It’s Clean Energy Week in Washington! The National Wildlife Federation is one of more than 100 businesses & organizations partnering on the week.

The organizers of Clean Energy Week assert that comprehensive clean energy policy will create good American jobs while making America a world leader in clean, healthy and safe energy production. They point to an analysis from the University of California at Berkeley, which found that the clean energy legislation adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), could create up to 1.9 million jobs between its enactment and 2020.

In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that ACES would reduce CO2 emissions by 1 billion metric tons in 2020 alone, the equivalent to taking 200 million cars off the road for one year.

Why is a wildlife organization so passionate about clean energy? Because we here at NWF know that if we don’t reduce our carbon pollution now, global warming will have a devastating effect on a range of American wildlife species & wild places.

Hope springs eternal, but the idea of waiting to “spring” for Senate action doesn’t fill me with hope. In 2010, the Senate will convene in January, not March. The Senate’s unfinished business on clean energy and climate should be on deck as the Senate’s highest priority after health care. Speaker Pelosi and the House worked impressively already this year to pass a clean energy jobs bill that puts America on a leadership pathway for reducing pollution and tackling climate change. When health care is done, the Senate needs to turn to the energy reform and climate package that Majority Leader Reid has put in motion. As we head into 2010, President Obama should make clear that delivering the clean energy jobs & climate bill to his desk is his top priority for unfinished business.

In the meantime, President Obama will send a team to the climate negotiations in Copenhagen. He has been an impressive leader on climate change in his first year — from tailpipe standards to a promising new dialogue with China. But Copenhagen and the coming months will be the pivotal test of whether he can break through the politics of inaction and the millions of dollars spent by oil companies and their allies to block progress. It is unlikely that the President will close the final deal on a new global agreement in December. More likely, he will prepare the way with an interim deal and ask the world to wait on Congress for the final package. If so, it will take a vigorous White House determination to move advance the bipartisan efforts being led by Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman to the front of the line.

Americans have had enough delay. We can’t afford to wait and let clean energy jobs go to other countries ready to invest in clean energy. We can’t wait to break our addiction to oil. We can’t wait to take the responsible steps necessary to protect people and wildlife from a warming world.

“Energy and climate-change legislation winding through Congress might make economic sense even if you don’t believe for a second in climate change.”

The words of some treehugging liberal? Not exactly. They’re from Keith Johnson reporting in the Wall Street Journal, one of the most conservative newspapers in America.

Johnson’s talking about a new report from the National Research Council called “Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use”:

America’s current energy mix carries a “hidden cost” of about $120 billion a year, the report found. And that number doesn’t include any tally for the cost of greenhouse-gas emissions or climate change—estimates for climate costs range from $1 to $100 a ton of carbon dioxide emissions, but are so variable the report didn’t quantify them. The figure also doesn’t include other hidden costs, such as the portion of the U.S. military expenditure needed to protect global oil production and transport.

The report concludes that for a fraction of that $120 billion figure, climate legislation like the House’s recently-passed American Clean Energy & Security Act could improve our energy efficiency, boost clean energy and cut our global warming pollution.

The Senate is set to consider similar legislation next month. Please take a moment to tell your Senators to support the Clean Energy Jobs Act. Once you do, tell your friends — both in person and online. We can make a real difference to protect our wallets — and our wildlife!

Photo via Flickr’s Heather Mladek

I’m going to Canada next week to see the environmental and social impacts of these fuels firsthand. I’ll be joined by several colleagues who share my concerns about these fuels.

State Dept. Pollution Pipeline Undermines Obama’s Climate Goals

NWF Memo to Editorial and Opinion Writers

The Washington Post and several Canadian news sources are reporting the U.S. State Department has approved the construction of a multibillion-dollar pipeline from Canadian oil sands to refineries in the United States. The State Department-approved Alberta pollution pipeline will not just move fuel, but it will move one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet — tar sands oil.

Turning tar sands into oil requires massive amounts of energy and results in as much as 3 times as much greenhouse gas emissions to produce as conventional oil, studies show. The full lifecycle emissions from the tar sands oil from this Alberta Pollution Pipeline (including production and tailpipe emissions) could be more than 3 billion tons of heat-trapping gases pumped into the atmosphere (yes, that is “Billion” with a “B,” not a typo) thru the year 2050.

Meanwhile, President Obama has called for the U.S. and other developed nations, including Canada, to cut emissions by more than 80% during this same time period. Building this pipeline while trying to shift to cleaner energy sources is like going on a diet while buying a lifetime supply of Twinkies.

