IPLog

How You Can Help Pass a Clean Energy and Climate Bill in the Senate

At local town hall meetings around the country, opponents of climate and energy legislation are turning out in force along with  opponents of health care reform in an orchestrated strategy to shout down congressmembers and intimidate them.

As senators head home for the August recess, we must step up our efforts to demonstrate faith community concern for this issue.

Here is what you can do to help push for climate legislation:

1. You can find more information about an upcoming town hall meeting near you by clicking on one of the orange markers on this map. Or download the spreadsheet) Please attend an event near you, and peacefully display your support, as a person of faith, for a clean energy and climate bill. While we certainly do not want to imitate their angry mob tactics, it’s important that our senators hear a more accurate portrayal of public opinion at the meetings.
2. Visit our Action Center and send a letter to your senator saying that as a person of clean faith you support:

• increasing our competitiveness in a global clean-energy market that could reach nearly $2 trillion in the next decade.
• creating millions of new American jobs
• protecting God’s Creation for future generations
• protecting the most vulnerable members of our society from catastrophic climate change

Call Your Representative Today to Support ACES

UPDATE (6-26): The bill passed! It was very close. Thanks to everyone who took action!

The American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) will head to the House floor for a vote by the end of the week. This bill brings us close to the clean energy revolution that we have been working and praying for, but we still need your help to push this legislation through! Call your representative today to express your support for this bill. Here’s how:

1. If you do not know who your representative is, click here and enter your zip code in the top left corner of the page.
   
2. Call the Congressional Switchboard and ask to be connected to your representative: (202) 224-3121
3. Ask your representative to support HR 2454. What you can say:

Please pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, HR 2454. I am calling as a person of faith (and/or as a member of ___________ congregation in _______). This bill will help launch a clean energy future and avert the worst impacts of climate change.

Your Congressional representatives have been inundated by calls and letters from the opposition. Please take a few moments today to call your representative and tell him or her that global warming is a moral issue people of faith care deeply about.

Baptists Sign Letter Supporting ACES

The Baptist Center for Ethics gathered 140 signatures from Baptist leaders across the country in support of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The letter urges Congress to strengthen and pass the bill.

The letter states:

We understand that this bill is a comprehensive one that promises to create millions of clean energy jobs, to advance American security from foreign oil, to protect the planet by capping global-warming gases, to increase electricity from renewable energy sources and to improve energy efficiency.

What they want to strengthen:

We wish the bill provided more funding to help the marginalized and those most at risk — those least responsible for climate change.

Nonetheless, an imperfect bill will not keep us from speaking up and encouraging our fellow church members to support this legislation. We are determined that the tyranny of moral perfectionism will not block the urgency of moral realism.

IPL shares their view of the bill, and we invite you to take action if you haven’t, urging your congressperson to pass this important legislation.

Have You Urged Your Congressional Representative to Pass ACES Yet?

UPDATE (6-26): The bill passed! It was very close. Thanks to everyone who took action!

Earlier this week we sent out an action alert asking people of faith to urge their representatives in Congress to strengthen and pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act (Download IPL’s Fact Sheet on ACES), which is making its way to the House floor after a trip to the Ag Committee. Here is what the alert said and how you can take a minute to send a message to your representative. If you haven’t signed up for our action alerts, you can sign up here. more »

Another Big Step Toward Climate Protection

The American Climate and Energy Security Act

H.R. 2454

This bill, introduced May 15 by Congressmen Waxman and Markey, builds upon the discussion draft circulated in March.  Though the bill’s major components are the same, Waxman and Markey made important additions and changes, which are outlined below.  The bill is currently being “marked up” in the Energy and Commerce Committee. Chairman Waxman has pledged to pass this landmark legislation through his committee by more »