Climate Vote Coming -- What's at Stake?

Dear Daniel, Only 5 days left to match your emergency donation. Please donate now and your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Even as we celebrate the President's historic proposals on fuel economy, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is finalizing work on landmark climate legislation. A vote could come at any time but the outcome is far from certain. If the Committee votes yes, it would set the stage for historic action in the full House and Senate. If the Committee votes no, our legislative team says it could be years before we get this close again. There are just too many other key priorities on the President's agenda. We need your help to seize this critical momentum and keep the pressure on. And if you donate before Memorial Day, your emergency donation to Operation: Climate Vote will be matched dollar-for-dollar. The opposition is doing everything they can to defeat this bill. A new report from the Center for Responsive Politics reveals that in the first three months of 2009, our opponents spent $80 million on direct lobbying alone. That figure doesn't include the tens of millions more spent on political contributions and paid advertising. And to add insult to injury among the lavishly paid hired guns working to defeat climate legislation are top Bush Administration environmental officials -- many of the same officials who worked to block action over the last 8 years. We're at a make-or-break moment. Your donation right now will go twice as far to help us ramp up our campaign efforts, buy more ad time, and do more on-the-ground field work. Here's what we plan to do with your emergency donation: Our Air Campaign -- We have placed hard-hitting truth-telling ads in key states and those all-important swing Congressional districts to help secure the votes to get a strong bill passed. With your donation, we can buy more ads to shore up swing votes on Committee. Our Ground Campaign -- Our grassroots organizing team is going door to door and community to community to raise public concern and mobilize voters to demand a strong bill in Washington. Your donation will help keep these efforts going. Our Cyber Campaign -- Through our Truth Squad blog and our Operation: Climate Vote hub page, we are using the power of the Internet to identify the false claims and scare tactics of the climate deniers, and to shine a spotlight on their cynical efforts to stop progress. Your support will give us the resources we need to intensify our online communications efforts. For only 5 more days, your emergency contribution will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Your donation will never make a bigger difference than it will today. One way or another, we are making history in 2009. Whether this becomes the year we changed America's direction or the one in which we lost one of our last great opportunities to act is up to us. Please join me. Sincerely, David Yarnold President, Environmental Defense Action Fund