House of Representatives Passes Renewable Electricity Standard
UCS and our supporters played a critical role in the House's historic passage of a renewable electricity standard. Activists sent their representatives more than twenty thousand emails and made hundreds of calls in support of the bill. If passed into law, the Udall-Platts-Gonzalez renewable electricity standard would require large, investor-owned utilities to acquire 15 percent of their power from clean, renewable sources like solar, wind or biomass by 2020. Because so many representatives were on the fence, and because utility lobbying was so intense, it was critical for constituents to contact their representatives in as many ways as possible.
Beyond organizing activists to email, call, and meet with their legislators, UCS also participated in coordinated phone banking efforts with other environmental groups, generating thousands of calls to representatives' offices. It worked. Capitol Hill staffers were impressed at the volume of calls coming in on renewable energy; in the hours before the vote, one representative's staffer even confided that this kind of groundswell of support would be necessary to win her boss' vote, and thanks to our field consultant, UCS got the calls in. We got that representative's vote—and many others.
The 220-190 vote, stronger than many expected, reflects the public's clear preference to reduce our dependence on dirty power and begin our transition to clean energy.
