We're losing

Dear MoveOn member,

If the jobs of the future are in wind and solar, where will those jobs be located? Unless we act quickly, this picture shows the answer:
Massive wind farm in China

By the end of the year, China will be the world's leading manufacturer of wind turbines.1 The U.S. government's investment in wind is tiny compared to China's, and that means American workers are missing out on millions of new jobs.

All that could change: In two weeks, there's a vote on President Obama's plan for a new energy economy. But key Democrats are wavering in the face of a flurry of Big Oil ads claiming America can't afford clean energy.

We're ready to counter with a new TV ad about all the great manufacturing jobs we could create by building clean energy tech. That's the message that'll convince Congress, but we need to raise $100,000 to put it on the air this week—can you chip in $25 to help out?

If we don't pass this bill, we'll lose our chance to create millions of good, green jobs for laid-off workers. We'll lose our chance to give our kids a vibrant economy. And we'll lose our chance to pay down our national debt.

U.S. investment in wind power lags far behind, but when it comes to solar power, the story is even more infuriating: In the 1990s, the U.S. actually led the world in solar cell manufacturing. But in the Bush-Cheney years, China, Japan, and Europe all zoomed ahead of us in solar production.

We can catch up, but only if we start quickly.

Obama's plan would aggressively scale up American wind and solar production—creating millions of new jobs and tackling climate change in one fell swoop.

But the latest ads from dirty-energy companies are scaring away key Democrats in Congress. We've got to ramp up our grassroots campaign, starting with a new national TV ad to frame clean energy as one of the best ways to create good, new jobs.

Can you pitch in $25 to help win the upcoming vote on Obama's clean energy jobs plan?

Thanks for all you do.

–Adam, Noah, Anna, Wes and the rest of the team


I think they filter emails that have "socialism" in the text:

How many times do I have to tell you socialist dipshits that government cannot create jobs. Government can only take away from someone, skim off a bit, and give what's left to someone else.

Asking the government to "create more green jobs" amounts to one thing: SOCIALISM.

Yep, I said it. SOCIALISM.

I have a better idea, you nitwits. Why not tell the government to give massive tax breaks to green power-producing businesses during their startup phase (first 3 years, say) and stop collecting income tax from people altogether so we can use our money to afford all these high-dollar green solutions ourselves?

I mean, what's the point of having the government take it from us, skim off their "share," and then redistribute it in order to make "green" stuff cheaper for the rest of us? Why not just allow us to keep our money so we can afford the green stuff to start with?

Gee, that might make too much sense.