This article reported:  The governor also said mountaintop removal was high on the president's radar screen. "There's no bones about it," Manchin said, "They're not a fan of mountaintop removal."

Help make certain that mountaintop removal is on every lawmaker's radar screen in DC -- join us for the March 6-10 End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington. To facilitate our planning, we really need you to register soon -- by this Friday would be ideal.  Learn all about Week in Washington here.  All you need to register is here. 

They think that if they just add the word "clean" to something then we and the rest of America won't figure out what they are really up to. In this case: giving even more of our taxpayer money to the same people who brought about both the economic crisis and the environmental crisis.

The most recent idea masquerading as a solution is US Senator Jeff Bingaman's. He just offered the idea to create a national "Clean Energy Bank." This bank would offer loans to clean energy companies.

Sounds good, right?

Only in D.C. a "clean energy bank" doesn't really fund clean energy (that is solar and wind). No, in D.C. a "clean energy bank" actually allows unlimited taxpayer loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear reactors and federal dollars for "clean coal" projects.

That's right. Coal and nuclear. And they call this a NEW energy plan? That's not clean energy. It's not energy independence. It's doubling down on the old big energy companies that helped create our problems.

The only explanation for their behavior is that they think we're stupid, that we won't figure out that this is yet another industry bailout.

Of course we aren't stupid. We know what is and isn't clean. The litmus test for truly clean energy is the waste it produces and what that waste will mean for us, our children and our grandchildren. We know that coal and nuclear power produce volumes of radioactive and toxic wastes that cause diseases and literally kill people. We know that a by-product that cannot be disposed of cheaply or easily or that creates a long-term problem for health and for future generations isn't clean, and that's what we get from coal and nuclear power: arsenic, mercury, and radioactive waste. If it produces massive, dangerous wastes it is by definition not clean.

And they want us to believe this will be our "clean energy" future.

CLEAN says: Enough of bailouts and wasteful investment of our resources. Enough of wasting precious time and squandering our chance to lead the global markets in clean energy jobs and manufacturing.

But what to do? Make sure they know that there are consequences for throwing good money after bad. It is time for smart investments of public funds that create jobs and clean air!

Contact your own Senator. Click here to do so. Tell him or her not to sign on with Bingaman. We think you probably have a pretty good idea of what to say by now, but in case you need some, here are a few talking points:

- Stop wasting time and money by investing in coal and nuclear power. Wall Street won't invest because the risks are too great. Why should my tax dollars do what Wall Street won't?

- Coal and nuclear are not clean. No solution has yet been found for nuclear wastes and the federal government is just beginning to look at the wastes from burning coal, the coal ash impoundment sites at every coal plant in the country.

- If you sign on with Bingaman, I will tell all of my friends that you are acting in the interests of corporate America and not our best interests. You won't have my vote.

- Taxpayer dollars should be invested in real clean energy and the jobs it will produce. It is time to get serious about solving this problem and stop the political posturing.

 - If you sign on, at least have the backbone to call the bank what it is: the Nuclear/Coal Bank. More of the same is not problem solving.

You still reading? Contact your US Senator now and then forward this message to at least five people. Also, let us know you did and what the response was by sending an email to info@theclean.org To get more updates from us click here and signup for email.

Sincerely,

Pam Solo
theclean.org