Washington, D.C., October 24, 2009 – The Alliance to Save Energy today commended the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for moving forward on climate legislation.

“Today's release of both the Chairman's Mark of the Kerry-Boxer climate bill and the long awaited EPA analysis represents a major step forward in the process of enacting strong energy and climate legislation,” said Alliance Senior Vice President Joe Loper.

“While we have not had an opportunity to study all of the details in the Chairman's Mark, we are pleased to see the amount of resources that are going into energy efficiency as the major cost containment tool in implementing a cap and trade system,” observed Loper.

“We commend the committee for moving ahead with three days of hearings on the climate bill next week and hope to see a committee markup the following week," he said.

“Chairman Boxer (D-Calif.) is to be commended for her hard work in making possible early consideration of climate legislation by the full Senate, and we strongly urge the other committees with jurisdiction over the climate bill to complete their work by Thanksgiving, as Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.) has suggested,” he continued. “There is still a long way to go, and sustained pressure by the president will be needed to be successful in the Senate.

“It is strongly in our nation's interest to enact energy and climate legislation as soon as possible to benefit consumers directly, by reducing their energy bills, while also reducing the nation's carbon footprint and enabling the benefits of the clean energy economy to provide new jobs and economic growth,” concluded Loper.