| In this week’s address, President Obama talks about the bipartisan agreement that Congress reached this week which prevented a middle-class tax hike, congratulates the newly sworn-in members of Congress, and looks forward to working with the new Congress in the new year to continue to grow our economy and shrink our deficits in a balanced way.
Watch President Obama’s weekly address.
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On July 9, 2011, Ludivine Cazares Solis and her husband Rodolfo were visiting his childhood hometown in Mexico to see Rodolfo’s family. But what was supposed to be a warm reunion turned into a nightmare when the entire family was kidnapped by a notorious drug cartel. Ludivine and her sisters-in-law were eventually released by the cartel, but her husband Rodolfo, a world renowned symphony conductor, is still being held captive. Ludivine has done everything she can to get her husband back, including paying ransom and working with local Mexican police. Nothing so far has worked — but Ludivine is finally convinced she’s found someone who can actually find Rodolfo and secure his freedom. Ludivine says she has been let down by unbelievable bureaucracy, corruption and the paralyzing fear of a gang that operates above the law at every turn — she says the police won’t even search a house they know Rodolfo was held captive in for days. But President Peña Nieto was elected into office because of his outspoken commitment to taking down organized crime. He’s also very concerned about his international image — that’s why Ludivine has hope that a petition of global proportions could move him to take action. Already, more than 48,000 people around the world have signed her petition, including some of the world’s best known classical conductors and musicians in Europe — Rodolfo’s colleagues and friends. With enough continuing global outcry around Rodolfo’s kidnapping, Ludivine is confident that Mexican President Peña Nieto will have to take notice — and take action. Thanks for being a change-maker, – Michael and the Change.org team |
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President Obama urges Congress to extend the middle class income tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses without delay, making it clear that a balanced approach to deficit reduction means that Republicans in Congress must agree to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay higher tax rates.
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Unleash Clean Power
The Union of Concerned Scientists has a practical plan to cut U.S. oil use in half over the next 20 years, which will save billions of dollars each year, dramatically cut global warming emissions, and ease many other serious problems, including oil spills, the high cost of oil and gas price spikes, and health threats from air pollution that have become the all-too-familiar face of oil.
A key piece of that plan is cleaner fuels. Imagine a future where the fuel in our cars and the electricity that powers our homes and businesses come from fast-growing grasses and agricultural and other wastes, which can serve as non-food sources of biofuel or bioenergy. This future may not be far off if we put smart policies in place to spur growth in this emerging industry.
In the coming weeks, an innovative company—INEOS Bio—will begin producing clean fuel and electricity from vegetative waste at a first-of-its-kind biorefinery. And this plant is just the beginning. Our new report, The Promise of Biomass, finds that, by 2030, we could sustainably produce enough non-food bioenergy to make four times the corn ethanol produced in the United States in 2010, or nearly 20 percent of total U.S. power consumption that year.
But the policies that have set the stage for clean bioenergy to become a large-scale power source are under attack from the fossil fuel industry and its allies, who profit handsomely from the status quo. If Congress fails to act, a key policy supporting production of clean bioenergy from sustainable, non-food sources will expire at the end of 2012, slowing the development of this burgeoning industry at a critical time.
Choose a clean power future.
Urge your member of Congress to promote innovation by extending production tax credits for clean, non-food-based fuels and renewable electricity.
Sincerely,
Rachel Cohen
National Field Organizer
Clean Vehicles Program
Union of Concerned Scientists
Be a Seed for Change 
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