Tell your Senators: Oppose Dirty Energy "Climate" Bill

May 12, 2010

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) have now released their long-stalled "climate" bill. We put "climate" in quotes because addressing the climate crisis seems like an afterthought in this bill, which provides enormous taxpayer bailouts to the dirtiest energy companies in the world.

*$54 billion in new taxpayer loans for new nuclear reactor construction, plus tens of billions in new tax breaks for nuclear utilities.

*Speeding up the nuclear reactor licensing process, even though the independent Bipartisan Policy Center found the industry to blame for the pace of licensing.

*Billions for the oxymoron of "clean" coal.

*Despite the calamitous BP oil spill, continued support for offshore oil drilling.

*Removal of EPA authority to regulate carbon emissions.

*And carbon reduction goals so modest (just 17% reduction from 2005 levels by 2020) that we can exceed them without this dirty energy bailout.

Join 200+ organizations across the country that already have signed a statement opposing this bill and tell your Senators to oppose the Kerry-Lieberman "climate" bill (note, it does not have a bill number yet), and to work on finding real solutions to the climate crisis.

While hundreds of environmental groups oppose the bill in its present form, here are some of the bill's supporters: Nuclear Energy Institute, Exelon, Duke Power, Constellation Energy, Entergy. That should give you an idea of this measure's real priorities!

As always, we encourage you to edit the sample letter to reflect your own concerns.