An Energy and Climate Bill For the Rest of Us!

Would you like to see green jobs in your community? See new businesses created that generate local, sustainable, non-exportable jobs?

You can by getting Congress to include a provision in the current energy bill that addresses the needs of not just the big players, but the rest of us.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) now in the Senate is dominated by the partisan debate on cap and trade and the struggles between large players jockeying for position.

We need Congress to pay attention to us and our communities as well as to the big guys. Our country will achieve its climate goals only through the cumulative effect of greening our local communities. We need support for the direct creation of thousands of small and medium sized green companies that will create thousands, if not millions, of green collar jobs in communities nationwide.

Would you like to see green jobs in your community? See new businesses created that generate local, sustainable, non-exportable jobs?

You can by getting Congress to include a provision in the current energy bill that addresses the needs of not just the big players, but the rest of us.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) now in the Senate is dominated by the partisan debate on cap and trade and the struggles between large players jockeying for position.

We need Congress to pay attention to us and our communities as well as to the big guys. Our country will achieve its climate goals only through the cumulative effect of greening our local communities. We need support for the direct creation of thousands of small and medium sized green companies that will create thousands, if not millions, of green collar jobs in communities nationwide.

Subject: Please support green communities, green companies and green jobs in the climate and energy legislation

Dear Senator [Last Name],

In June, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Unfortunately there is a glaring hole in that legislation that the Senate can now cure. More attention needs to be paid in the bill to address the greening of our communities, the creation of thousands of new small and mediums sized green companies and the establishment of millions of new green jobs.

[Your personal comments will be added to your letter here.]

To maximize the potential benefits of this legislation, the Senate should improve on the House bill by including the kind of legislation described on the website www.foragreenamerica.org that:

* creates a means by which the federal government can partner with community level groups to directly foster the coordinated greening of whole communities, and

* creates a means to more pro-actively foster the establishment of many thousands of new small and medium sized community level green companies who need to hire green collar workers, and

* provides incentives to entrepreneurs and communities to create those businesses, and

* expands on the programs to train green collar workers, and

* encourages those companies to create positions for and hire green collar workers, and

* removes barriers that stand in the way of entrepreneurs forming companies and make it easier for them to raise the necessary capital to do that, and

* encourages involvement and ownership in those companies by the local citizens and the employees.
 
Sincerely,
[Your name here]