People across the world tomorrow will celebrate Earth Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of our natural resources and taking action to make a difference.

For decades, while Americans in towns and cities across the country have worked to improve their communities, politicians in both parties in Washington have ignored the energy crisis, imperiling our economy, our security and our planet. Now, we have a unique and critical opportunity to attack the energy crisis head on and create a comprehensive energy policy that would bolster our economy, end our dependence on foreign oil and reduce the threat of deadly pollution that is devastating our planet.

President Barack Obama has already taken some important first strides toward those goals with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The act included billions of dollars to be invested in cities and states across the country to strengthen our clean-energy industries and help ensure America's place at the forefront of the 21st-century global economy.

Recently, we visited the Community College of Allegheny County where students are being trained for the types of green jobs those recovery act dollars are funding. They range from building or upgrading green buildings, to installing energy-efficient street lights, to conducting energy audits. Other clean-energy jobs include research and development, the weatherization of buildings and assembly work at wind- and solar-energy equipment factories. These are jobs that cannot be shipped overseas.

Jump-starting the creation of an American clean-energy sector will be the foundation of the president's energy policy.

With the depletion of the world's oil reserves and the growing disruption of our climate, the development of clean, renewable sources of energy is the growth industry of the 21st century. Rather than sending billions of dollars overseas to pay for new and developing energy technologies, Mr. Obama believes we should invest those dollars in American jobs and innovation. By developing a clean-energy economy here at home, we will begin to make America truly energy independent. That's not just an economic and environmental imperative, it's also a national-security imperative.

As part of this comprehensive policy, we must crack down on the corporations that pollute the water we drink and the air we breathe. We must finally tackle global warming and its potentially catastrophic effects. Increasing our use of clean energy and reducing pollution to combat global warming are two sides of the same coin.

We have an enormous, urgent environmental and economic agenda ahead of us, and it is one that our country has ignored for far too long. If we are going to create clean-energy jobs in this country, break the stranglehold that foreign oil has on our economy and punish the polluters who are devastating our natural resources, we've got to be honest about the difficult tasks and tough choices ahead.

It's going to mean telling the special interests that their days of dictating energy policy are over. It's going to mean refusing to settle for the status quo and the same ineffective policies that for 30 years have held us back, created price shocks and fostered energy dependence.

President Obama is committed to tackling these challenges head on to create a clean-energy policy that works for all Americans, so that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren a stronger economy and a cleaner planet.