Last October, John Kerry laid out the stakes in a call with over 300 youth climate leaders: a clean energy future is only possible if we — as a generation — make our voice heard.

In response, we launched the Organize to be Heard Challenge, and thousands of young people have stepped up, generating thousands of phone calls, handwritten letters and petitions demanding action on climate and clean energy.

Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming call for action, there is one roadblock where all progress stops: our broken U.S. Senate. The Senate needs to know we’re sick of leaders who fail to lead and tired of government which fails to govern. They need to know that we’re not idealistic, we’re angry.

Call your Senator and tell them to stop standing in the way of our clean energy future!

Today, NRDC Action Fund launched an exciting new video and call-to-action campaign: .

The video features Leonardo DiCaprio, Jason Bateman, Justin Long, Edward Norton, Forest Whitaker and others calling for strong action for a clean energy future.

Take a moment to watch the video, share it with your friends, and email your Senators to tell them this is our moment.

The United States of America can lead in the development of clean energy technology and manufacturing while we lead in the fight against global warming.

Everyone knows we have a dependence on oil we buy from countries that don’t share our values. This threatens our security and our integrity. And it needs to stop. We know it does. Still, we’ve seen our dependence on foreign oil grow and pollute the air we breathe and endanger our planet. But we can change that. Now.

There’s a bill in the Senate that will break foreign oil’s stranglehold on our country, reduce carbon pollution, and create jobs right here in America—good jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.

It’s one of the most important pieces of legislation of our time. It’s a clean energy bill. And it’s been a long time coming.

I’m not dead yet

The conventional wisdom around Washington is that the climate bill is dead. It’s an obituary that’s been written before, but ask anyone in the political establishment and they will tell you that this time it’s for real. Ask any member of the insider DC press corps, they’ll tell you that Scott Brown’s upset Senate victory in the Massachusetts was the final nail in a coffin they have been hammering relentlessly all year.

They are wrong.

Passing comprehensive clean energy and climate reform is not going to be easy, but who ever thought it would be? The death of climate legislation may fit into the standard media narrative and make for a nice story, but it’s not true and here’s a few reasons why:

1. Real Bipartisanship

Unlike the months long health care “negotiations” Max Baucus conducted with hostile Republicans, the Senate climate bill has bipartisan participation from the get go. Conservative Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and self-appointed swing vote Joe Lieberman (?-CT) have teamed up with John Kerry to craft a bi-(tri?)-partisan proposal to cap carbon, and Susan Collins (R-ME) has put forward her own cap-and-dividend approach.

There are positives and negatives to this bipartisan route. Will the compromise bill that emerges include unsavory trade-offs (i.e. nuclear title, “clean” coal, drilling permits)? Almost certainly. But as painful as these compromises may be, they also pave the road to 60 votes for a price on carbon. Lindsay Graham might be an unlikely climate hero, but his involvement could be the difference between disastrous inaction and a cap on carbon pollution. (For more on this, see some cogent analysis from Joe Romm)

2. Obama’s Getting in the Game

A great deal of anger has been directed at the White House for their failure to visibly lead on climate. Much of it is deserved. However, there are signs that President Obama and the administration are ready to step out in front on this issue.

Previously, we’ve seen a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering from Obama and other climate leaders in the White House such as Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner, and Steven Chu, as well as some stronger public engagement including last month’s Youth Clean Energy Forum.

In an editorial this weekend, the New York Times called for Obama to make a forceful argument for clean energy jobs and climate action in his State of the Union speech. Early indications suggest that climate will, in fact, be a prominent component of Wednesday’s address to Congress.

In addition, the White House has a trump card of its own – the ongoing effort by Lisa Jackson and the EPA to limit carbon pollution through their independent regulatory authority. The threat of EPA action serves as the stick to compliment the carrot of Senate negotiations, and as demonstrated by Lisa Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act, is clearly making big polluters nervous.

3. You

The politics and policies are complicated, but there is also one big, simple reason to be optimistic about climate action: all of you.

The youth climate movement has been out in front, aggressively making the case for our clean energy future. The movement is getting bigger, louder, and more organized by the day. Even with Washington’s usual suspects ready (perhaps eager) to leave climate for dead, rather than scale back, youth climate leaders plan only to ramp up.

Never underestimate the power of passionate, organized activists to rapidly reshape the narrative and reconfigure the conventional wisdom.

Just last week, thousands of citizens contacted their senators to oppose the Dirty Air Act. On Thursday, Lisa Murkowski took to the Senate floor and not only directly addressed the Dirty Air Act label, but also announced she was indefinitely postponing the vote on her proposal. This partial victory was only the beginning of the fight (stay tuned for more!) but it demonstrates the impact targeted activist pressure can have on the legislative process.

It’s easy to feel frustrated or powerless in the face of the perfect storm of bloviating and bullshit which passes for American politics. Don’t.

It’s time to double down. Join our Organize to be Heard Challenge or take part in any of the other amazing youth climate action going on across the country. Figure out who’s organizing on your campus and get involved. Recruit your friends. Enlist your acquaintances. Draft that one guy you met that one time (yeah, him too).

Do whatever you can to make your voice heard. It’s our clean energy future and no one is going to secure it for us. We have a lot of work ahead, but someone needs to tell the DC establishment that climate isn’t dead yet.

P.S. Though his spirit is admirable, please resist all comparisons to a certain Black Knight

Sparty celebrating a succesful clean energy event

Tom Izzo and the Michigan State basketball team aren’t the only ones off to a strong start this season. The Spartans have also jumped to an early lead in the Organizing to be Heard Challenge, racking up hundreds of letters and phone calls asking Senators Levin and Stabenow to support clean energy.

As The State News Reports:

On Wednesday night, students from Spartans Repowering America, the MSU chapter of the national organization Repower America, painted the rock on Farm Lane in an effort to promote a larger interest in their cause. Overall, the group collected more than 100 letters and several video testimonies from students.

Some of the goals of Repower America include creating a green economy, bringing jobs to Michigan, ending dependency on foreign oil, increasing national security and creating a clean environment for future generations, Starke said.

“I think it’s important for students to have the opportunity to communicate with senators,” Starke said. “Clean energy is important for our future and anything we can do to be a part of our government is important.”

Read the rest at The State News

A common refrain in political rhetoric is that “the children are our future.” The Consequence Campaign exists because youth aren’t just the future, we are the present. Our generation is mobilized and ready for action. Whether Washington is ready for it or not, we will not sit idly by as critical decisions are made. It’s our future and we are going to create it.

Consequence is the largest coalition of youth organizations ever assembled to call for congressional action on clean energy jobs and global warming. This is OUR fight. Youth have the most to lose from the impending climate catastrophe, and the most to gain from a new clean energy economy. In 2008, our decisive effort on the Obama campaign proved our political might. In 2009, our collective voice can be the deciding factor in the battle for strong clean energy reform. Standing together we cannot — and will not — be ignored.

Consequence Campaign partners are already running bold grassroots campaigns in every state in the country. In the posts below, you will hear from several of these partners in their own words about why they are involved in this effort and how you can take part.

It’s our time to lead. Together we will create our clean energy future.