Crossposted from ilovemountains.org by SarahV

January 19, 2009

With the opening of the Congressional session last week, and the inauguration on Tuesday all eyes are on capitol hill.

This, thought the folks here at iLoveMountains, makes it the perfect time to roll out a new weekly feature. We’re taking a page from the great Stephen Colbert and using each Mountain Mondays post as a vehicle to spotlight one of our valued co-sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act, and a representative from a nearby district we would love to see add their John Hancock.

In the future, we’ll have a regular post along with this new feature, but for this, the inaugural post, it will stand on its own.

Better Know a CWPA Sponsor: Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06)

Frank Pallone, Jr. is the lead sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act bill. He introduced the bill in the 110th congress, and will again in the 111th. Rep. Pallone has a strong history with water issues in his home district, successfully working to stop ocean dumping and offshore oil and gas drilling. Check out his great blog about the CWPA on Daily Kos.

Better Know a CWPA Target: Rep. Frank Lobiondo (R-NJ-02)

Congressman Lobiondo represents New Jersey’s second district. He serves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its subcommittee, Water Resources and the Environment. According to his official biography, he “has worked to protect fragile wildlife and wetlands areas,” meaning he knows some about threatened ecosystems, and the importance of maintaining water resources. Rep. Lobiondo has also shown firm support for the broad implementation of sustainable alternative energy sources in an effort to both achieve energy independence and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Promisingly, though energy independence is his ultimate focus, he did not see coal as key in the achievement of that goal, presumably because of its know impact on the environment and place at the top of the pile when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

If you’d like to get involved, send a letter to your congressperson asking them to co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act in the 111th congress. You can do it easily with our online tool. And, if you want to get up close and personal with your congresspeople, register for the End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, March 14-18, 2009. Registration ends February 25, so sign up now!

‘Cause we know it’ll be a law someday! At least we hope and pray that it will, but today it is still just a bill…