72 Hours for American Power: Demand Clean Energy Action Now

 This is a critical week in our nation’s fight to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, and Missourians must demand swift and bold action from our elected representatives.

Last summer, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which was admirable for its establishment of an economy-wide cap on carbon dioxide emissions and provisions for job creation across the manufacturing, transportation, research and development, and weatherization sectors. 

Finally, eight months later, the Senate is within a stone’s throw of its own bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has ramped up the urgency for Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT)-- the trifecta who have steered the construction of the bill thus far-- and Senator Kerry has stated that they plan to introduce a bill in the Senate within the next two weeks. While the bill is not perfect, it is the first step in transitioning our country away from dirty forms of energy like coal, oil, and natural gas and toward renewable forms of energy like wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass. 

For the environmental community, this legislation can not come soon enough, and here in Missouri, we stand to greatly benefit from comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. 

Economically, the US Department of Energy ranked Missouri as one of the top 10 states to benefit from the use and manufacturing of alternative energy technology, and a report for the Political Economy Research Institute found that comprehensive legislation would create 36,000 jobs in our state by 2020. Moreover, it would boost our annual household income by an estimated $670 per year through job and industry growth, sand save households an average of $6.32 per month on their electricity bill through increased efficiency and the decreasing costs of renewable energy. 

In terms of our public health, Missouri’s reliance on coal threatens the health of ourselves and our children, increasing the rates and prevalence of childhood asthma, heart disease, and autism. Approximately 111,000 children in Missouri suffer from chronic asthma, and last year, St. Louis was named the number one worst place to live with asthma, based on overall prevalence, crude death rates, and its abysmal air quality.

Even when we consider those two factors alone -- and do not address national security concerns related to our reliance on foreign oil, the serious implications that climate change (more extreme and frequent droughts and floods, heat waves and cold snaps) will have on farmers across the state or our own moral imperative to protect the planet for future generations -- it simply makes sense to support clean energy and climate legislation. 

Although Senator McCaskill has supported clean energy initiatives in the past, she has sat on the fence through much of this current legislative debate, worried that her support of any initiative that regulates the fossil fuel industry will have adverse economic impacts on our coal-dependent state. She has not heard enough from her constituents who recognize that this “common sense” approach to energy policy is the right decision for our economy, our health, and the future of our state. 

Tomorrow, environmental, faith, labor, business, veteran and community groups across the country will participate in a “72-Hours for American Power” push for phone calls into key legislators offices, demonstrating broad popular support for comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. We must let Senator McCaskill hear, loud and clear, that this widespread support exists right here in Missouri.