay the real costs of dirty energy, they will start using cleaner sources like wind, solar and geothermal that don't harm our environment.

And the best part about those clean sources of energy: they're made in America. Right now, when we pay our energy bills, too often our checks are cashed in other countries. Our dollars don't help American workers pay their bills, they help foreign dictators prop up unfriendly regimes.

According to the Center for American Progress, President Obama's Economic Recovery Act is already using clean energy to create as many as 27,306 jobs in Oregon and with the significant investments outlined in the American Clean Energy and Security Act, we'll see a massive increase in clean energy jobs in Oregon and across the country. Meanwhile, as leaders in the production of solar panels, wind turbines, and other clean technologies, America could become an energy exporter, shoring up our economy for generations to come.

Good for our economy, good for our security, good for our planet. It's hard to imagine that anyone could be against this, isn't it?

Last year, ExxonMobil made the highest profits of any company in history. With those profits, Exxon and other mammoth oil companies are leading a full-scale assault on Washington to ensure that they will continue to monopolize America's energy policy. Already, we've seen an incredible $115,000,000 spent on energy related political ads since the beginning of this year, ads trying to convince us that oil companies are at the cutting edge of clean energy.

And while the oil companies try to convince us that they're in the right, they continue to pour millions of dollars into the political process, making close friends in the House and Senate who will ignore the benefits of clean energy and work to hold America back. Already, Congressmen like John Boehner from Ohio and Roy Blunt from Missouri have said that they don't think America can change. They don't believe that America has the skill and the courage to find a new way of using energy that makes us safer, cleaner, and wealthier.

Meanwhile, some of the Representatives who sit on these relevant committees are in a tough spot. The oil industry is working hard to convince their constituents that clean energy is dangerous and as the Representatives of those constituents, they may have to follow the people of their districts and make the wrong decision.

That's what we can do - help these Members of Congress know that if they make the right choice, we will stand with them. We won't let oil company lobbyists have the last word. Instead, we will fight to ensure that the Members of Congress who support clean energy earn the support they need to stay in Congress and to continue to make smart decisions that strengthen America's economy, improve our security, and protect our environment.

Gene Karpinski became president of the League of Conservation Voters and the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund in April 2006, after spending 21 years as Executive Director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington, D.C. In that time, Mr. Karpinski also served over 12 years on the board of directors of LCV and LCVEF. The independent political voice of the environment, LCV in 2004 mobilized 18,000 volunteers who knocked on over 1.3 million doors in six states in support of environmental issues.