1Sky: Climate voters welcome 111th Congress in visits across the state
11/19/2008

Climate Voters Welcome 111th Congress in Visits Across the State

Constituents encourage Congress, President-Elect Obama to jumpstart a green economy

IOWA – In small groups across the state, citizens welcomed members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation with welcome cards calling for bold climate action and a new green economy. Constituents visited the offices of Representative Loebsack, Representative Latham, Representative Boswell, Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley. Iowans delivered a strong message for drastic cuts in global warming pollution, the creation of five million green jobs, and a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants.

“It’s crucial that the new Congress and President-elect Obama know what we expect of them in January,” said Anjuli Kronheim, 1Sky organizer for Iowa. “The economic crisis and the climate crisis can be tackled at the same time with investments in renewable energy and efficiency that create jobs and put people back to work.”

Many of these new jobs would be in weatherizing buildings, installing solar panels, and erecting wind turbines, jobs that can’t be shipped overseas. According to a recent report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, more than 21,000 green jobs would be created in the next two years if Iowa industry and government invested $968 million (a tiny amount compared to the $700 billion opening bid to bail out Wall Street) in clean energy.

“Youth turned out to vote in record numbers this year and we are here to say that we are staying engaged,” said Allison Peeler, a senior at Iowa State University who attended Tom Latham's letter delivery. “We need our elected officials to address climate change now, because otherwise it will be a problem that our generation and our children’s generation will have to live with.”

Over 4,000 climate activists welcomed elected officials in similar events across the country. On Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, hundreds urged President-Elect Obama to attend the crucial United Nations Climate Conference in Poland in December and take bold action on climate in his first 100 days.

“I think our actions today helped our public officials finally realize this is something that all of the country, including Iowa, wants,” said Graham Jordison, Greenpeace volunteer. “We know what the solutions are—now we’re just waiting for Congress to pass them.”

Partner organizations for the Climate Leadership Now! national day of action in Iowa are 1Sky, the Energy Action Coalition, National Wildlife Federation, Greenpeace, Environment Iowa, Interfaith Power and Light, Iowa Global Warming Campaign, and Ames Citizens for Clean Energy.

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1Sky is a new national highly collaborative campaign working to bring local groups together to galvanize a movement in support of the bold federal action on climate change that science and equity demand. For more information, visit www.1Sky.org.