NOW MORE THAN EVER, IT’S TIME TO STAY THE COURSE.

As many of you know, the Clean Power Plan, the nation’s most aggressive and historic step forward against climate change was put on hold a couple of weeks ago by the Supreme Court. While everyone closer to the situation is confident that the legal basis for the CPP is sound, time is not on our side and a delay is just what we don’t need. Climate change isn’t waiting for the Supreme Court to iron this out. Neither should we.

While the Plan’s emission limits aren’t scheduled to take effect until 2022, states were supposed to submit initial descriptions of how they’ll satisfy those limits by September 2016. So for the most part, states were in the midst of writing those plans when the Supreme Court put the brakes on everything.

Although the stay removes the September deadline to submit compliance plans to the EPA, a poll by ClimateWire indicates that 20 states are pressing on with discussions about how to meet carbon emissions limits for power plans, while 18 have stopped planning and 9 are weighing whether to stop or slow down planning.

Take a look at this chart to find out what your state is doing: http://www.eenews.net/interactive/clean_power_plan#planning_status_chart

Now, especially now, it’s imperative that we don’t lose momentum. Recently, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said “We have obviously a big issue in Pennsylvania,” (whose state intends to keep planning). “The coal industry is huge, with a lot of jobs. Also, because of our location we generate a lot of power. That’s why it’s important for Pennsylvania to get its plan right, I want Pennsylvania to be a leader in clean power.”

He gets it. Thankfully he’s not alone. In fact, 17 governors released a statement recently that said “we recognize that now is the time to embrace a bold vision of the nation’s energy future.” But there are at least 27 governors who have stopped their planning.

We can’t lose momentum on our transition to clean energy. We know that the Clean Power Plan will effectively address the largest sources of carbon pollution and effectively address climate change, while preventing up to 3,600 premature deaths and creating tens of thousands of long-term, well-paying jobs. It’ll help us move more quickly towards the inevitable clean energy future we need right now. Clearly, it’s the right thing to do and we’re at such a critical point now.

So what can we do? Our job now is to make sure that our governors know that putting their pencils down on the Clean Power Plan is unacceptable for us today, and the future of our children. It’s imperative that we don’t lose any time on our progress towards clean energy.

Please take a moment and call your governor using this very easy tool. https://protectourwinters.org/take-action/pints-for-pow/

If your governor is complying, please say thanks and let him/her know that they have your support. For the others, please let them know that any delay is unacceptable and for that, they’ll lose your vote. Plain and simple.