Oregon Public Broadcasting

Hundreds of businesses across the Pacific Northwest are expected to come together Thursday to call for immediate legislative action on both clean energy and the climate. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

With oil continuing to spew into the Gulf and the nation fighting two wars, hundreds of local businesses are scheduled to say the nation needs to end its addiction to fossil fuels.

Ross Macfarlane, of the non-profit Climate Solutions, is organizing the call to action. He says everyone from Nike to Weyerhaeuser wants a new, clean, energy policy.

Ross Macfarlane: "What they're saying with a very united voice and from a wide degree of perspectives is that this is a super-high priority that we cannot put off any longer. And that leaving this to another Congress and to another administration in another year is just going to perpetuate these related crises."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last year and the Senate is working on a variety of proposals on both clean energy and the climate. But efforts appear to have stalled.

Macfarlane and others hope to push legislators to action.