{"id":267,"date":"2010-07-27T14:27:17","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T18:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/?p=267"},"modified":"2010-09-29T13:16:20","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T17:16:20","slug":"american-clean-energy-now-the-case-for-energy-and-climate-change-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/american-clean-energy-now-the-case-for-energy-and-climate-change-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"American Clean Energy Now &#8211; the case for energy and climate change legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/cenbadge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/cenbadge-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"cenbadge\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/cenbadge-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/cenbadge-676x1024.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/cenbadge.jpg 1192w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a>Last week, I participated in the <b>Clean Energy Network<\/b> fly-in to Washington in support of comprehensive energy and climate change legislation.  Although no single event is likely to overcome the US Senate&#8217;s inherent bias against action (on almost any major issue), the two-day effort made the <span class=bc>compelling case for comprehensive energy and climate change legislation very clear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Taking place during the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/a-july-senate-push-for-comprehensive-energy\/\">pre-recess window to move legislation forward<\/a>, though, there is much more to the story than that.  So in this and a series of following posts, I&#8217;ll outline some key threads of what happened, and where we may go from here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The case for action<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/challenge-of-the-last-mile\/\">The challenge of the last mile in the Senate<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/the-pivotal-role-of-massachusetts-and-new-england\/\">The pivotal role Massachusetts and New England can play<\/a><\/li>\n<li>After the week-ending punt &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/whats-next-the-best-defense-is-a-relentless-offense\/\">next steps<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/american-clean-energy-town-hall-meeting\/\">A separate post summarizes of the available video from our Clean Energy Town Hall Meeting<\/a>, held on Capitol Hill as part of the fly-in.<\/p>\n<h3>The Case for Action<\/h3>\n<p>The key arguments, distilled to their essence, are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Jobs and the economy<\/b> &#8211; Unleash the innovation that has driven our economy for the last 60 years, and create up to 2 million new jobs in clean energy and technology &#8211; or lose them to countries in Europe and Asia who are taking action.<\/li>\n<li><b>National Security<\/b> &#8211; Our dependence on foreign oil, and the money that flows from us to hostile nations to pay for it, is putting our troops and our national security at grave risk.<\/li>\n<li><b>Our environment and the future<\/b> &#8211; Cutting carbon pollution will reduce the impacts of climate change, preserve jobs in agriculture and recreation, protect our health and provide a future for our children and grandchildren.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each one by itself is a reason to act.  Considered together, can there be a single one of the 100 US Senators that does not consider at least one of these a priority?  <\/p>\n<p><span class=bc>What truly gave the message its compelling power, though, was the breadth of the people and groups that delivered it.<\/span>  <\/p>\n<p>Nearly to <b>200 people<\/b> from about <b>20 states<\/b> came to Washington.  They were drawn not just from among the <b>80 grassroots organizations<\/b> from around the US that make up the Clean Energy Works coalition, but from the extended networks of those groups.  <\/p>\n<p>The <b>diversity of geography alone spoke volumes<\/b>.  <span class=bc>If people from states as differently situated on energy and climate<\/span> as Massachusetts, Alaska, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, Michigan, Pennsylvania and South Dakota &#8211; <span class=bc>can come together<\/span> to speak to the imperative for comprehensive energy and climate legislation &#8211; surely their representatives can find a way to respond in kind.  <\/p>\n<p>The <b>individual participants themselves brought a variety of backgrounds, experiences and interests<\/b>.  Each could <span class=bc>speak personally to one or more of the arguments for action<\/span>.  In doing so, they brought with them the voices of many others like themselves.  Those voices included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Small business people and entrepreneurs<\/b> seeking the policy certainty that will unlock the investments and enable job creation in clean energy<\/li>\n<li><b>Veterans<\/b>, appalled at the human cost of our armed forces&#8217; and our country&#8217;s addiction to oil and frustrated that money flowing out of this country to pay for oil finds its way back in the explosive devices that cause those casualties<\/li>\n<li><b>Steelworkers and autoworkers<\/b> wanting a commitment to clean energy that, by driving the growth of the market, will create jobs building wind turbines, alternative fuel vehicles and advanced batteries.<\/li>\n<li><b>Farmers<\/b>, already seeing worrisome changes in crops and growing conditions and feeling ever more squeezed by their dependence on oil and petroleum-based fertilizers to grow and bring their crops to market.<\/li>\n<li><b>Faith-based organizations<\/b> whose members and leaders see themselves unable to fulfill the fundamental mission for the stewardship of creation that their faith demands.<\/li>\n<li><b>Environmentalists<\/b> concerned about the pollution, loss of habitat and changes destroying our natural environment<\/li>\n<li><b>Sportsmen, businesses and local officials<\/b> worried about the loss of wildlife and the accompanying damage to recreation and related jobs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The diversity of this group is a powerful reminder of how broad and deep the desire to take action is in America.  A poll done earlier in July by Benenson Strategy Group showed <b>60%<\/b> in support of comprehensive action on energy and carbon pollution and <b>35%<\/b> opposed.  <span class=bc>More tellingly, when the poll was prefaced by two strong advocacy messages &#8211; one for and one against, the numbers barely changed,<\/span> with <b>57%<\/b> supporting action and <b>33%<\/b> opposing it.<sup id=\"_ref-HR_0\" class=\"reference\"><a href=\"#_note-BN\" title=\"\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4 style=\"margin-top: 3em\">References:<\/h4>\n<ol class=\"references\">\n<li id=\"_note-BN\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bsgco.com\/releases\/2033_LCV_Release_Memo_FIN.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Benenson Strategy Group Memo<\/a>, July 14, 2010.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, I participated in the Clean Energy Network fly-in to Washington in support of comprehensive energy and climate change legislation.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy-federal","category-legislation","category-massachusetts","","tg-column-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.riverbendadvisors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}