A better solution for our oil dependency is for the Senate to act swiftly to pass a clean energy and climate bill such as the bill approved by the House in June. The bill creates incentives for homegrown renewable energy technologies like wind and solar and electric vehicles and will create millions of jobs in the process. According to recent analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the America Clean Energy and Security Act would reduce oil imports by 590,000 barrels per day by 2020 — more than we will get from this pipeline project, and as much oil as we currently import from Iraq. The American Clean Energy and Security Act will save $650 billion from being spent on foreign oil over the next 20 years. Among many oil saving measures, the American Clean Energy and Security Act includes a strong investment in battery technologies and a smarter grid that can help get renewable energy sources like solar and wind to our homes to charge up our automobiles with electricity.

The State Department’s position on greenhouse gases from the “Alberta Clipper” line: “The administration believes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are best addressed through each country’s robust domestic policies and a strong international agreement.” President Obama and the State Department deserve credit for actively pursuing this global agreement as well as domestic clean energy legislation. All the more reason to avoid locking in highly polluting energy infrastructure like this pipeline that will make little economic sense when we commit to homegrown renewable energy sources and put a price on carbon pollution.

The State Department decision threatens to get the Obama administration off course on its winning energy strategy to simultaneously deal with three inter-related opportunities at the same time: limit carbon pollution in order to promote clean energy and clean energy jobs, increase energy security, and protect our planet. To date, these efforts have gotten high marks from the public. A recent Zogby poll found that 71% of likely voters support the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

NWF urges you to write in favor of the President’s and Congress’ efforts to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and against this pipeline that undermines a cleaner energy future.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act recently passed by Congress combines a clean energy plan, an energy efficiency plan and a global warming plan that will set America on a path of global warming action, create millions of new clean energy jobs and enhance America’s energy independence.

National Wildlife Federation developed a Toolbox Assessment of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. This Toolbox is an excellent framework to track this legislation as it moves forward and keep America on track to create millions of clean energy jobs. Isn’t it time to get on with it?

Now one of those front groups, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), is taking offense to the accusations of “astroturfing” (paying to build fake grassroots support):

The fact is, we have more than 225,000 community leaders (including 30,000 local elected officials) who are a part of our America’s Power Citizen Army. These people volunteer their time to promote the message of affordable energy for Americans and the timely legislation that protects it. [...]

Want proof? Here are some posts inspired by the notes of our grassroots volunteers, talking to every day Americans who really do believe that we can bring new technologies to the marketplace to reduce emissions, and drive down the cost of deploying these technologies so as to protect access to affordable, reliable energy for American businesses and families.

Just one problem. The stories ACCCE goes on to cite as proof of its “grassroots volunteers” feature virtually all paid staffers — the very type of astroturfing ACCCE was claiming to refute.

Once again, a polluter front group proves it’s willing to do or say anything to stop clean energy. Tell the Senate we need action, not obstruction.

Photo via Flickr’s JulieTverni

Now Big Oil is rolling out a new tactic — trying to gin up artificial rallies:

Taking a cue from angry protests against the Obama Administration’s health care restructuring, the oil industry is helping organize anti-climate bill rallies around the nation.

The American Petroleum Institute, along with other organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers opposed to the climate legislation Congress will consider again in the fall, is funding rallies across 20 states over the August recess. [...]

“We’re not about yelling at your congressman,” says Cathy Landry, API spokeswoman. But, she added, “We are about giving citizens a voice to make changes to the bill so that it doesn’t affect energy prices.”

It’s a sad state of affairs when you have to deny that you support the hooliganism we’ve seen at recent town hall rallies across the country. But with 71 percent of Americans supporting the American Clean Energy & Security (ACES) Act, clearly Big Oil feels like it has to play dirty.

Many of you wrote letters and placed phone calls to your members of Congress in support of the American Clean Energy and Security Act to protect wildlife from global warming, create clean-energy jobs and improve the nation’s energy security. As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill on the eve of the 4th of July weekend. It was a close fight, and every letter and call counted.

While letters were pouring in from real voters like you who want a new energy future, a surprising number of calls and faxes were being sent to undecided lawmakers from phone numbers outside of their districts urging a vote against the bill. Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello received a letter that supposedly was sent from a local chapter of the NAACP, asking him to oppose the measure. On further investigation, Perriello discovered that this letter along with five others purportedly sent from different organizations were all forgeries. It was a fraud that corrupted the very heart of America’s democracy—the connection between members of Congress and their constituents.

