National Clean Energy Action Day

On Friday, after a very last-minute effort to gather a few people to participate in the 1SKY National Clean Energy Action Day, seven of us gathered in front of our US Congress Representative's local office. We were joining others around the country who took the same message to their congressional representatives:

Take action to strengthen HE 2452, the American Clean Energy and Security Act in the following ways:

- Require poser companies to produce more clean energy.

- Restore authority to the EPA to crack down on global warming pollution from

power plants.

- Reduce giveaways to polluting industries in order to bolster green job

development and protect vulnerable communitites.

Before we got started I met Lehigh student Robbie Sherrard, a rock musician, who was looking for a business at the same address, and was bold enough to ask me what "WALKING FOR THE CLIMATE" meant. We had a good conversation and Guy took a picture of us for this blog.

Margie and Bob are friends from the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley, and are very committed to environmental issues, including the preservation of barns.

Sharon is an associate member of Veterans for Peace and a longtime activist. We stood along Broad St. and let the passing world know what we thought. Many passers-by slowed down to read our signs, and several honked their approval.

Tim has been working to get support for the Clean Energy Bill, one of the many ways he works for a just and peaceful world.
My husband, Guy, doesn't show in the photos because he was taking them.(I should have taken one of him instead of being in all the photos.) The seventh person, Bernie, a veteran and ardent activist, stood across the street with his sign.

After 30 minutes of holding up our placards, we went upstairs to Rep. Dent's office to deliver the packet provided online by 1SKY. Margie did an excellent job as our spokesperson, and Bob kept things friendly with his ready sense of humor.

HR 2452 will likely come up for a vote this Wednesday. It's an imperfect bill, and special interests have weakened it. Our best hope is that action by people and organizations around the country will succeed in taking out the worst provisions and restoring others, such as EPA authority. There's still time to call your congress person!