Rush Limbaugh and the Dittoheads are urging their supporters to flood Capitol Hill with calls attacking those who voted yes on the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act. We need your help to fight back.

First, find out if your Rep voted yes on the bill: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-26-waxman-markey-bill-vote-count/

Then, call the Capitol Hill switchboard — (202) 224-3121. Ask to be patched through to your Rep.

Finally, tell the office staff that you strongly support the landmark climate bill and applaud the Rep. for voting to pass it.

This was a tough vote for a lot of members of Congress. But, thanks to the courage of 219 of them, we now have a chance to move America forward and create the clean energy economy we'll need to compete in the 21st century. This bill will break our addiction to foreign oil, put millions of Americans to work, and, along with cuts from other countries, will help avert the catastrophic threats of run-away global warming.

Please call your Rep now to applaud his/her vote on the landmark climate bill.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is the most important environmental and energy legislation in our nation's history. Today's vote is a huge achievement for the country and the climate, and we applaud Speaker Pelosi, Chairmen Waxman and Markey, and all members of the House who helped craft this landmark legislation and get it passed.

The bill that emerged from the House has the fundamental structure we need to significantly reduce carbon pollution while growing the economy. It puts a strong cap on emissions and reorients our energy market to make low-carbon power the goal. It ensures that utility rates will stay affordable and a competitive playing field for U.S. companies.

Today's vote opens the door for President Obama to sign comprehensive climate legislation into law this year. The extensive negotiations leading up to the vote helped form extraordinarily broad support for the bill as it moves to the Senate. Chairmen Waxmen and Markey bridged the traditional sectoral and regional divides of energy politics to produce legislation that has support from labor unions and businesses across the economy, to rural interests, environmental advocates, and agriculture groups.

The bill puts the U.S. on the path to significant emissions reductions, a stronger economy, and a new position of leadership in the global effort to protect the climate. We look forward to working with the Senate leadership to meet Majority Leader Reid's September target for finishing committee work on the bill.

With climate legislation moving to a vote this week in Chairman Henry Waxman's Energy and Commerce Committee, it's encouraging to see thoughtful and honest arguments and posts covering the various angles of this historic step forward. 

Paul Krugman's The Perfect, the Good, the Planet posits that while imperfect, Waxman-Markey is our best chance at addressing climate change.  Joe Romm sets the record straight on Europe's carbon trading efforts in his recent post, and Daniel Weiss provides a succinct update on where the legislation currently stands.

Did we leave anything out?  If so, post your links in the comments!

Today's New York Times features a story that may not shock you, but should concern us all:

According to internal reports dating back to 1995, scientists working for the Global Climate Coalition, an industry-sponsored group set up to wage a lobbying and public relations war against global warming action, were telling their bosses that human-caused global warming could not be refuted. But, that didn't stop industry lobbyists from waging a cynical campaign to undermine the science and cloud the debate.

Read the full story here.

Americans were outraged a decade ago when cigarette makers made similar claims about the evidence linking smoking and lung cancer. And then we discovered reams of damning research hidden away in tobacco company vaults.

The only real difference between then and now is that global warming stands to threaten more than just people — millions of species face extinction, entire ecosystems altered beyond recognition, the natural world as we know it today irreparably diminished.

We have some folks from EDF down at the carbon cap bill hearing today.  Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/EnvDefenseFund to keep up with the good, the bad, and the ugly!

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.

Friday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson officially determined that global warming pollution "endangers" the nation's human health and well-being.

The "endangerment finding," as we enviros call it, was required by the Supreme Court during Massachusetts v. EPA, a landmark victory that rejected the Bush EPA's laundry list of reasons not to address global warming pollution under the federal Clean Air Act.

Since that victory in April of 2007, we have been waiting for the EPA to "determine" what scientists have known for years: that global warming pollution is a danger to America's health and well-being.

This EPA finding, coupled with the American Clean Energy and Security Act moving out of Chairman Henry Waxman's committee by Memorial Day, offers us a glimpse at the finish line.

While the determination does not establish national emission standards for the main culprits of carbon pollution, the EPA will begin developing these standards while it finalizes the "endangerment" determination.

See our overview of the case for more about the twists and turns on the road to this determination.

Marc Gunther was kind enough to write a post on his blog about our latest campaign for a carbon cap.  Unfortunately, he also called the green jobs debate "intellectually dishonest."  Below, Environmental Defense Fund's Executive Director, David Yarnold, replies.

Marc,

Glad to see more attention to this issue as Congress gears up for its historic effort to pass a cap on carbon emissions. Opponents are hard at work to limit public debate to one side of the ledger; we’re shining the light on the other.

What we’re not doing is predicting the number of jobs a cap will create. Better yet, we’re showing the jobs that are here right now. We’re showing the people that want them, and businesses that are ready to create more of them when Congress caps carbon. You can see them for yourself at www.lesscarbonmorejobs.com

One of the thousands of companies you will find there is Dowding Machining, which is putting hundreds of laid-off autoworkers back to work building wind turbines in Michigan — the state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Mayor John Fetterman, featured in our ads, wants to do the same thing for steelworkers in Braddock, Pa.

How many jobs will we create? It's up to us as a nation. Will we take the lead, revitalizing existing manufacturing industries and creating new ones? Or will we settle for the status quo, see our factories shuttered, and end up importing the low-carbon technologies of the future from China and Europe?

For years, the U.S. was the worlds leading producer of solar cells, but now we rank fifth in production behind Japan, China, Germany and Taiwan. They’re not the sunniest of places; they’ve just made renewable energy a priority.

What will the costs be? The transition to clean energy will not be free – but every credible economic analysis shows that our economy will enjoy robust growth under a carbon cap. And contrary to opponents who spent a decade trying to muddy the science on climate change (and having failed that are now trying to muddy the economics), household costs will be small – about a dime a day for household utility bills, based on Department of Energy estimates. That dime buys a lot: cleaner air, good jobs, less foreign oil, and a safe climate.

In an op-ed for the Miami Herald, EDF's executive director, David Yarnold, tells this story:

A small town in Ohio has such a high unemployment rate that almost 700 people lined up to apply for one job opening,  for a school janitor. Just down the road is a renewable energy company that's poised to grow and add jobs as soon as we put a cap on carbon pollution.

As David put it:

You'll hear opponents of climate change legislation talk about the "burden" that capping carbon will place on our economy. However, they won't talk about the burden that 10-percent-plus unemployment puts on our communities, or the burden that standing on line with 700 other job applicants puts on individuals. Clinging to the status quo won't get us out of this recession.

A new energy economy is our best chance for a better future, and we can't afford not to take this opportunity.

See the whole column.

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.