In reality, the NAACP recently joined in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation to support passage of the legislation. During their Centennial Convention in July, NAACP delegates recognized the economic opportunities that will flow from global warming solutions, stating in a resolution that “solving the climate crisis can create 5 million ‘green’ jobs that will be in places where they are needed most.”

The fake NAACP letter and other phony messages sent to lawmakers were products of outright deception created by companies such as Bonner & Associates, a lobbying group known to create “strategic grassroots”—an artificial version of grassroots lobbying known in Washington, D.C., as “Astroturf.”

In recent years, large corporate interests have successfully deceived Congress and the public by paying for such Astroturf campaigns. Here is how it’s done: Corporations hire firms like Bonner & Associates, which in turn make up fake organizational names or borrow real organizations’ letterheads, hire professional callers who improperly identify themselves with made-up groups and urge unsuspecting residents to call their members of Congress to oppose important reform legislation that they misrepresent as bad. Bonner & Associates refused to reveal its corporate clients that funded their deception, but the firm has represented a number of big energy companies in the past. Congress is now investigating their activities.

This is merely the latest fraud by the major energy companies to mislead the public. On a recent visit to Prince William Sound in Alaska, I saw scientifically-collected samples that demonstrate much of the oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill remains where it went when it was washed off the surface of the rocks. It continues to damage fish and wildlife habitat and contaminate our food chain. The oiled sound is no longer the pristine place it once was and most of the canneries in the town of Cordova are gone.

When the pipeline and port in Prince William Sound were built, the oil industry promised President Nixon they would have a response team, oil booms and other equipment ready to address any spill that might occur. They didn’t.

In the days after the accident, as the oil spread more than 800 miles through the sound and along the Alaska Coast, Exxon promised to clean it up and make the 30,000 people living in the region’s fishing villages “whole.” They did neither. Instead, Exxon cheated innocent people of their livelihoods. For the next 20 years, the company fought bankrupt fishermen, cannery owners and other innocent victims all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the end, Exxon paid only pennies on the dollars lost. Many of the original victims died waiting; others lost everything dear to them.

There is an often-repeated quote, first attributed to President Abraham Lincoln, that says, “You may fool all of the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Well, the executives of big oil along with the dirty coal industry believe they can fool all Americans all the time.

Oil companies will do everything they can to stop the clean energy and climate legislation passed in the House from advancing in the Senate. Once again, we expect a close vote. Call your two U.S. Senators, tell them that you are a real constituent and urge them to pass the bill to protect our world, create millions of new jobs and restore a strong economy built on a domestic energy future. Let’s work together to prove President Lincoln right.

Thirty years ago! Stewart tells us that the speech was “extremely popular” and the White House was “flooded with calls.”

Two years earlier, President Carter had spoken to the nation about an energy plan he would soon propose to Congress. In that speech, he said:

We have been proud of our leadership in the world. Now we have a chance again to give the world a positive example … We have always wanted to give our children and grandchildren a world richer in possibilities than we’ve had. They are the ones we must provide for now. They are the ones who will suffer most if we don’t act.

Imagine … how different our world would be if we had acted then. Carter announced a goal of 20 percent of our electricity from solar power by 2000!

And so here we are, at another choice point for the country and our children’s future – indeed, “they are the ones who will suffer if we don’t act.” As Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said so eloquently during the House debate on the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act, “Our children will either be the benefactors of our stewardship, or the victims of our neglect.”

President Carter’s words are even more true today than 30 years ago when he said, “The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.”

Joshua Green, in The Atlantic this month, makes the same connections back to President Carter’s vision. (The Atlantic ran a cover story in 1977 on the promise of renewables!) Green notes that in the mid-1980s, United States was “the overwhelming leader in clean technology, with more than 80 percent of the world’s wind capacity and 90 percent of solar.” Unfortunately, “the United States has fallen back dramatically since then, both in a moral and an economic sense … with the benefits of the developments that emerged in the 1980s mostly accrued to others.”

President Carter knew that our energy crisis had to be addressed – and today – when you add to his conclusion the overwhelming evidence about the climate crisis, this should only reinforce the call to develop a new energy policy in this country that creates true energy security, a more secure economy and a healthier planet.

It can also be the rallying cry the country needs to unite around a common purpose. As President Carter told us 30 years ago: “The solution of our energy crisis can also help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country. It can rekindle our sense of unity, our confidence in the future, and give our nation and all of us individually a new sense of purpose.”

On behalf of National Wildlife Federation, I want you to know how important all your work has been and how much we deeply appreciate all your good work for us and on behalf of wildlife and our children’s future.  See this video of our rally. Thank you.

Click here to view the embedded video.