How and why is it that policies and measures that are supported by a wide range of citizens end up as easy targets for such big-moneyed interests as the coal industry? Too many times grass-roots groups wage painstaking battles only to have the big-moneyed Interests wave even larger sums in front of legislators, who seem to have little interest in any true democratic process.

Instead of rewarding an industry that has not been a good community member either locally or globally, we should be crafting policies and programs that will help clean and protect the environment while at the same time helping to create new clean energy jobs that have a real future. According to a University of Massachusetts study, solar- and wind-generated energy technologies create twice as many jobs as does coal-fired power generation. Now is the time to support those technologies that will jumpstart our economy and lay the groundwork for America to be competitive this century.

We must save the Clean Air Act, which so many concerned Americans worked so long and so hard for.