alina_CCNC's blog

With comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation pending in the U.S. Senate, the time for action is now.

Today through Thursday, dozens of organizations, representing millions of Americans, are calling on the U.S. Senate to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

The time is now. We cannot wait any longer. We hope BlueNC members will use the click-to-call tool below and join us in this historic national call-in effort.

Please join us next week for a public forum on job creation and North Carolina's potential leadership in the emerging clean energy economy.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
7:00 - 8:30 pm

at
The Mint Museum of Art, Van Every Theater
2730 Randolph Road, Charlotte, NC 28207

Keynote Speaker:
The Honorable Walter H. Dalton, North Carolina Lieutenant Governor

Panelists:
Olee Joel Olsen, O2 Energies
Joseph J. James, Corporation for Economic Opportunities
Terence Fagan, Central Piedmont Community College
Alina Johnson, Conservation Council of North Carolina

Sponsors:

This evening, a fake grassroots rally is being orchestrated at the Greensboro Coliseum to trick Senator Kay Hagan into believing there is a groundswell of popular opposition to reforms that will create clean energy jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

These events are organized and paid for by the American Petroleum Institute (API), an umbrella group that lobbies for Big Oil and businesses that want to block investment in new, cleaner forms of energy. Petroleum Institute members include ExxonMobile, Halliburton and GE, to name a few.

The “citizens” with the urge to rise-up on this issue just so happen to live in states with U.S. Senators whose vote is being sought by Big Oil.

Jobs were cut in all but two sectors of North Carolina’s economy last month, causing the unemployment rate to jump to an all-time high of 11.1%, according to May numbers released by the state Employment Security Commission. It was reported that 508,834 people were seeking jobs in our state last month.

Another jobs report was released last week by the Pew Center on the States that provides a realistic solution for our ongoing unemployment woes, showing that North Carolina is poised to capitalize on the emerging clean energy economy. The report lists North Carolina as among the top dozen states in growing “clean energy economy jobs.” North Carolina clean energy jobs grew two times faster than overall jobs between 1998 and 2007.

The report clearly indicates that North Carolina's struggling economy would receive a massive boost from the comprehensive clean energy bill that the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on later this week, on either Friday or Saturday.