It’s been another big week for climate champs! Over the weekend the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) released the much-anticipated Chairman’s Mark of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

There’s a joke here in town that D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people; meaning that the celebrities we see out on the town are not beautiful movie stars, but rather average looking politicians and appointees. Well, it felt like a red carpet event this morning in the shadow of the Capitol dome as a team of Wilderness Society staff and interns gathered with over a hundred other supporters for the release of the Senate’s clean energy and climate bill.

The problem of global warming is, first and foremost, a problem with how we use energy and the land. If we want less global warming pollution, we need more low- or no-carbon energy sources. The reverse is also true: we should expect our global warming problem to get worse as long as we bias the energy markets in favor of the highest-polluting fuels.

To show the Senate that support for strong climate legislation is broad and deep, The Wilderness Society and more than 600 other national and regional conservation, outdoor, sportsmen, recreation and faith groups have written Senators to urge their leadership in passing comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

This afternoon, Interior Secretary Salazar announced the Interior Department’s first-ever coordinated strategy for dealing with global warming’s impacts on America’s lands, waters, oceans, fish, wildlife, and cultural resources. In a secretarial order signed today, Salazar outlined how various agencies within the Interior Department would coordinate climate change science and resource management decisions.