Top environmental leaders gathered on the U.S. Capitol steps today to launch “40 days of action” before next month’s 40th-anniversary Earth Day celebration. Virginia activists, meanwhile, held up an oversized pen and asked Senator Jim Webb – an accomplished author – to help write legislation to solve global warming and enhance America’s national security.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 11, 2010

As Earth Day Nears, Virginians Use Giant Pen to Ask Senator Webb to Write Strong Legislation on Global Warming

WASHINGTON, DC-Top environmental leaders gathered on the U.S. Capitol steps today to launch “40 days of action” before next month’s 40th-anniversary Earth Day celebration. Virginia activists, meanwhile, held up an oversized pen and asked Senator Jim Webb – an accomplished author – to help write legislation to solve global warming and enhance America’s national security.

“Senator Webb is one of the best writers the U.S. Senate has ever known,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Now he can use that skill to help his Senate colleagues craft the legislative words needed to finally get us off foreign oil and save the climate for our children.”

As debate heats up in the Senate this month over different approaches to climate legislation, environmental groups have poured more than 300,000 telephone calls into the Senate. Directors of over 40 environmental groups met on the Capitol steps today to call on the Senate to unify around an approach that works.

Senator Webb has said he’s not happy with the “cap and trade” bill passed by the House last June. He’s made more favorable comments toward a so-called cap-and-dividend approach.

“We know Senator Webb is serious about reducing our reliance on Middle Eastern oil while saving the Virginia coastline from catastrophic sea-level rise,” said Tidwell. “So we hope he’ll lead with his pen and help craft the right bill that gets the job done.”

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