Energy Program News

Environment California today congratulated Jerry McNerney, Lynn Woolsey, Doris Matsui and Mike Honda who will represent the 11th, 6th, 5th and 15th Districts in the U.S. Congress, respectively, for supporting the New Energy Future platform to move America beyond fossil fuels and toward a cleaner energy future.

“Clean energy is not just good policy, it is also good politics,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, Clean Energy Advocate for Environment California. “Americans want a new direction, and we look forward to working with these three elected leaders to put American innovation to work to build a New Energy Future.”

Environment California was joined by organizations across the country in calling on all Congressional candidates in the 2006 elections to deliver on the promise of a New Energy Future by committing to:

• Reduce U.S. dependence on oil by saving one-third of the oil we use today by 2025;

• Harness clean, renewable, homegrown energy sources for at least one quarter of all energy needs by 2025;

• Save energy with high performance homes, buildings and appliances so that by 2025 we use 10 percent less energy than we do today; and

• Invest in a New Energy Future by tripling research and development funding for the energy-saving and renewable technologies we need to achieve these goals.

Candidates across the country and across the political spectrum in the nation’s most competitive races endorsed the New Energy Future platform.  In the 50 key races targeted by the New Energy Future campaign, including McNerney’s, 37 major party candidates endorsed the New Energy Future platform, with at least 18 and as many as 21 candidates winning.

New Energy Future organizers, activists, and volunteers worked to raise the profile of energy issues in the 11th District in particular, asking both candidates, Jerry McNerney and Richard Pombo, where they stood on energy issues at campaign events, debates, and by collecting petition signatures. Mr. Pombo did not sign the New Energy Future Pledge.

Candidates endorsing the platform came from across the political spectrum, including progressive Democrats like California’s Lynn Woolsey and Maryland’s Ben Cardin, Republican conservatives like Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, Illinois’s Peter Roskam, and Georgia’s Mac Collins, and moderates of both parties like Georgia’s

“We will need bold leadership to solve our energy problems,” said Del Chiaro. “By endorsing the New Energy Future platform, these candidates showed their support for moving America in a new direction that puts our national security, our environment, the global climate and our children’s futures above Big Oil and other powerful interests.”

*winning candidate not yet announced as of time of writing