Progress Now Action

This morning, ten major U.S. businesses and four national environmental organizations issued a joint report, A Call to Action (pdf file), calling on the federal government to quickly pass strong national legislation to cut global warming pollution.

You can watch the press conference live this morning on CSPAN at 11:30am Eastern. You will also be able to watch it online at CSPAN.org.

The companies involved in today's announcement are well-known Fortune 500 corporations: Alcoa, BP America, Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, Florida Power and Light, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, Pacific Gas & Electric, and PNM Resources.

They have joined Environmental Defense, the World Resources Institute, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and Natural Resources Defense Council to form an unprecedented alliance -- the United States Climate Action Partnership (US-CAP).

In today's announcement, the partners pledged to work together to support six recommendations for national action:

1. Account for the global dimensions of climate change - the U.S. government should become more involved in international agreements to fight global warming;

2. Recognize the importance of technology - the cost-effective deployment of existing energy efficient technologies should be a priority;

3. Be environmentally effective - establish a mandatory cap that guarantees emissions will be cut and other measures to facilitate reaching the needed targets;

4. Create economic opportunity and advantage - a climate protection program must use the power of the market to establish clear targets and timeframes;

5. Be fair - global warming solutions must account for the disproportionate impact of both global warming and emissions reductions on some economic sectors, geographic regions, and income groups; and

6. Encourage early action - prior to the effective date of mandatory pollution limits, every reasonable effort should be made to reduce emissions.