Tell Congress to Keep the Plug-in Tax Credits -- America Needs Plug-ins Now!

Photo courtesy CalCars.org

We're halfway there!!!

Thanks to your efforts, Plug In America and a dynamic coalition of entrepreneurial U.S. businesses have successfully worked with Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) along with a bipartisan group of US Senators to get an unprecedented 80-16 vote of support for plug-in vehicles in the Senate economic stimulus bill!

As the bill is refined by the House and Senate into a final version which will go to President Obama, we need your help to make sure that the plug-in provisions we’ve all worked so hard for stay protected. Your effort will ensure that affordable plug-in electric vehicles are available to consumers within the next 24 months while creating good paying jobs for Americans and helping our local economies. It’s a very exciting time! But we must keep the momentum going by making our voices heard in the halls of Congress one more time.

Show Washington just how serious you are about wanting affordable plug-in vehicles on the road now.

Please consider taking moment out of your day -- 30 seconds to be precise --- and send members of the House/Senate Conference committee and your senators and congressperson a brief email. Enter your address information below so that our system can determine your local representatives.

This action is no longer active. To view the current list of our active campaigns click here

To increase your effectiveness, follow up your email with phone calls to your representatives. Their numbers should appear above. Use the letter as a guide.

Updates

Check back here for campaign updates.

2/11/09 12:05am

We are now launching a campaign directed at the House/Senate Conference Committee - please join in and send one more set of letters.

2/10/09 12:30pm

The entire Senate just passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including support for our plug-in tax credits.

2/6/09 8:02pm

We just scored a major victory with Senator Cantwell’s SA274 amendment passing the Senate with broad bipartisan support, 80-16!!! You can see exactly which Senators voted for the amendment at the US Senate website.

View the video of the actual floor introduction by Senator Cantwell and the vote.

We’ve been communicating with Senate staffers all evening and it looks like this amendment will potentially be handled outside of the proposed Nelson-Collins-Specter compromise. It remains a little unclear, but it currently looks like they will vote on all of the amendments to the main bill (pass or fail) and then they will consider the compromise which will knock down or out funding for various sections as a separate amendment. We need to keep watching, but as of now, we should be in the final bill (especially with such a high level of support). Senate rules are very complex so we will have to wait for all votes before declaring final victory, but this is a big win!

On the House side, we’ve been talking with House staffers who have indicated that since the Senate compromise is so fragile, the House may just have to accept the Senate version without doing a formal conference committee. Stay tuned on that because everyone still wants to tinker, but it just may not be possible.

One other interesting note, from news reports, President Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel was intimately involved in the negotiations with Sens. Nelson and Collins, so the administration definitely has a hand in all of this.

We’ll keep you updated over the weekend as the Senate finishes work on the bill.

We also want to thank everyone who took action as part of the Plug In America action campaign. We reached out with over 30,000 messages to members of Congress. We’ll have more statistics soon, but feedback we got from Senate staffers was that their bosses had a strong case to vote in favor of the amendment due to the constituent support.

2/6/09 2:45pm

We are now hearing they may vote on Sens. Cantwell & Hatch's Plug-in amendment after 3:30pm PST. We'll update you as soon as we hear about a vote.

2/6/09 11:45am

Thanks to A123 Corporation, for sending out a special email highlighting this campaign.

2/6/09 8:00am

Thanks to Brammo for also sending out a special email highlighting this campaign.

2/5/09 5:45pm

Another thanks to send out. This one to Vectrix Corporation, for sending out a special email highlighting this campaign.

2/5/09 11:35am

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) has just delivered a great speech on the floor of the Senate supporting jobs by investing in batteries and plug-in vehicles. Watch Senator Stabenow:

2/5/09 10:32am

Thanks to Bill Moore at EVWorld for covering our campaign!

2/5/09 10:00am

Thanks to Zero Motorcycles for sending out an email highlighting this campaign.

2/5/09 9:45am

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) has just delivered an excellent speech on the floor of the Senate supporting investment and consumer incentives for plug-in vehicles. Here's the speech:

2/5/09 9:38am

The stimulus is being debated on the Senate floor right now (check CSPAN2). We're at 7,758 messages and climbing.

2/5/09 - Day 2

Fantastic turnout. 2,870 of you have weighed in and sent over 7,285 messages to your representatives. This campaign has exceeded the entire output of our previous Automaker Bailout campaign in just one day!

We've added new Department of Energy chief Steven Chu to the email list.

2/4/09 11:21pm

A big thanks to Felix Kramer at CalCars.org. They gave this campaign top billing in their special newsletter.

2/4/09 3:00pm

We're at 4,363 messages sent.

Plug In America has issued a press release announcing our stimulus action. Let's look for this story to be picked up by newspaper, blogs, and other media.

We've added Senator Max Baucus to the email list. He's the head of the Senate Finance Committee.

2/4/09 T+9:30

Welcome to all the fans of two and three wheel EVs that are joining us. Together, we've sent 3,690 messages to the Senate (including the Head of the Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus), Congress, and the Obama Administration. Tell your friends, and let's keep up the pressure!

2/4/09 11:00AM PST - Where's Obama?

Due to changes in the President's email/website, we are temporarily excluding the White House from receiving your messages. Later we will send everyone's messages in one batch.

If you can't wait, and want to make sure your message makes it to the President immediately, please feel free to visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ when you're done here. Thanks for your understanding.

2/4/09 T+6:00

Amazing response so far from all you supporters. 2,280 messages sent so far! That's one every 10 seconds. We should be noticed.

Supporters are reporting getting back messages from the White House, asking them to visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ instead. Wouldn't hurt for everyone to send a message via that method as well.

2/4/09 T+3:30

Our supporters have sent 1,194 messages so far to 100 distinct legislators!