[Click on the image above to watch the entire debate and vote from yesterday]

Sometimes a single picture tells the story best, and that’s the case with the victory in the House yesterday of HR 3585, aka, The Solar Roadmap. Of course, it helps when the picture includes words and numbers.

The most important figure isn’t the final vote tally of 310-106, as impressive as that is. Even more important is the number 63, the total number of Republicans who voted for the solar power bill. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but the most impressive number doesn’t actually appear on the screen above: 37%. That’s the percentage of GOP House members who voted “Yes” for the Roadmap. And that makes the bill a stunningly bipartisan victory for solar power.

I wrote an update on yesterday’s vote for Mother Jones, and will post a more in-depth analysis at Grist on Monday, including an interview with the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, talking about the bill’s future in the Senate. Then it’s back to these pages for more on this critically important step for solar power in the United States.

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Tags: Bipartisanship, Gabrielle Giffords, HR 3585, Solar power, Solar roadmap, Solar Technology Roadmap Act of 2009

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 11:05 am and is filed under CO2, Laws, Media, Renewables, Southwest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.