Kathryn Phillips is Director, California Transportation and Air Initiative.

Four years ago, when the economy was strong and building was booming, the Congressional Research Service (PDF) confirmed what a quick drive on rural roads suggested: there’s too much poverty in the San Joaquin Valley. At that point, the report noted, by nearly every typical measure—per capita income, unemployment rates, household income, poverty rates—socioeconomic conditions in the Valley fell “significantly below national and California averages.”

Today things are even worse for a lot of reasons: housing construction jobs are gone; farm labor demand has not grown, and in some places has fallen as farmers respond to drought; and the cost of transportation to jobs has become prohibitive. The nation’s down economy is even downer in the Valley.

People in power have been responding to this emergency with valuable help in the last few weeks. And so we send kudos to:

• Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who have weighed in with the Obama Administration to request assistance for Fresno County, where some of the worst poverty is located. Their letter to President Obama is notable for its laser-like focus on drought impacts, long-term solutions, and the need for immediate assistance to those most in need.
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for sending $4 million of emergency assistance to the worst-hit parts of the Valley, and also for requesting more emergency aide from the Obama Administration.
• Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and the Obama Administration for unleashing hundreds of millions in recovery funds to California, including $40 million for water conservation (most of which will be directed to the Valley).

This help reaches beyond the high-pitched rhetoric of California’s ages-long water debate in the Valley. It focuses on getting food and jobs to communities that have long suffered.

Laura Harnish is the California Regional Director.
That was essentially the message brought by Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to a standing room only crowd in Fresno.

He addressed a crowd of about 800 people, primarily farmworkers, farmers and residents of the Central Valley (and a smattering of fishermen and environmentalists) who have been clamoring for federal action in the face of rising unemployment and third year of drought.

Salazar carefully walked a tightrope throughout the town hall meeting. On the one side, he appealed to farmworkers, farmers, as well as local and federal politicians representing the area by enumerating a number of short-term measures expected to bring relief both in terms of disaster dollars and water supply projects. On the other side, he expressed commitment to fishermen and environmentalists by embracing the Governor’s Delta Vision which puts the ecosystem health of the Delta on equal footing with water supply reliability. He also put to rest notions that the so-called “God Squad” could be called to nullify Biological Opinions that are constraining water supplies under Endangered Species Act provisions.

Salazar told the locals that dollars would be coming for drought supply relief and that come July 1, the pumps would be turned back on. This statement was received with yelps of joy. However, it’s important to clarify a couple of things. (more...)

Our National Climate Campaign wants to thank all of our members and activists for their support during this incredibly important vote:

Rush Limbaugh and the Dittoheads are urging their supporters to flood Capitol Hill with calls attacking those who voted yes on the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act. We need your help to fight back.

First, find out if your Rep voted yes on the bill: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-26-waxman-markey-bill-vote-count/

Then, call the Capitol Hill switchboard — (202) 224-3121. Ask to be patched through to your Rep.

Finally, tell the office staff that you strongly support the landmark climate bill and applaud the Rep. for voting to pass it.

This was a tough vote for a lot of members of Congress. But, thanks to the courage of 219 of them, we now have a chance to move America forward and create the clean energy economy we'll need to compete in the 21st century. This bill will break our addiction to foreign oil, put millions of Americans to work, and, along with cuts from other countries, will help avert the catastrophic threats of run-away global warming.

Please call your Rep now to applaud his/her vote on the landmark climate bill.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is the most important environmental and energy legislation in our nation's history. Today's vote is a huge achievement for the country and the climate, and we applaud Speaker Pelosi, Chairmen Waxman and Markey, and all members of the House who helped craft this landmark legislation and get it passed.

The bill that emerged from the House has the fundamental structure we need to significantly reduce carbon pollution while growing the economy. It puts a strong cap on emissions and reorients our energy market to make low-carbon power the goal. It ensures that utility rates will stay affordable and a competitive playing field for U.S. companies.

Today's vote opens the door for President Obama to sign comprehensive climate legislation into law this year. The extensive negotiations leading up to the vote helped form extraordinarily broad support for the bill as it moves to the Senate. Chairmen Waxmen and Markey bridged the traditional sectoral and regional divides of energy politics to produce legislation that has support from labor unions and businesses across the economy, to rural interests, environmental advocates, and agriculture groups.

The bill puts the U.S. on the path to significant emissions reductions, a stronger economy, and a new position of leadership in the global effort to protect the climate. We look forward to working with the Senate leadership to meet Majority Leader Reid's September target for finishing committee work on the bill.

As the House debate proceeds, members of Congress are making some startling and downright incorrect claims on the floor. Our Truth Squad blog is lobbing back the truth. Visit for gems of responses, including:

• Did Rep. Lucas even read the bill?
• Climate action's opponents just can't do math
• Well, at least they have their talking points down...

