American Clean Energy Now sends lobbyists to Washington

July 22,2010

Recognized for his work in initiating projects to upgrade the energy efficiency of Sanbornton's municipal buildings and all 6 of Winnisquam Regional School district's school buildings, including the construction of a biomasss heat plant at the High School /Middle School campus, Ian Raymond, Chairman of the Energy Committee of Sanbornton, was recently asked by JIm Rubens from the Union Of Concerned Scientists to join a delegation of 240 grassroots activists from 20 states, who were sent to Washington D.C. to lobby the Senate, urging them to pass the American Power Act.

The American Power Act is a bill drafted by Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham, although Graham later pulled his support for the legislation. This comprehensive energy bill gave the Senators a choice between standing with Big Oil or siding with the American People who want a clean energy future and energy independence for America.

Americans currently consume 25% of the world's oil, yet we only have access to 2% of the world's oil reserves. This forces us to spend $1 billion per day buying oil from foreign countries, many of whom are hostile to U.S. interests.

At a televised town hall meeting which took place in the Senate Caucus room, Lt. General Norman Seip informed the audience that "this is the first time in U. S. history, since the Civil War, that America has funded both sides of the battle." He also mentioned that it is oil money, not opium that is the number one funding source for the Taliban and Al Qaeda. There was also discussion that our wars in the middle east would not reach a successful conclusion as long as we are dependent on foreign oil.

In New Hampshire we currently spend $5 million per day on foreign oil imports. During these difficult economic times, why are we draining $5 million per day from New Hampshire's economy ( $1 billion per day from the national economy)? This money could be put to better use creating jobs here at home instead of sponsoring terrorist nations.

This legislation would create approximately 1.9 million new jobs, and could make us the world leader in the manufacture of renewable energy systems such as wind, biomass and solar. It would also provide funds for education and job training in these fields; and fund energy efficiency retrofits in homes, creating new jobs in the construction trades. Currently, China is investing ($95 million per day) almost twice as much as the United States in clean energy. They now produce 50% of all photovoltaic solar panels, 90% of all solar thermal panels, and are also the largest producer of wind turbines in the world. Our failure to lead in this clean energy revolution is costing Americans jobs.

"This trip was an incredible adventure" said Raymond. "I met some wonderful people all of whom are very passionate about these issues. One of the biggest surprises to me was that all of us were coming at these issues from a different perspecive--with different reasons for why we wanted to see this legislation pass. There was no redundancy. Each of us gave very compelling arguments, any one of which was reason enough to pass this bill; but the stories of all 12 of the participants combined created a very cohesive overview of how climate change and energy issues are affecting life in New Hampshire, and around the country."

Because New Hampshire is a tourist state, our economy is tightly connected to our environment. Some of the affects we are beginning to see due to climate change and fossil fuel pollution here in NH, are: damage to wildlife, forest health, lake water quality, air quality, loss of species such as brook trout and salmon, diminishing production in the Maple syrup industry, high mercury content in all of N.H.'s fresh water fish, shortened ski seasons causing ski resorts to become more financially unviable, increasing rates of asthma, degradation of fall foliage coloration, damage to ocean and other waterfront properties, increases in severe weather episodes creating droughts, floods, and other damages, and shorter winter ice coverage on our lakes and ponds affecting ice fishing and snowmobile activity. Climate change is affecting New Hampshire's quality of life-- all the things which make New Hampshire a desirable place to work, live, and play. And all of which help to support New Hampshire''s economy.

In addition to the ill effects that fossil fuels have on the environment under normal circumstances, add to that the catastrophic environmental effects of accidents in the oil, coal, and natural gas industries. Within the last two months we have had oil spills occur in Alaska, Michigan, Utah, Dalian China, and the Gulf of Mexico, totaling over 150,000,000 gallons of oil polluting our water. With coal there have been mining disasters including the explosion that killed 29 miners in West Virginia, there is the hugely destructive mountain top removal mining which is poisoning ground water, and there is the eastern Tenessee coal ash spill, which in 2008 contaminated the Tenessee River with over 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge. There are 44 other coal ash sites deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency to be high hazard, but their locations cannot be revealed to the general public because of Homeland Security issues. The natural gas industry has had 3 explosions at drilling sites in June--one in West Virginia, one in Pennsylvania, and one in Texas. There is also ground water pollution from "fracking" the shale with unknown (proprietary) chemicals, in order to extract the natural gas. The environmental cost of these fossil fuels is already too high, and as supplies diminish, even more risky drilling and mining will take place to extract the remaining resources.

Raymond landed in Manchester late Thursday night to learn that because obstuctionists in the Senate had threatened to filibuster the bill, and there were not enough votes to prevent a filibuster, the bill was killed.

Senator Reid is working on putting together a new bill that, while it may be successful in getting votes, has been watered down to the point that it cannot accurately be called a climate or energy bill, and if the Senate promotes it as such, they are scamming the American public. We must demand better.

"I, however, am not going to give up," said Raymond. "It's not a matter of "if" climate change and energy legislation will pass, but "when" it will pass. We are living in a world with over 6 billion people. By 2050 it will have over 9 billion people. China and India are quickly growing and adopting our energy consuming lifestyles. If everyone on earth lived the quality of life that we Americans live, we would need more than 4 Earths to support us. What we are doing is not sustainable."

"During the week we were there, the American Petroleum Institute spent millions of dollars lobbying against this bill. We had 240 participants lobbying in favor of this legislation--Big Oil and Coal had over 2000 lobbying against it. It appears that many of our Senators choose to be in the pockets of the oil and coal industries instead of representing the American people. This behavior by these Senators will condemn us to a future of bouncing from crisis to catastrophe (economic, environmental, and military). We must convince them to side with the American People and not with the monied interests of dirty energy!"

"The Clean Energy Train is leaving the station, but unfortunately because some of our Senators continue to display a lack of vision, leadership, and political will, it appears that the federal government will not be the engine that drives this train, but will instead be the caboose that our grassroots efforts will drag behind us. Several regions throughout the country are initiating their own "Cap & Trade" programs, such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) here in the Northeast, but without national legislation, these policies vary from region to region, giving no consistent regulations and no clear market signal to which the energy sector can respond."

Call your Senators and Congressmen today and tell them to pass comprehensive clean energy legislation that promotes renewable energy, energy conservation, job creation, national security, and energy independence; and a bill that makes polluters pay-- rather than our children, who will be dealing with the mess the oil, coal, and nuclear industries leave behind.

Gregg, Judd - (R - NH) Class III
201 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3324
Web Form: http://gregg.senate.gov/contact/

Shaheen, Jeanne - (D - NH) Class II
520 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2841
Web Form:http://shaheen.senate.gov/contact/

Representative Carol Shea-Porter (D - 01) (tel.)202-225-5456 (fax)202-225-5822 http://forms.house.gov/shea-porter/webform/issue_subscribe.htm

Representative Paul Hodes, II (D - 02) (tel.)202-225-5206 (fax)202-225-2946 http://hodes.house.gov/contact.aspx

Clean Energy Works Town Hall Meeting video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/consequence09#p/u/9/uz4bBwj3D2c

Nashua Telegraph story of the event:

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/802114-196/nh-group-backs-clean-energy-plan.html

Laconia Citizen story of the event:

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100725/GJBUSINESS_01/707259985/-1/FOSNEWS

NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28friedman.html

Sacramento Bee

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/22/2906431/stubborn-gop-stalls-meaningful.html

and others:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/22/98007/climate-and-energy-bill-delayed.html

http://unearthed.earthjustice.org/blog/2010-july/fresh-perspective-state-climate-change-legislation