Two groups of American veterans, military and national security leaders are calling on Congress to take action on clean energy legislation.

Last week we told you about Partnership for a Secure America — a new group that’s calling for a climate bill for the sake of our national security. Now the group has released a signed statement calling for “a clear, comprehensive, realistic and broadly bipartisan plan to address our role in the climate change crisis.”

The statement is signed by 32 heavy-hitters from national politics and the military, and from all over the political spectrum.

At the same time, our friends at Vote Vets are launching a new national TV ad campaign. From their website:

Featuring Iraq War Veterans, (the ad) makes the case that oil profits to the Middle East fund the same terrorists we’re fighting, and closes with the line that “It’s not just a question of American energy, it’s a question of American power.”

Vote Vets has also sent more than one hundred veterans to Washington D.C. this week to push for passage of a bill. They are working with a coalition of other veterans and security groups called Operation Free.

America’s military leaders and veterans have been telling us for a while that developing clean energy is key to our national security. Now there’s a new voice that’s spreading that message.

The Partnership for a Secure America will host an event next Tuesday in Washington, DC, to call for bipartisan action and a “unified American strategy” on climate change, energy and national security. Here are the event details, and more about who’s involved.

For the last few weeks, Senators and Congressmen have been back in their home states, listening to voters’ concerns and priorities. August is winding down, and they will soon head back to Washington to make laws.

This is your last chance to make sure they hear your voice. Here’s how:

• Make a call.  The Environmental Defense Action Network just launched  a new tool that makes it easy to call your Senators. The Senate needs to hear from you, so call and ask your friends to do the same!
• Check the calendar. Town hall meetings are winding down, but you might still have a chance to speak up for clean energy. Find a town hall meeting in your state (scroll to the bottom of the page).
• Raise a ruckus online. Don’t let the small but loud opposition drown out the support for clean energy! Make your voice heard on the social networks.

And looking ahead to September, those of you in and near New York City can check out NYC’s Climate Week, a series of events planned to build momentum building up to the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.

Indiana Representative Mike Pence famously called the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 an example of the East and West Coasts “declaring economic war on the Midwest.”

So you’d think that now that the bill has passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Americans in the heartland would be up in arms. But…not so much.

In fact, some of the largest and most respected media outlets in the Midwest and other traditional coal and oil states are accepting of the bill, even happy with it. Here are a few  highlights from the last week:

“Gov. Mitch Daniels and U.S. Reps. Mike Pence and Steve Buyer have some significant non-allies in their vehement opposition to the carbon reduction legislation now moving through Congress. Among them are most of the Midwest’s governors, who already have signed a regional cap-and-trade agreement; and Indiana’s largest electric utility, whose boss accepts the need for congressional action and insists it will benefit rather than punish this coal-dependent region – if the region’s leadership pulls up to the table.”
– Indianapolis Star editorial, May 28, 2009

“Each generation is asked to generate new ideas that will make our nation a world leader. Clean energy could be our next big discovery…Our nation can stick with the status quo and continue to fall prey to $4-a-gallon gas – the straw that broke the economy’s back – and environmental disasters such as the Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant spill, or change directions and move toward cleaner energy.”
– Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) editorial, May 28, 2009

“Climate change imposes very real costs on all of us, on our children and on our grandchildren. We are subsidizing current energy prices at the expense of our progeny. The longer we defer payment, the higher those costs will be … It’s as if we are financing our lifestyle with an interest-only mortgage. There’s a big balloon payment looming in our future, but we’ve refused to set anything aside to pay it … the cap-and-trade bill represents an important advance because it has a realistic chance of being approved. If we do not start reducing our global warming liabilities now, we will be overwhelmed with the debt later.”
– St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial, May 28, 2009

“The American Clean Energy and Security Act unveiled this week is not perfect, but it’s a smart step toward reducing carbon emissions without destroying American industry and jobs … The Waxman-Markey bill is a plan the Congress should accept.”
– Bristol (Tenn.) Herald-Courier editorial, May 22, 2009

