FT.
LAUDERDALE—Environment Florida today congratulated State Senator Ron Klein, who
will represent Florida’s 22nd district in the U.S. Congress next
year, for supporting the New Energy Future platform to move America beyond
fossil fuels and toward a cleaner energy future.
“Floridians
want leaders who will work to solve our energy problems,” said Adam Rivera, Field
Organizer with Environment Florida. “We look forward to working with Representative-elect
Klein to put American innovation to work to build a New Energy Future in the
110th Congress,” said Rivera.
Last
night’s returns demonstrate that the American people want Congress to take
action now to move Americans toward a new, cleaner energy future. Candidates
across the country and across the political spectrum in the nation’s most
competitive races endorsed the New Energy Future platform, showing that the
platform is not only good policy but also good politics. In the 50 key races
targeted by the New Energy Future campaign, 37 major party candidates endorsed
the New Energy Future platform, with at least 18 and as many as 22 candidates
winning.
Environment
Florida was
joined by organizations across the country in calling on all Congressional
candidates in the 2006 elections to deliver on the promise of a New Energy Future
by committing to:
• Reduce U.S. dependence
on oil by saving one-third of the oil we use today by 2025;
• Harness clean,
renewable, homegrown energy sources for at least one quarter of all energy
needs by 2025;
• Save energy with
high performance homes, buildings and appliances so that by 2025 we use 10
percent less energy than we do today; and
• Invest in a New
Energy Future by tripling research and development funding for the
energy-saving and renewable technologies we need to achieve these goals.
New Energy
Future organizers, activists, and volunteers worked to raise the profile of energy
issues in the 22nd district during the campaign, asking the
candidates where they stood on energy issues at campaign events, debates, and
by collecting petition signatures.
More than 250
environmental, consumer, labor, and civic groups—including the Palm Beach
County League of Women Voters and Veterans of Foreign Wars of Boynton
Beach—have endorsed the New Energy Future platform.
Candidates endorsing the
platform came from across the political spectrum, including progressive
Democrats like California’s Lynn Woolsey and Maryland’s Ben Cardin, Republican
conservatives like Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, Minnesota’s Gil Gutknect, and
Georgia’s Mac Collins, and moderates of both parties like Georgia’s Sanford
Bishop and Pennsylvania’s Curt Weldon. Endorsers
likely to join the newly minted Democratic House majority leadership included Maryland’s Steny Hoyer and Pennsylvania’s John Murtha.
“We will
need bold leadership to solve our energy problems,” said Rivera. “By endorsing
the New Energy Future platform, Representative-elect Klein has shown his
support for moving America in a new direction that puts our national security,
our environment, the global climate and our children’s futures above Big Oil
and other powerful interests” continued Rivera.
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Environment Florida is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that
advocates for clean air, clean water and open spaces in Florida.
