Now’s the Time to Call Your Senators
    If you’re like me, you are hopping mad at BP for its greed, its cheating, and what appears to be its continued lying about the extent of the damage the company is causing.Â
    This environmental disaster that grows bigger every day as oil continues to gush into the Gulf, shows more clearly than any chart or graph or speech that we must end our dependence on polluting fossil fuels. We must act now to embrace a cleaner environment, a multitude of clean energy jobs, and the dramatically reduced carbon emissions that would result from an economy powered by renewables like wind, solar, and biofuels.Â
    The U.S. Senate will likely vote this summer on a climate change and energy bill, quite possibly in July.  If passed, the American Power Act, introduced by Senators Kerry and Lieberman, will complement the climate and energy bill passed last year by the U.S. House of Representatives.
    You can be sure that the oil industries, engorged with recent record profits, are investing heavily in making sure the American Power Act fails. We can’t let that happen! My hope is that the Senate will feel they have to pass the bill because their consituents are telling them loudly and clearly to transition to clean, renewable energy. Now!Â
    While I have to admit that the American Power Act is a far weaker bill than I wish it were, it is at least a start. And we have to get started now in making the shift to clean energy. At best, this legislation is a baby step. But it’s all we’ve got at the moment.
    I have joined with a local Virginia climate action organization to call my two Senators every day for three weeks. I leave a daily message on the constituent hot line, along with my name and zip code. Congressional offices typically check the calls at the end of each day and note the number of calls received for and against any given legislation.Â
    At first I had reservations about calling my Senators more than once with the same message; I don’t want to be dismissed as a crank. But then I was persuaded that Senators’ hearing from voters again and again, even from some of the same ones, helps create an impression that the public is demanding Congressional action to address climate change. Â
    After all, if we are silent, who will be talking to our Senators?
    The calls are brief. I complete my two daily calls in about five minutes. You can find your two Senators’ office phone numbers by clicking on the U.S. Senate’s website: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
    When you call your Senator’s office, you will likely get a recording that includes the option to leave an opinion. Then you might say something like this:
    “I am __________________. My zip code is _________. Please support strong climate and energy legislation and work with your fellow Senators this summer to pass the American Power Act. The ongoing BP Gulf oil disaster clearly shows that we cannot wait any longer to make the shift to a future of clean energy and clean jobs.”
    And if you don’ have time for daily calls, how about twice a week for a few weeks?
    One of the best antidotes to anger and despair is constructive action. If you are angry about the BP oil disaster, then these calls are a way for you to translate your anger into effective action.–April MooreÂ
June 15th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Hi April,
Banking or Big Oil or Big Pharma buy their influence in what is or is not regulated and or funded. Then Senators and Representatives are less and less effective together with the responsible components of Administration and others responsible for ensuring regulations are updated and enforced. One way or another, regulations are diluted and regulators do what they do with the funding they receive and the means they have.
Anger at Big Business doing what it does and making the rules fit their profit motives is justified. Anger also is justified at all those in Government and elsewhere who accommodate the excesses of Big Business and in turn accommodate and are accommodated by the lobbyists.
Since the Earth and all life upon it is endangered by the misdeeds of Corporate power maybe Earth and all Life on earth should have lobbyists acting to ensure that we leave the Earth for following generations better than we found it.
Sadly the political system is as it is and the will and power to change will depend on how many people pick up the phone again and again and again, Getting a critical mass and being effective will be a long process.
John
June 15th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Thanks, April. I am heading to my telephone now!
June 17th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Thanks for the nudge, April. I need to get on this!
June 21st, 2010 at 5:20 am
Thank you April and everyone else for organizing the vigil in Harrisonburg yesterday to express our grief over the oil disaster. We are at a tipping point ecologically, economically and socially. We have got to find more sustainable and safe sources of energy. We don’t need any more proof than to turn on the tv and see the oil soaked wildlife and hear the utter dispair in the voices of conservationists and from the people who live on the Gulf. Use your voice to urge the passing of the American Power Act.