“While the do-nothing crowd stews on the sidelines, those committed to doing something about climate change are fully engaged … it’s not just tree-hugging environmentalists. It’s not just Democrats. It’s not just climatologists. It’s leaders of many stripes answering the call on the biggest issue facing our planet … Texas being the nation’s petrochemical capital, it can’t sit on the sidelines when guidelines are written.”
– Waco Tribune-Herald editorial, May 22, 2009

“If done properly, cap and trade would be a responsible compromise as the federal government attacks the problem of global warming. Obama and the Democratic leadership must stand firm during debate on the cap and trade policy. The final bill ought to contain strict, fair rules on who should pay to reduce greenhouse gases and how much it could cost.”
– Kansas City Star editorial, May 20, 2009

Today, I am heading to Capitol Hill with John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, Pa.  Mayor Fetterman recently lent his voice to Environmental Defense Action Fund’s “Carbon Caps=Hard Hats” ad campaign, which calls on Congress to pass climate change legislation.

On this Earth Day, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding hearings centered around the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), and they asked the mayor to come talk about jobs.

Braddock used to be a booming steel town. When the steel manufacturing sector left in the 1970s, Braddock gradually slumped, falling from a population of 20,000 to 2,000.

When John Fetterman first came to Braddock, he saw potential, thinking not as an environmentalist, but as a citizen wanting to revitalize a community. He sees Braddock, and other cities that depend on steel (like Akron, Ohio, and Detroit, Mich.,), ready for economic growth. He has a vision of restoring jobs that left with the steel industry. And what can trigger that growth is a cap on carbon.

So today, the mayor is on Capitol Hill to tell Congress that there are jobs in renewable energy and steel, and if they pass a carbon cap, there will be jobs in Braddock, Pa.

EDF launched a photo contest today inviting concerned citizens to submit photos of themselves, their family, even their pets wearing their favorite hat and holding a sign calling for a national cap on carbon pollution.

This is a fun way to deliver a serious message: Our planet is in crisis and we need to act now.

A select group of photos will be incorporated into EDF’s annual Earth Day video.   Anyone can submit a photo.  Here’s how.

The deadline for photo submissions is April 14th.

The Environmental Defense Action Fund just launched the Climate Activist’s Choice Award. Watch the videos and vote now, and help pick the winner of $1,000.
Read more »

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

There was a great editorial in Sunday’s Waco Tribune. It starts like this:

It takes quite a leap of faith to see Texas as a national leader in global warming solutions.

But if there’s anything Texas has plenty of, it’s faith – from Protestant evangelical fervor to contemplative Catholic spirituality to Eastern mysticism and beyond.

And in growing numbers, communities of faith across Texas are moving by leaps and bounds to respond to the moral imperative of global warming.

Read more »

This post is by Rev. Sally Bingham, president of The Regeneration Project and the Interfaith Power and Light campaign. She also serves on the Board of Trustees at Environmental Defense.

I have maintained for years that climate change is the most serious moral issue of our time, but at first few believed me or took it to heart. Having just returned from a week of traveling and giving talks on a religious response to global warming, I’m more encouraged than ever that we will solve this problem before we destroy ourselves.

Things have shifted in the last several months, and it’s a refreshing, hopeful time. More people are coming to events to find solutions, rather than to question the science. The most frequently asked question is, "What can we do?" Now that the religious voice is at the table with other solution seekers, I am very hopeful that we will stop the warming trend.

Read more »

Last Friday, at the invitation of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, I spoke at the Climate Change Hearing of the Florida Catholic Conference. The two other speakers in the morning session were Dr. Ricardo Alvarez, who gave a talk on the “Florida Perspective”, and Mr. Walt Grazer, who spoke on the “Theology of Climate Change”. The purpose of this hearing – one of many across the country – was to devise a Catholic response to climate change.

Read more »