Why the CLEAR Act is Fair

The following is an article written by Meg Power, Senior Advisor to the National Community Action Foundation (NCAF). NCAF is the Washington, DC representative of the nation’s 1100 local Community Action Agencies, which deliver many services and investments in all the nation’s low-income communities including Low-Income Home Energy Assistance and the federal Weatherization Assistance Program. NCAF has endorsed the CLEAR Act.

Why the CLEAR Act is Fair to Low- and Moderate-Income Households
By Meg Power

About one-third of US households have incomes lower than 60% of the median income of their state and qualify for the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Their average annual residential usage is just 87% of the average for the other 2/3 of consumers. The gasoline consumption of the lowest income drivers is less than half that of median income households. Their houses are smaller, albeit more inefficient per square foot; they own fewer appliances, buy few finished goods and drive fewer cars. Their carbon footprint is far lighter than that of middle income consumers.

However, these Americans are extremely vulnerable to increases in energy costs; on average they spend from 18% to more than 23% percent of an entire year’s income directly on energy, including home fuels and gasoline, depending on the fuel prices in a given year. This percentage is known as the Continue reading

The war goes on

The announcement today by President Obama that his administration canceled the lease sale for offshore drilling spots off Virginia’s coast is a big step in the right direction but it’s one battle in the larger war. Until this administration announces a permanent moratorium on offshore drilling we still need to fight. It doesn’t hurt to take a long weekend to celebrate this victory though ;-).

In case you haven’t seen it, check out our press release on the announcement too!

VIDEO: Share the dirty secret of mountaintop removal.

Mountaintop removal is devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans; and destroying a distinctly American culture that has endured for generations.

Watch this new commercial from our friends at the http://www.ilovemountains.org and help share the dirty secret of mountaintop removal.

**commercial may not play in some browsers (like google chrome)… you’ve been warned**

Will the BP Oil Spill Be the Spark?

“The fact that 11 human beings were killed in the Deepwater Horizon explosion (their bodies never found) has become, at best, an afterthought. BP counts its profits in the billions, and, therefore, it’s important. . . This is the bitter reality of the American present, a period in which big business has cemented an unholy alliance with big government against the interests of ordinary Americans who, of course, are the great majority of Americans. The great majority of Americans no longer matter.”
-Bob Herbert, “More Than Just An Oil Spill,” NY Times, May 22, 2010

Just about a week ago I was on a conference call with leaders of about a dozen national and regional groups which have made the climate crisis a top priority of their work. The two main things we talked about were the prospects for decent climate legislation in the Senate and how we should be responding to the catastrophic BP oil spill.

Most of us were not very hopeful about the prospects in the Senate, absent the kind of leadership on this issue Barack Obama gave to achieve passage of a not-so-good health care reform bill. Indeed, there is legitimate reason to be concerned that if he did so, he could advance a bill strongly supportive of nukes, coal and offshore drilling, based on things he has said and done as President, and based on the Kerry-Lieberman “American Power Act” released on May 12th.

As far as the BP spill, there was discussion on this call about the idea of local actions around the country on the one-month anniversary of the spill, May 20th. One important national organization, the Energy Action Coalition, took the initiative and organized 45 local actions around the country beginning on that day, to their credit.

Could the BP spill be the spark that generates an on-going, in-the-streets movement for a rapid shift away from dirty fossil fuels to a justice-based, green jobs, clean energy economy? It sure seems to have a number of the elements that make that a possibility. Continue reading

Tea Party helps pass carbon tax

The Montgomery County Council passed the nation’s first county-level carbon tax on Wednesday thanks in part to a little heckling from a group of rowdy Tea-Party protesters.

It would be hard to dream up a more delightful twist to cap off a campaign that was about as dramatic as they come in the world of county politics. Desperate to prevent what they rightly saw as a precedent that could unleash an avalanche of similar laws across the country, the Mirant Corporation

Prison time for activist over green jobs banner. No kidding.

Despite the Gulf disaster, no one from BP has been arrested and sent to jail. Despite safety violations at coal mines, no one from Massey Energy has been handcuffed. But today I write to inform you that one of America’s best global warming activists is probably facing several months of jail. He’s been convicted by a D.C. jury, and now he awaits sentencing on July 6th. Why? Because he peacefully dropped two banners on Capitol Hill that said: “GREEN JOBS NOW” and “GET TO WORK.”

I’m not joking. Ted Glick of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network was convicted by a jury May 13th of peacefully dropping the banners inside the U.S. Senate Hart Office Building last September. The D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office clearly has decided to make an “example” of Ted because of his previous two — count ’em, two — convictions related to peaceful acts of climate civil disobedience. Can you believe it? You can see a three-minute video of Ted’s September “crime” below. He’s the guy towards the end simply lowering the banners.

Now Ted is facing up to three years in jail. Based on the judge’s comments last week, it really does appear that he will be incarcerated for at least a month or two.

What can you do? Help spread the word about this fight to keep a morally innocent staff member out of jail during this time of great global crisis.