What the Sierra Club, the American Corn Growers and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Agree On

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The following is a letter mailed to President Obama today by 54 environmental organizations.

Representing 54 national organizations and millions of Americans, we write to urge you to continue to demonstrate your leadership in support of strong clean energy and climate change legislation this year. Just yesterday, you reiterated your call for comprehensive energy and climate legislation. Now, more than ever, we need your help to make that vision a reality.

This must be the year that the United States passes comprehensive climate and energy legislation into law in order to create jobs, strengthen our national security, and reduce carbon pollution. As a nation, we cannot afford to delay action any longer; we urge you to work closely with Senate leaders to ensure the full Senate takes up a comprehensive energy and climate bill in June.

Special interests have fought energy reform for decades. They have kept America dependent on foreign oil and protected corporations that pollute the air our children breathe and the water they drink. It is long past time to end our reliance on old technology and dirty energy sources and put America back in control of its energy future. Every day that goes by without a comprehensive clean energy and climate policy helps our enemies, hurts our economy, and puts our security at risk.

Without a bipartisan, comprehensive national clean energy and climate policy, America’s businesses are hamstrung and cannot make the investments that will create millions of jobs in the new clean energy sector. Without a comprehensive policy, we cannot achieve the reductions in carbon pollution that are necessary to protect the planet. Without a comprehensive policy, we cannot end the practice of exporting $1 billion a day for foreign oil and will remain at the whim of hostile regimes.

The United States now stands at a critical moment in history at which the decisions made today will have a lasting impact on generations to come. Our leaders face a choice between moving America forward to a new clean energy economy or preserving the failed energy policies of the past. Mr. President, we collectively have a profound responsibility to future generations of Americans to enhance our economic, environmental, and national security. Now is the time to pass a strong comprehensive clean energy and climate bill. America needs your unwavering leadership at this moment to ensure that we achieve this goal yet this year.

Signed,

• Gillian Caldwell, Campaign Director
  1 Sky
• Maggie Fox, President and CEO
  Alliance for Climate Protection Action Fund
• Pamela S. Horwitz, Executive Director
  American Corn Growers
• Rebecca Wodder, President
  American Rivers
• Eric Sapp, Executive Director
  American Values Network
• Chris Van Atten, Executive Director
  American Businesses for Clean Energy
• Jerome Ringo, Board of Directors
  Apollo Alliance
• Dave Foster, Executive Director
  Blue Green Alliance
• John D. Podesta, President and CEO
  Center for American Progress Action Fund
• Daniel Magraw, President
  Center for International Environmental Law
• Mindy S. Lubber, President
  Ceres
• Mike Tidwell, Director
  Chesapeake Climate Action Network
• Jeff Anderson, Executive Director
  Clean Economy Network
• John DeCock, President
  Clean Water Action
• Gregg Small, Executive Director
  Climate Solutions
• Representative Jeremy Kalin, Chair
  Coalition of Legislators for Clean Energy Action Now (CLEAN)
• Sybil Sanchez, Director
  Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)
• Peter Seligmann, CEO and Chairman of the Board
  Conservation International
• John Kassel, President
  Conservation Law Foundation
• Rodger Schlickeisen, President & CEO
  Defenders of Wildlife
• Trip Van Noppen, President
  Earthjustice
• Margie Alt, Executive Director
  Environment America
• Daniel L. Sosland, Executive Director
  ENE (Environment Northeast)
• Fred Krupp, President
  Environmental Defense Fund
• Howard A. Learner, President
  Environmental Law & Policy Center
• Michael Noble, Executive Director
  Fresh Energy
• Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO
  Green For All
• Rev. Canon Sally G. Bingham, President
  Interfaith Power and Light
• Newton B. Jones, International President
  International Brotherhood of Boilermakers
• David Hoskins, Executive Director
  Izaak Walton League of America
• Gene Karpinski, President
  League of Conservation Voters
• Mary G. Wilson, President
  League of Women Voters of the United States
• Sr. Leanne M. Jablonski FMI PhD, Director
  Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC)
• Frank Gill, President
  National Audubon Society
• James Ennis, Executive Director
  National Catholic Rural Life Conference
• Thomas C. Kiernan, President
  National Parks Conservation Association
• Larry Schweiger, President and CEO
  National Wildlife Federation
• Frances Beinecke, President
  Natural Resources Defense Council
• Andrew Sharpless, CEO
  Oceana Inc.
• Jonathan Murray, Campaign Manager
  Operation Free
• Joshua Reichert, Managing Director
  Pew Environment Group
• Keith Laughlin, President
  Rails to Trails
• Rob Sisson, President
  Republicans for Environmental Protection
• Peter Illyn, Executive Director
  Restoring Eden
• Heather Smith, Executive Director
  Rock the Vote
• Anthony D. Cortese, ScD, President
  Second Nature, Inc.
• Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director
  The Shalom Center
• Michael Brune, Executive Director
  Sierra Club
• Sujatha Jahagirdar, Political Director
  Student PIRGs
• Will Rogers, President
  The Trust for Public Land
• Kevin Knobloch, President
  Union of Concerned Scientists
• Rev. Peter Morales, President
  Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
• Peter Granato, Vice Chairman
  VoteVets.org
• Carter Roberts, President and CEO
  World Wildlife Fund

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