Climate Progress is a project Center For American Progress Action Fund. So I’m delighted to report that Former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) will be taking over as President of CAPAF.
At the same time, my terrific CAPAF colleague, Tara McGuinness, will be both Senior Vice President of the Action Fund and Senior Vice President of Communications at CAP. As HuffPost puts it:
The announcement caps off a major period of transition for the influential think-tank and advocacy organization. CAP’s founder, John Podesta, recently stepped down from the post of president and was replaced by Neera Tanden, a former top adviser to Presidents Clinton and Obama. Jennifer Palmieri, who headed CAP’s Action Fund, recently left to take on a communications position inside the Obama White House. Her former job, which included the title of Senior Vice President of Communications at CAP, will be split between Perriello and McGuinness.
Climate Progress readers will remember that Perriello emerged is a true climate hawk during the congressional debate over the climate bill. He famously said, “The Republicans may win some seats because of this vote, but they can’t regain their souls for demagoguing the issue.”
Here’s more from Perriello in February 2010 telling the “spineless Senate” to get “its head out of its rear end” and confront climate crisis:
I’m sick of starting with what can we get through the Senate; let’s start with what solves the damn problem. Until the Senate gets its head out of its rear end and starts to see the crisis we’re in, our country is literally at risk. Our economy is at risk, because these jobs are being created overseas. It should have the same urgency with this problem that it had bailing out Wall Street. We are swearing an oath to do what’s necessary to protect this country, not do what’s necessary to get a bill through the Senate.
And this:
– This is the challenge of our time … the jobs opportunity, the national security challenge, the scientific challenge of our era. Any plan that uses market forces to signal a carbon-constrained environment is going to move us in the right direction. People who don’t support this kind of aggressive energy independence are just selling Americans short.
– We’re so far behind China, Europe, and other areas in the energy jobs of the future because neither party has had the guts to take this on. There are so many spineless people in D.C.
– Every week the Senate doesn’t act, it either freezes that investment and innovation or it sends it overseas. We’re giving up jobs. The Senate … the ridiculous tactics of the Republicans and the timidity of the Democrats””is standing in the way of the kind of job creation we need.
– Unfortunately, good ideas, ideas that could save our country, sometimes take 30 minutes to explain and only 30 seconds to demagogue. In between those two things is leadership, and we haven’t had the moral courage to take this on.
Join me in welcoming Perriello to the Center.