On March 14th, 2010, six members of the Amherst 350 group will leave for Washington D.C. where we will spend Monday lobbying with staffers of our senators and Representative John Olver. We are the second group headed up to D.C. in partnership with  Pioneer Valley Climate’s 350 Campaign. We will promote ‘cap-and-dividend’, (a more climate friendly version of cap-and-trade), and encourage them to support legislation that will move us closer to our goal of 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere.

The Leadership Campaign is calling on Governor Patrick and the legislature to put Massachusetts on the road to 350 by committing to 100% Clean Electricity in the next 10 years.  Leila Quinn of the Campaign spoke about it at our Jan 18 meeting, and we signed its Community Letter of Support, as an organization.  You can download the letter (.doc or .pdf version) , and encourage another organization to sign it.

You can get on the Leadership Campaign’s email list by going to their website and signing up on the panel which says, “I am ready for Massachusetts to lead the country and the world with science-based climate policy. I call on Governor Patrick and the legislature to put Massachusetts on the road to 350 by committing to 100% Clean Electricity in the next 10 years.”

And after that, watch The Story of Cap and Trade on YouTube!

On December 2, 2009, The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org took an historic step in the desperate fight against climate catastrophe:  They petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a national pollution cap for greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.  They put out a call for organizations to join them, and we, the Amherst 350 Coalition, did.  You can read the letter to the EPA, and the list of organizations signing on – including ours – here.  There were 117 organizations as of Dec 28.