This blog was written by Jennifer Rennicks, former Senior Director of Policy & Communications at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Guest Blog | June 26, 2009 | Climate Change, Energy Policy

Right now the House of Representatives is debating energy legislation that (for the first time ever) will include global-warming reduction measures, and votes are expected later today.

From newspaper ads to television spots to action alerts to rally the troops, the proponents and opponents of moving America away from the fossil-fuel age are building their case in the court of public opinion.

While I was in Washington this week urging our Southeastern legislative offices to support legislation that moves us toward a clean-energy future, I picked up and read several different Congressionally-focused newspapers – including The Hill, Politico, and the Washington Post.

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” and from the deluge of print ads I saw, it couldn’t be more clear which side is projecting a positive future to inspire action and which side is relying on doom and gloom to scare us into sticking with the status quo.

To many of us, the choice is clear: one future requires hard work with the goal of building a new economy while the other future relies on fear-mongering to bring us the false comfort of inaction.

At yesterday’s White House press conference on the importance of passing climate and energy legislation this year, President Barack Obama declared: “Now is the time to act.”

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy supports policies that actively move us toward job creation, economic development and environmental protection and urge our elected leaders in Congress to do the same.  When picturing our future, I prefer a vision of success and achievement along the path to a clean energy future – if you do, please call your Representative today and urge him/her to help lead us there.