Help win this week's clean car vote

Within two days, Illinois legislators will decide whether to pass the Illinois Clean Cars Act, which would save consumers $1 billion per year in gasoline by making Illinois the 15th clean car state. 

With the big automakers’ lobbyists working kill this bill, it’s critical that your state representative knows you’re depending on them to bring clean cars to Illinois.

It’s easy to call your legislator—just follow these three steps:

• First, to identify your state representative, go to this website run by the Illinois Board of Elections. Select the "search by address" tab, enter your address, and you’ll be presented with a list of your elected officials. Click on the name of your state representative to get his or her office phone numbers.

• Second, call your legislator at their Capitol office in Springfield. If you get an answering machine, just leave a message! See the suggested talking points below.

• Third (and last), please let us know what happened by dropping us a note using the form below (we won’t share your contact info).

You can also click on the image to the right to see NBC 5's report on how hard it is to find clean cars in Illinois.

Sample talking points:

Hello State Representative: I am calling to urge you to vote yes on the Illinois Clean Cars Act. This legislation would save Illinoisans more than $1 billion/year at the gas pump by making clean, efficient vehicles widely available across the state.

As you know, we face the real prospect of $5/gallon gasoline this summer. At the same time, automobiles are the second largest source of air pollution and global warming pollution, which pose serious threats to public health and the environment.

Please do not miss the chance to lower pollution while reducing gasoline costs for Illinois consumers. Please vote for the Illinois Clean Cars Act.