Global Warming News

Leaders from the government, labor and faith communities today joined Pittsburgh-area U.S. Representative Mike Doyle and members of the environmental community including PennEnvironment, Blue Green Alliance, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, PennFuture, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Clean Air Council to call for repowering Pennsylvania and reducing global warming pollution through the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454).

A vote on this historic legislation is expected on the floor of the House of Representatives next week. The bill would establish targets for science-based cuts in global warming pollution, promote clean energy and reduce energy use through investments in efficiency standards that will save Pennsylvania consumers and businesses money.

“This bill has been carefully drafted to reduce global warming while protecting consumers and creating jobs in the U.S.,” said U.S. Representative Mike Doyle. “The bill, if enacted, would eventually transform the way we produce, transmit, and use energy in this country. Contrary to what the bill’s critics have claimed, the bill won’t wreck our economy, burden consumers, or ship American jobs overseas.”

The bill’s science-based standards aim to reduce U.S. global warming pollution by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. By 2050, the bill would reduce emissions by 83 percent.

Many advocates representing labor, green jobs, environmental and faith communities are calling for strengthening provisions in the bill, both on the House floor and in every step of the process, to ensure that to the greatest extent possible the bill maximizes clean energy incentives, invests in energy efficiency programs, and reduces global warming pollution to levels scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst effects of global warming.

According to a recent study by the University of Massachusetts, a $100 billion investment in building a clean energy economy could create as many as 2 million well-paying jobs here in the U.S. in just two years, through projects in wind energy, solar energy, building weatherization, smart grid electrical transmission systems, advanced biofuels, and mass transit and freight rail.

“We ask all citizens to ask your Congressperson to strengthen – not weaken – this bill, so that we may feel the flow of the abundance of life and thanks coming from the future – today – into everyone.”

The bill sets cost-effective targets to improve the energy efficiency of new homes and commercial buildings by 30 percent starting at enactment and 50 percent starting in 2014.  The resulting energy savings could lower the costs of the transition to a clean energy economy and make it easier to meet limits on greenhouse gas emissions, saving money for consumers and businesses across the economy.

“This bill begins to lay the groundwork for a future powered by the wind and sun – energy sources that won’t run out, don’t harm our environment, and will only grow cheaper over time,” said PennEnvironment’s Erika Staaf. “To deliver on the promise that clean energy holds to put thousands of Pennsylvanians back to work and solve global warming, we’re counting on Congressman Doyle and the rest of Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation to help strengthen and pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act.”