[va-richmond-general] Energy Bill

I have been asked to send this out. It is from Connie Mayhan, Director of 
Grassroots Outreach, Policy Office, National Audubon Society.

Al Warfield

Global warming legislation is heating up as the Congressional recess quickly 
approaches. It's all hands on deck again as we shoot for a big win when the 
energy bill hits the House floor next week. Key to that win will be inclusion 
of a nationwide renewable electricity standard in the bill.  We lost out in the 
Senate when a few conservative senators blocked that vote; let's ensure a 
victory in the House.


If your Representative has not yet cosponsored HR 969, which calls for a 20% 
renewable electricity standard (RES) by 2020, please call today and urge your 
Rep. to:
(1)   cosponsor HR 969;

(2)   support a possible Udall-Platts RES amendment to the energy bill on the 
floor next week.

 The Congressional switchboard number is 202-225-3121. Ask for your House 
member (not sure who he/she is?  Go to www.congress.org and put in your zip 
code).  They will connect you with your Rep's office.  Tell whomever answers 
the phone that you are a constituent and you are calling to ask for Rep. ___ to 
cosponsor HR 969 and to support it when it comes to the floor as an amendment 
to the energy package.

(Right now HR 969 is a stand alone bill; we are still working to get cosponsors 
which is a great way to lock in support and build momentum.  We do expect the 
contents of HR 969 to be offered as an amendment to the general energy package 
that will be on the floor next week.  So RES bill, HR 969, will morph into the 
RES amendment.)

We currently have some 150 cosponsors on HR 969, introduced by Reps. Tom Udall 
(D-NM) and Todd Platts (R-PA). We're doing well, but we need to increase that 
number, and we don't have much time. Together, we've been able to garner more 
than 25 new cosponsors since the July 4 recess. Let's keep it up! House Speaker 
Nancy Pelosi has signaled that she is supportive of an RES amendment to the 
energy bill but we need to continue to build support for RES.

Twenty three states and the District of Columbia have already passed an RES, 
which would require utilities to gradually increase the amount of renewable 
energy -- like appropriately sited wind and solar power -- they use to generate 
electricity each year. 

Please phone your Representative today to urge support for HR 969, and urge 
Audubon friends and allies to do the same, 202-225-3121! Please keep us posted 
on your efforts. You can reply to cmahan@xxxxxxxxxxx and let us know of any 
interesting intelligence you gather.

Here are our top targets but EVERYONE needs to hear about this! 

Arizona - Pastor, Mitchell, Giffords

Arkansas - Snyder, Berry, Ross

California - Becerra, Waters, Cardoza, McCarthy, Bilbray, Costa, Bono, 
Radanovich, Nunes, Campbell

Colorado - Salazar

Florida - Wasserman Schultz, Mahoney, Buchanan, Boyd, Brown-Waite, 
Ros-Lehtinen, Diaz-Balart

Maryland - Ruppersberger, Hoyer, Bartlett

Minnesota - Bachmann, Kline, Oberstar

Missouri - Carnahan, Cleaver, Skelton

New Mexico - Wilson

New York - Towns, Rangel, Slaughter, King, McHugh, Meeks, Fossella, Reynolds, 
Kuhl

Ohio - Tubbs Jones, Sutton, Wilson, Ryan, Space, Chabot, LaTourette

Oregon - Wu, DeFazio, Hooley

Pennsylvania - Gerlach, English, Altmire, Holden, Murtha, Dent

Virginia - Scott, Davis, Wolf, Drake

Washington - Larsen, Baird, Reichert

If your Rep. is not on the above list, click here to see if s/he has already 
cosponsored HR 969: 

 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR00969:@@@P.  Those cosponsors 
can be thanked.  If they are not on the list, please ask them to support HR 969.

Finally, one other provision may come up next week on fuel economy standards -- 
CAFE (corporate average fuel economy).  The lay of the land on that is pretty 
murky right now and Audubon's top focus is to get RES included in the energy 
bill.  We'll have more information on a possible CAFE amendment early next week.

So, please help on HR 969; more to come (maybe) on CAFE.  Keep your fingers 
crossed that we prevail in the House!  

Thanks for all you are doing.







+++++++++++
Connie Mahan
Audubon Policy Office
Director, Grassroots Outreach
1150 Connecticut Avenue NW #600
Washington, DC 20036
202-861-2242 ext. 3036
Sign up to become part of Audubon's E-Activist community
http://www.audubonaction.org/audubon/

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