For Immediate Release: July 22, 2010

U.S. Senate Democrats have conceded that they do not have enough votes to pass a comprehensive energy bill. Instead, they will pursue a weakened version. Executive Director of St. Paul nonprofit clean energy policy organization, Fresh Energy, has released a statement, in reaction to the failure. Journalists can reach Noble for comment by cell at 612-963-1268 or by e-mail at noble@fresh-energy.org.

President Obama and the U.S. Senate have failed. They promised legislation to transform our energy system, create jobs and reduce pollution. But today, Senate Majority Leader Reid gave up.

The blame rests with Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats who are allied with coal and oil interests. The fossil fuel industry, which fights to protect the unlimited dumping of carbon pollution into our air, has gained the upper hand.

The President must do more than talk about energy. He needs to force action in the Senate by convening the kind of public conversation only the President can drive.

It’s time to scrap unworkable cap and trade politics and start fresh. Senators Cantwell and Collins offer a bipartisan starting point in the CLEAR Act. It is the same policy as President Obama’s campaign climate proposal, holding all fossil fuel polluters accountable by auctioning 100 percent of pollution permits. It protects working families, by refunding almost all of the money it collects directly to the American people, like a tax refund, so that most families end up better off. It ends the “cap and tax” attacks on climate action.

There are hundreds of billions of dollars of private investment sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the carbon pricing policy signal that means America is serious about the new energy economy. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt on CNNMoney.com: “Our interest has always been about technology… We just need some leadership… Every other country in the world is doing this… If it doesn’t happen here, we’re going to do it someplace else… We’re going do the stuff we need to do in every other corner of the world.”

The CLEAR Act will spur investment and innovation, create millions of jobs, and cut pollution. It is the kind of bipartisan, transparent solution we need to cut our dependence on fossil fuel.

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U.S. Senate Democrats have conceded that they do not have enough votes to pass a comprehensive energy bill. Instead, they will pursue a weakened version. Executive Director of St. Paul nonprofit clean energy policy organization, Fresh Energy, has released a statement, in reaction to the failure.