Time to fight for a strong clean energy bill

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This is an action-packed week for the clean energy bill, now known as H.R. 2454 [2]. 1Sky is fighting to make this bill as strong as possible and we need your help. We hope that everyone who cares about a clean energy future will pick up the phone and keep the pressure on [3].

The Markey-Waxman bill [4] now has a bill number, 932 pages, and a big promise, “to create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy.”

We need your calls, your faxes, your voice and your friends to help keep this bill going. The bill is being marked up by the members of the Energy and Commerce Committee this week. The committee is expected to finish its work and send the bill to the next legislative step -- the floor of the House of Representatives -- before the Memorial Day weekend.

We need to keep the pressure on because we know the opposition from Big Oil, Dirty Coal, and other polluting special interests will continue to work to weaken the bill. And they come with big piles of political contributions [5]. So your calls are all we have to counteract the dirty fuel industries efforts to buy Congress and steal our deal. These interests are lobbying furiously to keep business as usual: high profits for them, a dangerously polluted atmosphere and a dead-end economy for us. We want you to ask your friends to join us and urge your representatives to stand with President Obama to do what’s in the public’s interest, not the big polluters’ interests. Already today in the committee’s mark up, the bill’s opponents have used every trick in the book against any initiative that might dent their profits.

1Sky and our allies [6] have watched this bill evolve over the last six weeks with great anticipation for what it could it become: a meaningful and important piece of legislation moves America towards a clean energy economy and responsibly tackle the threat of global warming pollution. President Obama's vision for a clean energy economy will create millions of jobs, jumpstart our economy, and keep America competitive in the 21st century. This bill could meet its historic potential, but only if we unite and speak up [3].