Lessons from School House Rock... Make sure clean energy legislation doesn't stay "Just a Bill"

Remember that School House Rock segment called I'm Just a Bill , where the scroll of paper named Bill talks with a little boy about how he wants to become a law? Well just like the cartoon Bill the clean energy legislation passed by the House and Senate has not quite become law.

The good news is that the hard work of activists like us assured that the House version of the bill included a renewable energy standard (RES) that requires utilities to get at least 15% of their electricity from clean, US based, renewable energy sources by 2020, and the Senate version included an increase in CAFE, or fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. The bad news is that the differences between the two bills have to be hammered out in conference committee and then, just like we learned from School House Rock, the final version must be signed by the president. For this clean energy bill to have the same happy ending as the school house rock Bill, who does become a law, we must keep up our pressure on President Bush and our Congressional representatives. Read more about the legislation at It's Getting Hot in Here, a blog by youth climate change activists, and then find the find and write your elected officials to tell them you want both increased CAFE standards and the RES in the final version of the bill.