| By Dave Harding, ProgressOhio - Sep 9th, 2009 at 6:32 am EDT |
With the resignation of Van Jones over the weekend, environmental advocates lost their biggest champion in the White House. But on Tuesday those advocates worked to present a unified front as they unveiled a major coalition aimed at getting a climate and energy bill passed this year.
The new 63-member coalition unveiled today aims to combat the attacks against climate action and keep the issue atop the agenda this fall, with members from environmental, faith, labor, and minority groups. It includes big green groups, like Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Defense Fund, along with unions like the United Steelworkers and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Also on board: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Truman National Security Project, VoteVets, American Hunters and Shooters; Catholics United; Union for Reform Judaism.
The coalition, under the name “Clean Energy Works,” has a hub in Washington, D.C., with paid staffers, as well as organizers on the ground in 28 states whose senators are seen as key swing votes on climate – many of them Midwestern, industrial, and coal states. They’ve already unveiled a Web campaign that compares members of Congress who opposed climate action to cavemen.
Watch It:
ProgressOhio is the Ohio affiliate of Clean Energy Works.
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