In a historic shift this summer, Congress starting putting pieces into place to achieve three important goals: keep the economy growing, create jobs and meet the challenge of global warming. With oil reaching prices over $80 a barrel, consumers are forced to dig deeper and deeper into their pocketbooks to meet rising energy costs. Meanwhile the American public is clearly anxious to take action on global warming. Fortunately, Congress has the opportunity to take on these challenges by passing an energy bill this fall.

With everything in place, Congress just needs to flip the switch and bring America’s new energy future to life. By raising fuel efficiency standards to 35 miles per gallon and by using solar, wind and other renewable fuels to provide at least 15% of our electricity, Congress can create jobs, spark new economic growth, save consumers money, cut pollution, succeed in making America more energy independent, and make real progress in reducing carbon emissions that are warming the Earth.

The Senate’s version of the bill was passed earlier this year. It contains a provision to increase fuel economy standards for our cars, trucks, and SUVs to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, the first increase in more than 30 years. By requiring the efficiency Americans want, these standards will help the American automakers rebound against their foreign competitors. This provision has the potential to create 22,000 jobs in the auto industry alone -178,000 new jobs total, according to a recent analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists. UCS also found that the Senate’s fuel economy provision would save consumers $25 billion at the pump by 2020. And by using less oil every day, America becomes more energy independent.

Yet the auto industry continues to fight meaningful increases in fuel economy and is trying to weaken the carefully crafted Senate compromise—a compromise that was supported by everyone from Trent Lott to Ted Kennedy. The auto industry backs a weaker proposal that does too little, too late and would leave us dangerously dependent on oil - forcing us to import 700,000 barrels more each day than we would under the Senate’s plan. After 30 years of resisting, it’s time for the automakers to get off their tailpipes and help solve some of America’s most pressing problems.

While the Senate bill included increases in fuel economy, the House version requires that 15 percent of our electricity come from renewable sources like wind, solar and biomass by the year 2020. Establishing a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) will help fight global warming and spark economic growth and jobs creation. It will create tens of thousands of new jobs. States like Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and New York that have passed an RES are already seeing hundreds - even thousands - of new jobs created as a result. By relying more on renewables and less on fossil fuels, an RES will also help consumers and businesses save billions on their energy bills. The House provision allows a utility to use energy efficiency measures to meet 4 of the 15 percent required. This plan is a common sense compromise that will spur the development of renewable energy in a way that every state can achieve. Scientists around the world have agreed on the amount of CO2 we need to eliminate in order to curb the worst effects of global warming. Combining the best elements of both these bills would get us nearly a fifth of the way to that goal, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. If Congress flips the switch and lights the way, this energy bill will take us a long way towards a brighter, cleaner, safer future.