sustaiNYC

From our friends at Greenpeace.  Worth checking out the letter (below the fold) and signing it and sending it.  This is pretty important big picture climate stuff, and the moment is now:

Because SustaiNYC signed the National Call to Action on Global Warming, I also wanted to see if you could take a moment today to send the attached letter to ask Congress for leadership on climate.

Here is the deal:
The climate crisis is our generation’s greatest challenge, and like the generations that came before us, we have a choice to make.  We could stand idly by — while big industry polluters destroy our planet.  Or, we can pass on a world with cheap, limitless renewable energy and a safe climate.  Americans have faced challenges like this before, and stood up for whats right.  We really need Congress to pass a strong, science-based climate bill this year - and that’s why Greenpeace is working alongside citizens across the country to encourage our leaders to do everything they can.

Here in New York City, we are lucky to have many Representatives who have shown they care about the environment.  However, this is a critical time for them to stand up as leaders and champions to push for the strongest solutions to the climate crisis, while ensuring that polluters pay and the public benefits.  There is currently a draft version of  a bill,“The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” which is a great first step in the right direction, but the bill must be strengthened to ensure that it will achieve the goals of transitioning to a clean energy economy and solving global warming.  The draft is currently in the Energy and Commerce Committee, where it will be “marked up” and edited any day now.  We want to make sure that NYC’s Reps who are on this committee are hearing some things about this bill, namely its highlights, but also what can be improved.  We want them to hear  from community groups, religious groups, and environmental groups in their districts and in New York City, calling on them to not only care, but to lead on and fight for the strongest solutions to the climate crisis.  Other groups will surely be fighting to weaken the bill, so we need to be fighting even harder to strengthen it.

Please review the attached letter and send New York City’s Energy and Commerce Committee members:

Rep. Eliot Engel
2161 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2464

Rep. Anthony Weiner
2104 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6616

Click here to download a Word version of the letter:  Climate Champs

Dear Representative X,

On behalf of X GROUP, I want to thank you for your leadership toward a clean energy future and a safe climate.  We are very concerned about global warming and want to see Congress pass a strong bill that is based in science this year.

The draft version of “The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009” is a good first step in the right direction, but the bill must be strengthened to ensure that it will achieve the goals of transitioning to a clean energy economy and solving global warming.

As a leader on this issue, we are asking you to advocate for and insist upon key provisions that should be included in the bill.  We also ask you to work to remove provisions that weaken the bill’s effectiveness.

Among the bill’s highlights:

- Science-based global warming pollution reduction targets. The UN IPCC finds that, to limit warming to 2 degrees, developed nations must achieve emissions cuts of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80-95 percent by 2050. The bill represents the first legislative effort ever that embraces these science-based emissions reductions goals, though loopholes included in the bill raise doubts about its ability to achieve them.

-   Renewable electricity standard requiring 25 percent of electricity be generated from clean sources by 2025. Such a ramp-up of renewable energy is a prerequisite to meeting science-based emissions reductions while reaping the full economic benefits of clean energy.

-    A broad program of energy efficiency standards and investments. The bill recognizes that energy efficiency is the fastest, most effective way to spark economic growth and achieve pollution reductions. The bill would achieve efficiency improvements across the transportation sector while dramatically improving the efficiency of homes and businesses across the country.

-    The bill sets aside robust funding to stop international deforestation, which is responsible for 20 percent of global carbon emissions.
-    Cap on emissions of F-gases. These pollutants, with global warming potential hundreds to thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide, can be and must be replaced with safer alternatives. The bill would be an important step towards a phase-out of these dangerous global warming pollutants.

Key short-comings that must be addressed include:

-   Two billion tons of pollution offsets, a virtually unlimited amount equal to a quarter of all U.S. emissions. If all the offsets in the bill were used, the bill’s emissions reductions could be met without any reduction in fossil fuel emissions for more than 20 years. We cannot solve global warming by simply planting trees and continuing to pollute forever.

-   The coal industry receives untold billions of dollars in handouts for the false promise of carbon capture and sequestration, with American ratepayers and taxpayers footing the bill.

Finally, the discussion draft is largely silent on how auction revenue from the cap will be used. We urge the committee to dedicate this revenue to the short-term up-front investments needed to transition to a clean energy economy, including investments in clean energy development domestically and in the developing world as well as adaptation efforts for countries and communities most directly affected by climate change.

The United Nations will meet this December in Copenhagen to create a new global agreement on climate change.  To make those negotiations successful, the US will need to have policies at home that invest heavily in renewable energy and put strict, science-based limits on pollution with no loopholes or polluter giveaways.

The future of our climate depends on the decisions of leaders like you.  Thank you for your continued work on this issue.

Sincerely,

NAME
ORGANIZATION

Tags: Anthony Weiner, climate, Climate Change, Congress, Eliot Engel, House of Representatives, Politics