Power Vote Y’all! « It’s Getting Hot In Here

by Stephanie Powell, Southern Energy Network Field Director

Making History in the Dirty South

Across the South students have been gearing up for today! We know our region is a huge part of the climate problem and that’s why we’ve been working our tails off all fall to get voters to the polls.

In the past 15 days I’ve been on campuses in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina. I’ve ended the whirlwind tour at the University of Florida. On Saturday 47% of registered voters here in Alachua County had already voted. Since 7 this morning students have been filing to the polls by the hundreds. Campus is green with Power Vote “bike hangers.”
Last night 30 University of Tennessee students stormed dorms on campus reminding folks to vote. Today they’re hosting a party at the polls.

Students in Columbia, South Carolina have been dorm storming like crazy and have an all day Get Out the Power Vote phone bank today!

From Appalachian State to UNC Asheville, UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State, North Carolina is a buzz with Power Voters getting folks to the polls!

In Atlanta, Athens, and Valdosta Power Voters are letting candidates know what’s up on the issues we care most about.

We want a clean, just energy future! We’re demanding real solutions to global warming! We’re calling on decision makers to invest in a clean energy economy that will create thousands of new green jobs!

The South might be one of the biggest contributors to the problem, but Southern students are on the forefront of organizing for and demanding the solution.

So get out there y’all and Power Vote!

About Liz

While at the University of North Carolina, Liz led one of the first successful campus renewable energy campaigns in the southeast and won the Morris K. Udall scholarship in both 2002 & 2003. She organized the first Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference April 2-4, 2004, to engage other Southern schools beyond UNC in energy and climate work. In the summer of 2004 she became a co-founding member of Energy Action Coalition, which she has been actively involved with since then. She co-chaired the Energy Action Coalition Steering Committee for 2 years and is Executive Director of the Southern Energy Network, which works with students in the Southeast on clean energy and climate initiatives as part of Energy Action Coalition's Campus Climate Challenge. In late fall 2005, she attended the UN Climate Negotiations in Montreal and helped start www.itsgettinghotinhere.org . In 2008, she joined the board of the Highlander Research and Education Center (www.highlandercenter.org).