Dear Senator, Help Renewable Energy

In the great civil tradition of taking pen to paper, 176 organizations — corporate, environmental, consumer, faith-based, energy policy research and others — sent a letter to senators today via the Sustainable Energy Network, urging them to join the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RE/EE) Caucus.

The RE/EE is described as:

…a non-legislative, bipartisan organization created to promote greater awareness among Members of Congress of the status, potential, and policy options for promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy (i.e., biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, water power, and wind) technologies.

The letter follows this week’s vote in the House of Representatives in which the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act was passed and will soon head to the Senate. The legislation proposes to cut oil subsidies and use the money to fund renewable energy. The Senate has already voted down similar legislation twice and President Bush has said he will veto legislation that targets specific industries with taxes.

The letter doesn’t carry the same signatory venture capital celebrities and techno gurus found on the letter from the American Council on Renewable Energy earlier this month. It does, however, count a number of prominent renewable energy lobbyist groups as signatories, including the American Wind Energy Association and the American Solar Energy Society, as well as cleantech startups like REGrid Power and Sundial Energy.

Co-chaired by Senators Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), the RE/EE currently has 36 members from the Senate, including presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). Key members the Sustainable Energy Network hopes to recruit include Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).