Follow Through On Your Promises!

>> on the way out" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2295589208_669d2784b1_m.jpg" width=236 height=240>Image by Don Hankins via Flickr

Environmental And Faith Groups Urge Midwest Governors To Follow Through On Promises In Climate Accord

In Advance of October Meeting of Midwestern Governors Association, Letter to Nine Governors Urges Them to Take Action on Clean Energy.

Nearly two years after Midwest governors signed landmark agreements to invest in clean energy and reduce pollution that causes global warming, environmental and faith groups from across the region joined together in urging the Governors to adopt a series of policies that would transform those goals into reality in a letter sent on Tuesday.

The letter is addressed to Midwestern governors who embraced a 2007 Energy Security and Climate Stewardship Platform developed under the auspices of the Midwest Governors Association (MGA). The signatories to the platform include Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, South Dakota and Indiana, as well as the provinces of Ontario, CA, and Manitoba, CA.

“We’re thankful that so many governors throughout the Midwest recognized in 2007 that investments in cleaner energy represent an opportunity to boost economic development and combat air pollution related to fossil fuels,” said Keith Reopelle, Senior Policy Director at Clean Wisconsin.“Since then, job markets throughout Midwest have slumped, and now, more than ever, we need the economic jolt that would come with a concerted, uniform commitment to unleashing the power of clean energy, reducing electricity use and limiting carbon pollution.”

State laws requiring utilities to draw 25 percent of electricity from renewable resources, such as wind and solar power, by 2025, while reducing electricity use by 2 percent and natural gas use by 1.5 percent, are among the measures supported by the 51 environmental and faith organizations that signed the letter.

The policies the groups recommended emerged from four advisory groups that were assembled, by the governors, in the wake of the 2007 agreements. In their letter, the environmental groups asked the Governors to enact these measures through legislation or executive action, predicting they would capitalize on the Midwest’s existing industrial base and allow the region to blossom as a leader in clean energy manufacturing.

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