By Jim Cavan

Since its 2008 launch, the Green Alliance (GA) has certainly made a name for itself here on the Seacoast. In just two years the locally-based organization has partnered with 85 businesses from across industries and sectors, in the process helping each to raise their own green profile while providing nearly 1500 individual members discounts to the businesses themselves.

This week the group took their message national.

Beginning Tuesday, Clean Energy Works (CEW) hosted an American “Clean Energy Fly-in” to Washington, D.C. For three days more than 200 residents, business owners and concerned citizens from 21 states descended on the capital to lobby the Senate to pass comprehensive clean energy legislation this year.

Included in the group’s New Hampshire delegation was GA founder and Director Sarah Brown. For Brown, the trip to Washington paints a vibrant picture of just how far the green movement has come.

“It’s certainly a great opportunity, not just for us to learn how the legislative process works, but to show people from all over the country the unique way we’re touting the message of green,” says Brown. “A few years ago this group would have been made up almost entirely of environmentalists. But you’re seeing people from all across business and industry who have come to realize that the green movement is as much about creating jobs and stabilizing the economy as it is about the environment.”

Also Included in the Granite State team were Allie Degan and Laura McKay, owners Acorn Organic Salon in Dover – themselves Green Alliance Business Partners.

Between Brown, Degan, McKay, and a host of other Granite Staters -- including Michal Bruss of Bruss Construction, as well as representatives from the state’s Department of Fish & Game and Mount Washington Auto Road – the group is eager to bring the state’s green stories, strategies, and successes to a national audience.

“We should make some excellent contacts and hopefully be able to collaborate with our representatives and their staffs to help make climate change legislation more of a national issue, and to bring that sense of urgency back home to New Hampshire” said Allie Degan.

On Tuesday participants engaged in a day of media and lobbying training to prepare them for meetings with their respective congressional delegations and a national press conference.

Wednesday saw the group first test that new-found lobbying mettle with Senator Jean Shaheen (D-NH), thought to be a shoe-in for supporting any comprehensive climate change legislation.

According to Brown, the meeting with the former Governor was more than constructive: “The Shaheen team was amazing and very constructive,” said Brown. “The entire staff was incredibly knowledgeable about a whole host of green issues, so it was encouraging to see that our efforts and enthusiasm weren’t being totally overlooked.”

Meanwhile the meeting later that day with Senator Gregg (R-NH) – considered one of the few Republicans Democrats hope might ultimately be persuaded to support the legislation – didn’t go quite as smoothly, according to Brown.

After initially being informed by his staff that the Senator had previous engagements that would prevent him from meeting with the CEW group, Gregg arrived during the final moments of the meeting, a handful of shopping bags in tow.

“It was incredibly disappointing to see,” said Brown. “Here we were, a group of concerned citizens coming all the way from New Hampshire to talk to him about the importance of this legislation for jobs in our shared State, and all we got was a brush-off.”

Echoing language in an earlier climate change bill to “transform the American economy… to strengthen our national security,” the meeting between CEW’s New Hampshire delegation and staffers from Senator Gregg’s office included input from two veterans – John Thornton of Nashua, and Michael Breen of Portsmouth – who each spoke of the importance of climate change legislation to that very goal, according to the GA’S Sarah Brown.

“If anything, that seemed like the one argument Senator Gregg’s staff was willing to hear out,” said Brown.

While Wednesday’s meetings may have resulted in a split decision, CEW’s Maine delegation – which Brown, a Kittery resident herself, intended to join – had Thursday’s meeting with the two Maine Senators to look forward to.

On Thursday the group met personally with both Collins and Snow. According to Brown, the meetings were overwhelmingly positive, with both Senators eager to draw connections between climate change legislations and job growth in their home state.

“Both Senator Collins and Senator Snow were very open and very knowledgeable about the issues,” said Brown. “They both understood that it’s not just an environment issue; it’s a jobs issue. And they both understand that Maine is in a great position to contribute to both.”

Also present at the meeting with the two Maine Senators were representatives from Poland Springs and Sappi Paper – two of Maine’s biggest employers and, according to Brown, two supporters of climate change legislation.

“These are two companies that everyone in Maine knows, and they were totally engaged and even supported a carbon tax,” said Brown. “They’re willing to pay that price, and they want stability in the market because they know what it costs to do business in this economy. They just don’t see climate change legislation as necessarily detrimental to business.”

Right as the CEW group’s meeting with the Maine delegation was ending, word spread that Senator Harry Reid had officially brought a piece of legislation to the floor. While specifics of the bill had yet to be learned, Brown believed much of what was included in an earlier bill brought forth by Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Lieberman (I-CT) in early May was not included in the Reid legislation.

“From what we know right now the carbon tax was completely gutted from Reid’s bill,” said Brown.

Introduced in early May, the Kerry-Leiberman bill included the following provisions: to cut carbon emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020; to set a price for carbon emissions – a so-called “carbon tax – for large polluters such as coal-burning plants; and to use the money from the carbon tax to create of millions of “green jobs” through research and development, grants, etc.

In part due to the severity of the BP oil spill disaster, the Kerry-Lieberman legislation stalled before it could reach a final vote. So far the feeling is that the Reid bill would offer strong oil spill and drilling legislation, but not much else.

While the CEW’s Maine and New Hampshire groups were clearly disappointed by the seemingly lackluster legislation brought forth by Reid, Brown took the long view on the week’s events.

“We definitely had some setbacks and some disappointments, but I think everyone would agree that the whole experience was incredibly informative and important,” said Brown. “For good or ill we got to see how Washington works – or doesn’t work sometimes – but being with all of these amazing people only hardened our resolve to take the fight back to the Seacoast, where we know these issues are only becoming more important.”

CEW provided participants with transportation to DC, a hotel room for 2 nights, and food/beverages during their time in DC.

Clean Energy Works (CEW) is a coalition of organizations, including National Wildlife Federation, Environmental Defense Fund, Environment America, League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, The Audubon Society, The Alliance for Climate Protection, and others working to pass clean energy and climate legislation in Congress this year.