I rode my bike to work today. Despite the summer heat, it is not a bad trip – in fact, the 30 minute ride is not much longer than if I took the Metro. However, I was reminded why I don’t do it more often: air pollution. By the time I powered my way through downtown Washington, D.C., my throat was scratchy and irritated.

It made me think about the clean energy and climate change bill that the House of Representatives passed by a mere 7 votes on Friday night. (Yes, when you work on public policy for a living, you actually think about these things in your free time.)

Will my future children be able to ride their bikes to work, or will pollution make it unsafe and miserable?

The American Clean Energy and Security Act, a hefty 1,092 pages long, is full of complicated provisions, technical guidelines, and financial initiatives.  Its provisions touch almost every sector of the nation’s economy – kind of like pollution.

As far as the bill goes, it meets the criteria of a “good Washington D.C. bill” – it left all parties disgruntled and angered. If the final product makes everyone unhappy, common wisdom says it is probably a good compromise.

As maddening as that wisdom may be, and as contrary to our Christian dedication to truth, I find it to be relatively useful in analyzing the climate change bill.

As readers of this blog may know, Sojourners supported the House bill, despite its many problems: not enough support for vulnerable countries adapting to climate change, too many give-aways to the energy industry, and insufficient support for developing clean energy technology in the United States.

Why support such a bill? It is a vital first step, far surpassing anything we’ve accomplished in the past and giving us a vehicle to build upon and modify moving forward.

Climate change is a multi-faceted issue, and one piece of legislation will never address it perfectly or completely. However, this act will begin to change destructive or ineffective behaviors in our industries, our foreign aid programs, and our consumption patterns.

Now, the debate moves to the Senate where hundreds of groups will try to improve the bill — including Sojourners. Getting a better bill is important to our international climate change negotiations in December, so we must keep the process moving forward as best we can and with many voices at the table.

It is not a clear cut decision to support a very imperfect bill, but riding my bike to work today – breathing in the heavy air pollution – the basic questions we have all heard came to mind:

What kind of future do we want our children to inherit? How can we be more responsible stewards of the earth? Are we content with our current energy consumption patterns and consequences?

If we are concerned, if we desire to pursue healthy lives for all people, then we have a responsibility to work together and pursue smart climate change policies for our country.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act in the House is a first pedal in that direction, but we’ll still need to raise our voices and our values with the Senate to improve the legislation before it goes to the president.

Elizabeth Denlinger is the deputy director of policy and organizing for Sojourners.