Dear President Obama, members of Congress, and elected leaders of the United States of America,

We, the undersigned, recognize your commitment to addressing the Gulf spill but ask you to go still further than you have in your approach. The people of the United States elected you to represent us, and now we ask you to galvanize our nation not only to clean up the oil and to repair the damage but to use this moment to call the American people to our next leap as a country.

This disaster holds the potential to catalyze one of the greatest transformations our nation has known. It illuminates in graphic and brutal terms what we all know in our hearts: we need to end the era of oil as the primary economic foundation for our lives and our country.

The oil economy not only harms the environment. It props up repressive regimes. It inflames wars and provokes violence. Oil is overheating our planet and soiling our lives and it is time to end its reign over people, policies, and planet.

Now is the moment to make an urgent and serious commitment of ingenuity, time, money, and even the soul of this country to create affordable, renewable, and sustainable energy sources at a rate faster than anyone now believes is possible. In short, it is time to rapidly wean ourselves from our addiction to oil before the damage to our planet is too great.

In the 1960s, putting a man on the moon began with an audacious declaration and a seemingly impossible timeline, followed by the marshalling of America's best minds. Further back still, we mobilized our entire country to fight two global wars. And now we need that same level of resolve to mobilize for perhaps a still greater effort: the transformation of our economy. To do so, we will require the same courage to make the sacrifices, commit the resources, and unleash our creative genius.

And when we make this commitment, the effect will be felt in every country around the world. For as we transform, the world transforms with us, especially as they see that we can make this economic transition and thrive.

We know that this transition will not be easy. But this is our generation's moment to rise to greatness and shoulder the necessary responsibilities to create an enduring era of sustainability, peace, and prosperity, with a pristine natural environment.

That is the opportunity the Gulf offers: a turning point for America and for humanity to enter a new and creative era, one in which our intelligence, ingenuity, and love reshape the fabric of our economy and our culture so that we can live honorably on this beautiful planet.

We ask you to stand with us in making the Declaration that this disaster will mark the end of the era of oil and to commit to creating the legislation, oversight, incentives, and investments necessary to turn us from our damaging path. From your positions of elected responsibility, we ask you to call forth the greatness in our country, as we commit to doing so ourselves. Together, we can make the Gulf oil spill the moment that defined a generation and ended the destruction of our ecosystems while restarting the engine of our economy.

Finally, as part of this Declaration, we ask you to join with us in a single shared commitment: to create America's full energy independence by July 4th, 2020 through the accelerated development of clean, renewable, non-polluting, and sustainable energy sources and through vast improvements in energy efficiency.

Let us make that commitment to ourselves and to the world. And may the achievement of that bold goal in a decade be the legacy that we leave our grandchildren and their grandchildren after them.

Original Signatories:
Andrew Cohen, Andrew Harvey, Arielle Ford, Ashok Gangadean, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Brian Hilliard, Bruce Lipton, Carter Phipps, Charles Gibbs, Craig Hamilton, Debbie Ford, Deborah Moldow, Deepak Chopra, Diane Williams, Don Beck, Duane Elgin, Elisabet Sahtouris, Emily Squires, Ervin Laszlo, Gerard Senehi, Gordon Dveirin, Gregg Braden, Howard Martin, Jack Canfield, James O'Dea, Jean Houston, Joan Borysenko, Katherine Woodward Thomas, Kathy Gardarian, Kathy Hearn, Lynne McTaggart, Lynne Twist, Mallika Chopra, Mark Gerzon, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Nina Meyerof, Peter Brauckmann, Peter Russell, Christian Sorensen, Rinaldo Brutoco, Rod McGrew, Scott Carlin, Stephen Dinan, Steve McIntosh, Tom Zender, Wendy Craig-Purcell