Environmentalists sing ‘climate carols’ to support Obama’s carbon plan [video]

“You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why.  Climate Change is coming to town.”

For the next month, we’ll hear Christmas carols pretty much everywhere we go. In Philadelphia, some environmental activists are putting a new twist on some familiar tunes to spur action on climate change.

Monday is the last day to comment on the Obama administration’s proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Given the season, members of the Clean Air Council, PennFuture and other environmental groups are shelving the usual sober arguments and singing their support of the controversial plan.

Russell Zerbo helped write several of the  “climate carols” activists will sing outside the Philadelphia offices of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Monday afternoon. Zerbo hopes the new verses will stick in people’s minds.

“When you’re talking about climate change, you’re really talking about preserving a familiar winter, and I think a lot of people relate,” he said.

Under the EPA’s proposal, Pennsylvania would be required to cut its carbon emissions by more than 30 percent over the next 15 years. 

But not all Pennsylvanians favor the plan, seeing it as a major threat to the state’s coal industry. For them, their climate carol may sound more like the Elvis hit “Blue Christmas.”