To the editor:

There is only one worthwhile response to the appalling oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is to create an American clean-energy infrastructure that would set our country on a long-term path to ending our addiction to oil. It’s the right thing to do for our environment, national security and long-term economic security.

In his recent New York Times column, Thomas Friedman writes that the recent oil spill is to the environment what the subprime mortgage crisis was to the financial system: a wake-up call and an opportunity to mobilize all walks of life for meaningful change. He couldn’t be more right.

There is no such thing as a convenient time for meaningful change, but there is a necessary time for it. It seems that time is now. First, we’ve had one of the worst environmental disasters in American history in the last few weeks. Second, the American public — regardless of politics — seems deeply disturbed by this. Third, there is currently a very tentative bipartisan energy/climate/jobs bill ready to be introduced in the Senate, though its lone Republican supporter, Lindsey Graham, has recently threatened to walk away from the bill.

As with all meaningful change in America’s short history, some will support it and some will not. For those that don’t, we’ll have to drag them along kicking and screaming into what has the potential to be a lovely century.