Apollo, MoveOn & Boxer Lay Out Climate Solutions

Earlier today, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo and MoveOn.org's Eli Pariser addressed the media, offered their support for tomorrow's global event Live Earth, and turned the spotlight towards solutions to the climate crisis.

Ringo emphasized the points he made in his TomPaine.com essay, "For A Live Earth, U.S. Must Lead":

The federal government must again lead the charge by making the investments that will create the tools for change. In every case, that upfront investment has led to increased prosperity. While we may have to sacrifice now, we will benefit many times over in the future...

...The work of saving the environment will be the work of business and the people who work for business, and that is an opportunity, not a danger. We can create new jobs, and they can be good jobs that provide the means to live and give working people of every stripe a real stake in change.

For more on the Apollo Alliance vision for a clean energy economy, check out the 10-Point Plan for Good Jobs and Energy Independence.

Sen. Boxer was optimistic about the recent partnership between Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., both members of her environment committee. The two have pledged to draft, in Boxer's words, an "economy-wide, cap-and-trade" bill, meaning the cap on carbon emissions would apply across the economy and not just on a few industries.

(Blue Climate reported earlier that Lieberman expected to have the draft completed "before the August recess.")

And Pariser expressed excitement that in tomorrow's MoveOn.org Virtual Town Hall Meeting on the Climate Crisis, co-sponsored by Campaign for America's Future and others, several presidential candidate would likely embrace "cap-and-auction" plans to slash carbon emissions.

("Cap-and-auction" is a form of "cap-and-trade" where, as described by Gristmill's Tom Athanasiou, "Emission allowances are auctioned to the highest bidder instead of being grandfathered -- this means that there's no windfall for existing polluters.")

You can sign up to participate in the Virtual Town Hall by clicking here, and you can sign up to join the Apollo Alliance by clicking here.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future