Nearly 30 environmental, science and conservation groups presented their top policy recommendations to President-elect Obama’s transition team yesterday.

Representing millions of Americans, the groups provided a document laying out recommendations on key federal agencies and issues, including land, air, water, oceans, and public health.

The document demonstrates agreement with Obama’s call to increase investment in clean, renewable energy as his top priorities. Such investments would re-power America and help stabilize the economy over the long-term.

The full recommendations are available at http://ga3.org/soe/transition.html

Larry Schweiger

The Environmental Protection Agency is asking for public comments on whether greenhouse gases that cause global warming "endanger public health and welfare."

Global warming is one of the greatest threats people and wildlife have ever faced. Now is the time for action. More than 21,000 National Wildlife Federation supporters have submitted comments urging the Environmental Protection Agency to take responsibility to regulate greenhouse gases.

Now you can add your voice to this historic opportunity to stop global warming.

Urge the EPA to take action today.

Our goal is to have 35,000 public comments submitted by the public comment deadline of November 28th.

In a recent post-election poll, 78% of voters see clean energy as a pathway to revitalize America's economy. The poll also showed 57% of voters said it was important to back candidates who support reducing global warming pollution. And just recently President-Elect Obama released a powerful video statement:"Few challenges facing America -- and the world -- are more urgent than combating climate change," he said. "Many of you are working to confront this challenge....but too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind of leadership. That will change when I take office."

Help set the stage for the next Administration to address global warming that will save wildlife and people. Let the Environmental Protection Agency hear from you today.

The following statement was released today by National Wildlife Federation in response to President-Elect Obama's call for climate action. See Obama's surprise climate change video appearance at:

http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/president_elect_obama_promises_new_chapter_on_climate_change/

Larry Schweiger

For Immediate Release

November 18, 2008

Contact: Miles Grant, National Wildlife Federation, 703-864-9599 (cell), grantm@nwf.org

NWF President & CEO Reacts to Obama’s Call for Climate Action

WASHINGTON, DC (November 18, 2008) - President-elect Barack Obama delivered a speech via video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvG2XptIEJk) today to the bipartisan Governors’ Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles.

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:

"With today’s call for action on global warming, President-elect Obama has kicked the gears of change into motion. The call for action will echo from the halls of Washington to the capitals of nations around the world.

"After years of gridlock in Washington, Obama has offered America and the world a new beginning that promises to revitalize our economy with clean energy and to protect our planet in peril.

"As world leaders gather in the coming weeks in Poland to negotiate a pathway out of the climate crisis, the eyes of the world will be upon America and our newfound resolve to rejoin global efforts.

"The American public stands behind Obama’s call for action. According to a Zogby post-election poll, 60 percent of Americans who voted in the elections believe combating global warming should be a high priority’ for the next president and new Congress.

"The time for America to act is now. With our economy in crisis and our planet in peril, the fate of our economy and environment hinge on how quickly we move to repower America with clean energy solutions.

Clean energy investments create jobs, revitalize our economy, and reduce the pollution that is accelerating global warming. The investments in clean energy that forestall a climate meltdown will aid our recovery from the global financial meltdown.

"We applaud President-elect Obama’s determination to aggressively pursue his campaign commitment to cap the pollution that is causing global warming and invest financial resources from a cap-and-trade plan in deploying clean energy technologies and safeguarding America’s natural resources.

"With the backing of our four million supporters across America, the National Wildlife Federation is committed to enacting strong climate and clean energy legislation in Congress in 2009."

The National Wildlife Federation ( http://www.nwf.org/ )is America's largest conservation organization inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.

In his New York Times opinion piece The Climate for Change, former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore rightly points out that:

"…the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis."

Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/opinion/09gore.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Larry Schweiger

In the spirit of change that is coming to the land, National Wildlife Federation offers a post-election take on our changing political landscape.

The National Wildlife Federation’s What’s Out and What’s In list provides a new perspective on what is going out and coming in after the sea-change 2008 elections.

Larry Schweiger

In his victory speech last night, President-elect Barack Obama called on America to defend a "planet in peril" as one of the three great challenges of our time. President-elect Barack Obama is inheriting not just two wars, dangerous energy dependency, crushing debt, and a broken economy, but he is inheriting a climate crisis that is far worse than most Americans know. Obama understands how difficult "remaking this nation" will be. He explicitly expressed this challenge in his acceptance speech: "For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime:two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."

The good news is that we finally have a leader who gets the urgency of climate change and has the capacity to unite America.

Election Day 2008 will be remembered not only for delivering a new President and a new Congress, but for a clarion call for a new direction to end our dependence on oil, reinvent our energy economy, and to find climate solutions. America must now embrace a new national economy built on a vision of carbon-free, domestically-produced energy. This election was powered by younger voters, including many first-time and previously disaffected voters who are deeply worried about their future. They want dramatic and meaningful change, especially for a new energy economy that will protect the planet while creating domestic jobs. Obama’s bold stimulus package will be driven by new energy investments for clean power and investments in energy efficiency at the community level. In his words: "There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair."

The only way the President-elect solves all of the staggering problems facing us at one time is by bundling them together into a single new energy pathway through the creation of a bold, carbon-free energy stimulus program, a national grid, and a comprehensive energy policy that creates a new pathway forward by capping carbon pollution and stimulating massive public and private investments in building a new energy infrastructure within ten years. Building a new clean energy infrastructure will not be easy or quick. As Obama said last night, "The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may notget there in one year or even in one term… I will ask you to join in the work of the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."

It’s truly a new day in Washington. I hope it will be a new day for bipartisan cooperation to solve America’s problems. Senator John McCain’s willingness find bipartisan solutions will be needed more now than ever. Our leaders on both sides of the aisle can’t afford to take this new opportunity for granted. Americans want a clean energy economy that moves away from dependence on oil and toward solutions to global warming. They will be looking for results, not more rhetoric. They expect legislation that caps and rapidly reduces U.S. global warming pollution, invests in made-in-America clean energy solutions, and provides funding to protect natural resources from the harmful impacts of global warming. The National Wildlife Federation looks forward to working with President-elect Barack Obama and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in this new political climate to pass strong new energy/global warming legislation. After eight years of denial and delay, we simply cannot afford to wait any longer.

Cross posted from the National Journal’s Energy & Environment Expert blog.

Larry Schweiger