Today the 15,000 members of Sierra Club in North Carolina endorsed Cal Cunningham for United States Senate. This was done after a long process involving questionnaires and interviews of all three top Democratic candidates here in North Carolina.
The Sierra Clubis the nation's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization. The decision to endorse Cal was based upon his strong record of leadership in the State Senate and his continued commitment to protecting the environment.
Christa Wagner, the chair of North Carolina's political committee said:
"Cal Cunningham is committed to creating clean energy jobs for North Carolina. Cal's specific plan to create clean energy jobs and his strong record on environmental issues convinced us he is the right person to represent North Carolina in the United States Senate."
Cal has always said that he is running for U.S. Senate to make sure that we leave a better world to the next generation. Addressing global climate change is an incredibly important part of that commitment.
Ken Brame, the Chair of the National PAC said:
“A healthy environment and a strong economy go hand in hand, and Cal will work to ensure we move our country forward by creating clean jobs that will grow and support our economy.”
Part of the reason that Cal was endorsed by the Sierra Club is his continued commitment to addressing global climate change, as evidence, here is a blog post written by Cal a few months before he became a candidate.
Still, there will be some nay-sayers who will cloak their narrow opposition in language like “jobs killer” and “energy tax”. They tend to ignore that the status quo is sure to mean soaring gas and utility prices when the economy rebounds. Doing nothing is a guaranteed “jobs killer” – a guaranteed “energy tax”. Could it be that the nay-sayers profit from the status quo?
But I’ve been part of this drama before in the State Senate, as a co-sponsor of the Clean Smokestacks Act of 2002, which made North Carolina a national leader in cleaning our skies of other health and environmental hazards - leading to the best air quality this summer in 3 decades (http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/nc_air_cleaner_this_year). And created jobs in Durham where scrubbers are made, without raising energy costs on consumers or businesses.
Read the rest of the blog here.
Cal has released a specific and comprehensive plan to create green jobs. You can read that plan here. That plan includes:
Establish tax-advantaged Clean Energy Business Zones to concentrate job growth.
Incentives to spur residential and commercial energy efficiency measures that will create jobs by putting home and business contractors back to work.
Provide incentives for bio-diesel and other next generation fuels that can create new jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Make innovation in the next generation of clean energy technologies a priority to build a stronger hi-tech energy industry and employ highly skilled American workers.
The only televised debate of the primary was held last night, and Cal's first TV ad was all over the airwaves in North Carolina this week. As Cal said last night at the debate, "Join Us!"
I am proud to work for Cal's campaign.