That's why I want to talk to you today about just one of the ways I will take up the fight against climate change as president. Coal is the dominant source of electricity in America and it will be for decades to come, but we need to find a way to use it without heating the planet.
"So as president, I will stop big coal from building a single new power plant in America that doesn't have the technology to capture their carbon emissions.
"The government reports that the coal industry and their financial backers on Wall Street are planning to build around 150 new coal-fired power plants to meet rising energy demand in the next few decades. That would add more than 800 million metric tons of CO2 to our environment a year. That's 40 percent more than we're emitting now. That's when we know we need to go in exactly the opposite direction. And an estimated 30,000 Americans die every year from diseases linked to pollution from coal-fired plants.
"This is not something they are talking about in Washington. In the energy bill debate two weeks ago, some people actually tried to wrap increased pollution in the flag, saying that investing in more traditional coal-fired plants - or even worse, new fuels made out of liquid coal, which is a terrible idea - is the patriotic thing to do for America because coal is abundant here at home.
"Here's what I say to this: it's not moral leadership if we reduce imports of oil but increase our exports of carbon pollution. We're already 4 percent of the world's population emitting 25% of its greenhouse gases.
"That's not the America we want to be. As president, I will take back our democracy from these powerful interests so that regular people can change this country.
"Not only am I going to stop coal-fired power plants from adding to our pollution problems, but I will reduce our emissions, doing what the global community asked America to do at the recent G8 summit: cut the world's carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
"It's time for the President of the United States to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war.
snip
"Utilities that today profit by selling more and more polluting energy will have to help customers save electricity, and open up their grids to power produced locally, with rooftop solar panels and local wind turbines.
"Automakers that are squeezing profits out of high-polluting SUVs will have to develop the cars of the future with a 40 miles-per-gallon fuel economy standard.
"None of this is going happen unless we demand it. The oil companies won't do it. The utilities won't do it. The coal companies won't do it. And as we saw with the energy bill, Washington won't do it. Our generation has to do it - we cannot wait for somebody else to take responsibility"
John Edwards is also urging others to join him in supporting the Live Earth Pledge and "asking supporters to raise our voice and roll up our sleeves to solve the global climate crises."
