As I write this letter, the horrific oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico covers 3,000 square miles and is heading toward Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. It has already begun to poison the ecologically rich Louisiana coastline, and it has left local communities reeling from the emergency closure of all commercial and recreational fishing.

I started my career 35 years ago fighting to block unsafe oil drilling off the Atlantic coast, so I find it unspeakably tragic that more than three decades later we are confronting the consequences of failing to rein in our oil dependence. This latest disaster is a painful reminder: the United States needs a safer, cleaner, more economical approach to energy development, one that will help shift us away from oil and toward renewable sources that can't destroy our coasts.

I realize that drilling has brought jobs and income to Louisiana, but it has also brought intolerable risk. Forty percent of America's wetlands are found in Louisiana, yet the Mississippi River Delta loses about 24 square miles of wetlands a year as a result of dredging by oil companies and poisoned runoff from upstream farms. I traveled through the coastal region after Hurricane Katrina and saw countless remnants of barrier islands and wetlands. These places had already been made vulnerable by oil development and runoff when the storm hammered them. Now one of our most abundant ecosystems has sufferred another blow.

The local economy will suffer, too. Louisiana is home to the largest seafood industry in the lower 48 states, with retail sales of about $1.8 billion a year. The devastation will also compromise the Gulf's multibillion-dollar tourism industry.

I have no doubt this disaster will prompt our lawmakers to take action; perhaps they will pass a series of measures focused specifically on the Gulf of Mexico. But they should also take a bigger, bolder step: pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation that will protect all coastal communities and marine life by moving America beyond oil. Such legislation would spur innovations -- from more fuel-efficient engines to plug-in hybrids -- that will result in cleaner cars and trucks.

Last June, the House of Representatives passed a clean energy and climate bill, and a similar proposal was just unveiled in the Senate. We will devote the next several months to helping pass the most rigorous legislation possible. But we need your help: please tell your senators that the time has come to shift to energy solutions that protect, rather than endanger, our communities, our livelihoods, and our way of life.