Jeff Rickert
February 26, 2007
Jeff Rickert is vice president of the Apollo Alliance, a broad coalition of labor unions, major national environmental organizations, businesses and community organizations that is pursuing a crash program for clean energy.
There has been no better moment than the one before us now to achieve energy independence for America. After years of struggle to build a bipartisan consensus on solutions to the nation’s energy crisis, a new, Democratic majority Congress has both a mandate for change and the political foundation to implement a solution that matches the enormity of the problem. What Congress now needs is a blueprint, and some lawmakers will find that blueprint right in their own states.
For years now, states and cities across the country have been innovating on policies that promote clean energy and create good jobs. Their leadership serves as a guide for bold federal action that can transform the nation—making us safer, revitalizing the economy and stemming the effects of global warming.
State and city leaders from across the country began gathering Sunday at the Apollo Summit in Washington, seeking to capitalize on the political opportunity to translate the successes already achieved in states and cities into a national crusade. The summit is meeting at the same time as the National Governors Association and has brought together people from labor, the environmental movement, business and community organizations.
Among the attendees are people already building the economy of the future. Their projects include the Gamesa wind factories in Pennsylvania, the Imperium biodiesel plant in Washington state and downtown redevelopment projects in the New Jersey cities of Newark and Trenton that are built green, built union and creating good jobs for local residents.
Leaders from organizations as diverse as the Natural Resources Defense Council, a longtime fighter in the environmental movement, and Set America Free, which has on its board former CIA director R. James Woolsey and Christian right activist Gary Bauer, have been building consensus around ways to diversify our fuel sources and bring efficient technologies to consumers. The groups are working to help revitalize the American auto industry as it struggles with a new energy reality. The 25 x ’25 coalition, which seeks to ensure that, by 2025, 25 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States come from America's farms, forests and ranches, has brought together allies from across the political spectrum to provide new opportunity to America’s farmers. The Apollo Alliance has worked with labor unions like the United Steelworkers and environmentalists like the Sierra Club to create new jobs in industrialized states and American cities.
In the Northwest, Washington and Oregon have led the way in energy endeavors from green buildings to renewable fuels. Governors Bill Richardson in New Mexico, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and new Colorado governor Bill Ritter, have worked to build a consensus blueprint through the Western Governors Association. Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana has made clean energy the cornerstone of his administration. Midwestern governors in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois have made biofuels and advanced automobiles the bedrock of their strategies. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has created a vibrant renewable industry in his state that is already stimulating manufacturing growth. The Northeast is poised to lead the way in facing the climate challenge, especially with new governors like Eliot Spitzer in New York and Deval Patrick in Massachusetts who have made clean, renewable energy a crucial part of their vision for the future.
City-based organizations like AGENDA in Los Angeles, Urban Agenda in New York City and the Ella Baker Center in Oakland have brought the strength of communities to bear on the problem, calling on their cities to serve as models for the nation, demonstrating how good jobs and a good environment go hand-in-hand.
Congress and the White House have an obligation to incorporate these efforts into a national program of a scale that is adequate to meet the greatest and most urgent challenge of our time. It is clear that our dependence on foreign oil has made us weaker as a nation, and it is indisputable scientific fact that global warming caused by fossil fuel burning is putting the entire planet in peril. Just this past Friday, oil prices shot up to over $61 a barrel, and retail gasoline prices are responding in kind, hurting already beleaguered working-class pocketbooks.
Nothing less than a crash program for energy independence will lead this nation out of economic and political danger. It will have to be a program that sets firm goals and urgent deadlines. It will have to provide the tools to help us reach those goals. It will require us to stretch our imagination. It must also assure a broadly shared prosperity by delivering good jobs to working families wherever they are needed, whether in the urban core, the industrial heartland or in rural communities.
Thousands of Americans have started the work on this program. This Congress has signaled that it is ready to join in. Our national leaders need only look to the nation to find the answers they need, and provide the people on the cutting edge of this effort the support they deserve.
February 26, 2007
Jeff Rickert is vice president of the Apollo Alliance, a broad coalition of labor unions, major national environmental organizations, businesses and community organizations that is pursuing a crash program for clean energy.
