Letter to use: alternative energy sources

After Al Gore's inspiring speech yesterday about alternative energy sources, I promised a form letter you all could use to write your legislators in your state and in Washington. Below is the letter I sent off to my U.S. Rep. a little while ago; I am also sending it to both of my U.S. Senators and also my state senator and representative as well. Again, feel free to copy/paste my text below to use as a starting point. (As I mentioned earlier today, I encourage you to alter your letter somewhat - legislators tend to ignore form/chain letters, so please add some of your own thoughts and concerns, too.) If you need to find out who your federal legislators are, click Here. On to my letter:

Dear Rep. Brady,
I'm writing to you regarding energy alternatives in America, or a lack of them. In short, we need more and more of them, yesterday. I vehemently oppose additional off-shore drilling on the outer continental shelf, or in ANWR. This will only serve to threaten the environment and prolong our addiction to oil.

I urge you to support an Apollo-like program to develop multiple ways for American to kick our oil addiction, including much, much more money for mass transit (which Congress has long neglected at best. or ignored at worst - I tend to believe the latter); solar, wind, and wave technologies; and yes, better batteries like John McCain has proposed, too.

This program should also include tax incentives for companies to develop these technologies and to build them in the United States, with no loopholes (and that includes cheap labor in the Mariana Islands - the Tom DeLay loophole). If any manufacturing or R&D jobs get off-shored by a company that's received tax breaks, they should be rescinded immediately.

I also would like to see Big Oil pay more for the oil that it is already getting, courtesy of contracts from the U.S. government; the 12.5% oil companies currently pay is PATHETIC. It is OUR oil, not theirs. It should be doubled, and the revenue raised could serve as tax relief, or better yet, to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and as tax incentives for development of new energy technologies.

I listened to Al Gore's speech yesterday in its entirety, and I found it inspiring. As a fellow Democrat, I hope and expect that you will be an active, forceful advocate for proposals like his.

I look forward to hearing from you and learning more about how you will support alternative energy sources. America needs to act boldly and quickly, NOW, and more drilling is not an option.

Thanks very much for your time.

Sincerely,

RJ

Again, please take just a few minutes to write your legislators. We have to demand action, and more importantly, we have to elect leaders to Congress who are going to be forceful advocates of alternative energy and change. I will share any responses I get from my legislators with you.

Photo: AP/LM Otero

A letter to my U.S. Rep.: impeach Bush

Recently, Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution on the House Floor to impeach President Bush. (He did the same regarding Dick Cheney last year.) This week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (above), despite the impeachment resolutions moving to the House Judiciary Committee, Pelosi publicly stated that a vote on impeachment is "off the table." That is absolutely, 100 percent, the wrong move to make. I don't get it - so her decision about impeachment is made before the Judiciary Committee has reviewed the findings? Then why even have a Judiciary Committee at all? It's totally absurd.

Anyway, today I wrote a letter to my House Representative, Robert A. Brady, imploring him to support the impeachment resolution(s), and also to not support another term for Pelosi as Speaker (or, Heaven forbid, House Minority Leader) after the November elections. I urge all of you to write a letter to your Representative requesting these actions, too. You can find your Representative quick and easy by clicking Here. Feel free to copy/paste my letter for your use (but I would recommend fine-tuning it - legislators tend to ignore letters with a chain letter feel to them):

Dear Rep. Brady:
I fully support the resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush, and you should, too. This administration has waged war, spied on citizens, skirted the law and trashed the Constitution. The reason Democrats regained control of both Houses of Congress in 2006 was to stop the war, and to stop President Bush's torching of the Constitution. Neither has happened, and I'm quite unhappy about it.

Please, support the resolution(s) to impeach President Bush. It's absurd and asinine that the resolutions would be sent to the Judiciary Committee, yet speaker Pelosi has publicly stated that a vote on impeachment is "off the table." Her leadership (or lack thereof) has failed our party and the American people. If Democrats remain in control of Congress in November, she should NOT be re-elected as Speaker.

I will be watching your votes on impeachment and also who is elected Speaker (or House minority leader) after the election. Please do the right thing.

Sincerely,

RJ

We have to demand that impeachment happen, because Democrats have shown so little willingness to do anything about the criminal misdeeds of the Bush administration. Please take a few minutes to write.