With the House set to vote today on the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the misinformation from the bill's opponents is flying fast. Our staff economists have been working furiously to circulate the facts:

• Grade: F. Dr. Nat Keohane pulled out his professor pen again to mark up a Heritage Foundation fact sheet.
• It only takes a dime a day. Opponents of action have been trying to scare voters with inflated and misleading accounts of how this bill will affect consumers' daily expenses. However, the two most independent and credible analyses project much lower costs.
• Draconian assumptions. One tactic opponents use to get such inflated cost estimates is to make assumptions that ignore policy provisions and impose artificial constraints. This paper breaks it down.

When floor debate starts later today, the policy and economics specialists here at EDF will be hard at work correcting misstatements. Stay tuned here to see the facts.

We are 24 hours away from the most important climate vote of our lives. Everything hangs in the balance.

Either the House passes the American Clean Energy and Security Act and we carry momentum to the Senate. Or, we lose the vote and in all probability any chance of confronting the devastating threats of run-away global warming for the foreseeable future.

In recent weeks, we've asked our Action Network to keep the pressure on for passing this landmark bill. In response, our inbox has been flooded with comments and questions about this bill and the urgency for action.

We've tried to respond to each question individually but thought at this critical moment it would be helpful to explain why we are working so hard to pass this bill and why now is so important.

Why this bill, and why now?
Our vigorous effort to pass the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act is based on a number of factors, including:

• It is a strong bill that will put America on course to cutting global warming emissions by 83% by mid-century. This, along with cuts in other countries, is in the range of what scientists suggest is necessary to stave off the catastrophic threats of run-away global warming.
• It has broad support from labor, environmental, and community groups, as well as valuable support from the business community and even many electric utilities and energy companies. In order to pass a bill of this magnitude, this broad support is essential.
• It uses a proven policy approach — cap-and-trade — that sets a declining cap on global warming pollution and creates a market that rewards innovation to clean-energy technologies. This same approach has dramatically reduced acid rain pollution at a fraction of the estimated costs.
• Now is the time. Political momentum has built over many years to bring us to this moment in history, and we cannot squander it. Key political leaders from President Obama to Speaker Pelosi to Reps Waxman and Markey are engaged as never before on passing a good bill right now. If we lose the vote in spite of the political firepower devoted to this, it will set back our efforts for many years, which would be disastrous for the climate. Once lost, political momentum doesn't easily regenerate.

Some of our online members and activists wonder whether we should be pushing for an even stronger bill or, short of that, whether we'd be better off allowing the EPA to regulate global warming pollution.

Keep the following in mind:

• EPA has not yet established global warming regulations and it is not yet clear how they would approach the issue.
• It could take years and many court battles before EPA regulations are set.
• Nor is it clear how regulations would be handled over time with changing administrations.
• The bill would replace EPA regulations with a clear policy that locks in emission reductions through mid-century.

This is why President Obama and his team, including EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, are fully behind passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act and favor legislation over regulation.

As to whether we should be supporting a stronger bill, we have to ask, what's the alternative? What other bill stands a prayer's chance of winning 218 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate? What other bill has the support of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Reps. Waxman and Markey? What other bill could you even get out of the relevant committees?

Passing legislation of this magnitude is hard. Look at the efforts to reform health care. An entire generation of Americans has come and gone and that issue is not yet resolved.

If the planet is to avoid the catastrophic threat of run-away global warming, Congress must act now. We just don't have time to waste.

Sam Parry is the director of EDF's Action Network.

As Colin Peppard our Climate and Infrastructure Campaign Director pointed out, today's transit is "not just your grandma's bus" (see the video). But what exactly did he mean? (more...)

At this afternoon's press conference, the president spoke about the climate change legislation that the House is set to address on Friday. Here's what he said:

We all know why this is so important. The nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century's global economy. That's what this legislation seeks to achieve. It's a bill that will open the door to a better future for this nation and that's why I urge members of Congress to come together and pass it.

That's about all that needs to be said — it's clear what our members of Congress need to do now.

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.

It probably goes without saying that EDF welcomes EPA's decision to suspend the development and posting of risk-based prioritizations under its Chemical Assessment and Mangement Program (ChAMP). EDF has been arguing (see our earlier posts) that ChAMP's "rush to risk" has taken EPA badly off-track. But we have also identified many useful things that EPA's existing chemicals program can and should be doing with the data it obtained through the HPV Challenge (whether called ChAMP or not) .

We look forward to working with EPA to craft a new approach, grounded in a return to developing scientifically defensible hazard, not risk, characterizations and transparently identifying and addressing data gaps and data quality problems.