Our continued reliance on fossil fuels is draining our economy and putting our planet in peril. Every day we spend more than $400 million on oil from foreign countries. The pollution we generate from using oil, coal and natural gas threatens the quality of the air we breathe and the cleanliness of the water we drink.

We can, and must, do better.

Our homes and businesses can be so efficient that they use zero-net energy. And we can use wind and solar power to meet our remaining energy needs. We can travel in American-made plug-in hybrids that can go 100 miles on one gallon of gas.

Transforming our energy system like this would put thousands of Minnesotans to work in good green jobs — jobs building wind turbines or installing solar panels or weatherizing homes. We’ve already seen the ability of energy efficiency and clean energy to create economic opportunities here in southern Minnesota. This is the just the beginning.

A recently released report estimated that an investment of $100 billion in clean energy infrastructure over a two-year period would generate over 37,000 jobs in Minnesota. With the $80 billion for clean energy in President Obama’s economic recovery plan and the funding for clean energy in his budget, we’re on track to generate even more jobs.

If we are going to successfully launch this clean energy economy, we need to make clean energy the profitable kind of energy. This week, the U.S. House could vote on a bill that would do exactly that. The American Clean Energy and Security Act — or ACES — sets requirements for generating electricity from clean, homegrown sources, improves energy efficiency and requires science-based reductions in our emissions of global warming pollution.

You may have heard on the radio that this historic step will cost too much for you and for your family. An analysis last week by the Congressional Budget Office found that the net cost of ACES to an average household will be under 50 cents per day and the 20% of households with the lowest incomes will see an average net benefit of $40 annually.

According to a preliminary analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the energy efficiency provisions included in the bill could save each household $750 by 2020 and $3,900 by 2030.

You may have heard that this historic step will hurt rural communities. Under ACES farmers can create and sell carbon offsets to polluting industries, lease their land for wind turbines and their rooftops for solar panels, all while producing and profiting from the clean fuels of the future.

But opponents to the building of a clean energy economy are out in force. Big Oil, Dirty Coal and other polluters have already hired more than 2,000 lobbyists to stop the president’s plan — that’s nearly four lobbyists for every member of Congress.

The polluters want the president’s plan to be decided behind closed doors. We want to bring this debate to front porches, living rooms, kitchens and town halls across Minnesota and the country. Congress needs to hear from people who are ready to repower America — to move away from the polluting energy sources of the past and toward the clean energy technologies of the future.

Monique Sullivan is an advocate with Environment Minnesota, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy group.