There has been no better moment than the one before us now to achieve energy independence for America. After years of struggle to build a bipartisan consensus on solutions to the nation’s energy crisis, a new, Democratic majority Congress has both a mandate for change and the political foundation to implement a solution that matches the enormity of the problem. What Congress now needs is a blueprint, and some lawmakers will find that blueprint right in their own states.
For years now, states and cities across the country have been innovating on policies that promote clean energy and create good jobs. Their leadership serves as a guide for bold federal action that can transform the nation—making us safer, revitalizing the economy and stemming the effects of global warming.
State and city leaders from across the country began gathering Sunday at the Apollo Summit in Washington, seeking to capitalize on the political opportunity to translate the successes already achieved in states and cities into a national crusade. The summit is meeting at the same time as the National Governors Association and has brought together people from labor, the environmental movement, business and community organizations.
Among the attendees are people already building the economy of the future. Their projects include the Gamesa wind factories in Pennsylvania, the Imperium biodiesel plant in Washington state and downtown redevelopment projects in the New Jersey cities of Newark and Trenton that are built green, built union and creating good jobs for local residents.
Leaders from organizations as diverse as the Natural Resources Defense Council, a longtime fighter in the environmental movement, and Set America Free, which has on its board former CIA director R. James Woolsey and Christian right activist Gary Bauer, have been building consensus around ways to diversify our fuel sources and bring efficient technologies to consumers. The groups are working to help revitalize the American auto industry as it struggles with a new energy reality. The 25 x ’25 coalition, which seeks to ensure that, by 2025, 25 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States come from America's farms, forests and ranches, has brought together allies from across the political spectrum to provide new opportunity to America’s farmers. The Apollo Alliance has worked with labor unions like the United Steelworkers and environmentalists like the Sierra Club to create new jobs in industrialized states and American cities.
In the Northwest, Washington and Oregon have led the way in energy endeavors from green buildings to renewable fuels. Governors Bill Richardson in New Mexico, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and new Colorado governor Bill Ritter, have worked to build a consensus blueprint through the Western Governors Association. Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana has made clean energy the cornerstone of his administration. Midwestern governors in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois have made biofuels and advanced automobiles the bedrock of their strategies. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has created a vibrant renewable industry in his state that is already stimulating manufacturing growth. The Northeast is poised to lead the way in facing the climate challenge, especially with new governors like Eliot Spitzer in New York and Deval Patrick in Massachusetts who have made clean, renewable energy a crucial part of their vision for the future.
City-based organizations like AGENDA in Los Angeles, Urban Agenda in New York City and the Ella Baker Center in Oakland have brought the strength of communities to bear on the problem, calling on their cities to serve as models for the nation, demonstrating how good jobs and a good environment go hand-in-hand.
Congress and the White House have an obligation to incorporate these efforts into a national program of a scale that is adequate to meet the greatest and most urgent challenge of our time. It is clear that our dependence on foreign oil has made us weaker as a nation, and it is indisputable scientific fact that global warming caused by fossil fuel burning is putting the entire planet in peril. Just this past Friday, oil prices shot up to over $61 a barrel, and retail gasoline prices are responding in kind, hurting already beleaguered working-class pocketbooks.
Nothing less than a crash program for energy independence will lead this nation out of economic and political danger. It will have to be a program that sets firm goals and urgent deadlines. It will have to provide the tools to help us reach those goals. It will require us to stretch our imagination. It must also assure a broadly shared prosperity by delivering good jobs to working families wherever they are needed, whether in the urban core, the industrial heartland or in rural communities.
Thousands of Americans have started the work on this program. This Congress has signaled that it is ready to join in. Our national leaders need only look to the nation to find the answers they need, and provide the people on the cutting edge of this effort the support they deserve.
1 comment:
What you propose will cost a
ton of money most of which will end
up in the pockets of big business. I
agree we must do something but the answer lies with the sacrifice of
everyone including the wealthy. Using
less energy in the form of energy
efficient homes and transportation is
one way. Renewables are a small part of the answer but if all do
not participate it won't do much
good.
You are headed in the right
direction with getting more people
involved.
Thank You
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