It’s Getting Hot In Here

Hoy día es una prueba grande para presidente Obama. Él puede hacer lo que quiere en su propio país, pero puede cambiar lo que harán sus vecinos. El presidente estadounidense siempre es un presidente poderoso…pero el dilema del Alberta Tar Sands es un asunto polémico que sé en cual no quisiera meter. ¡Qué valiente es el presidente!

La importancia de los Alberta Tar Sands ( =las arenas del petróleo de Alberta) para el gobierno Conservador de Canadá es inmenso. Para acentuar la realidad de la locura de los Alberta Tar Sands, porfa déjame explicar:

Continue reading ‘¡¡Obama viene!!’

By Professor Gregory Bothun and Jesse Jenkins. Also posted at Huffington Post and WattHead: Energy News and Commentary

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama signed into law the $787 billion economic stimulus package. The stimulus directs more than $80 billion to start the construction of a new, national clean energy infrastructure. Many are hailing this clean energy investment as unprecedented, which in the context of the last thirty years of neglected energy priorities is undoubtedly true. But with all those billions thrown about, it’s hard to get a grasp on the scale of this investment. What does $80 billion really mean in the context of the 21st century United States energy system? Is this a significant investment or merely the first step on the long road to a green economy? In order to answer those questions, we’d better brush up on our energy literacy and get familiar with the scale of our energy system.

Welcome to Energy Literacy 101.

We start with a bit of historical context, noting that the energy infrastructure projects initiated in the 1930′s under FDR culminated with 45% of the nation’s electricity coming from renewable energy (hydropower) and employed approximately 100,000 workers over the decade or so it took to build that infrastructure.

With that bit of history in the back of our minds, we now turn to four big numbers: 100 million; 1 trillion; 400 million; and 1 billion. Continue reading ‘Economic Stimulus, Clean Energy and the Scale of Our Challenge: Grading the Stimulus Energy Investments’

Last weekend, 1000 students convened in Austin Texas for the Clinton Global Initiative University for a conference geared towards solving the world’s big problems and empowering students to take action.

In 8 days, 10,000 young people will be in DC for Power Shift 2009 for a conference to demand action on climate change from our leaders and empowering students to push for change.

There is a fundamental difference between these two events:

At Power Shift we will hold our elected officials accountable to do their part in solving climate change. We know that we are all working together to solve one really big (and multi-faceted) problem. And we’re not leaving until they listen to us.

Clinton Global Initiative inspires individuals and small groups to solve a wide range of problems, and highlight the projects that are closest to a set of ideals: Do what you can to make the world a better place, and make this part of your life.’ CGI-U is top down, and Power Shift is bottom up.

Continue reading ‘Musings on CGI-U vs. Power Shift ’09′

So a man walks up to me in a bar in Delhi and asks, “Are there really more jobs in wind power than in coal energy in the United States?” I feel like I’m in the middle of an amazingly bad joke, or that he’s read in my eyes that I only like to talk about green jobs no matter what time of day or night and this is the only line that will get me talking. He tells me, “Al Gore and Ban Ki-Moon said so, and that there are more jobs in renewable energy than in oil and gas worldwide.”

Can’t argue with that.

The movement for green jobs is everywhere, and it is the only solution to get us out of this financial and ecological crisis. The stimulus package in the United States and similarly in China are starting to recognize this – that “green is not an option but a necessity for recharging their economies and creating jobs.” I hope that the Indian government will soon follow suit. Gore and Ban Ki-Moon are also hoping for this, calling on all global governments to create a “synchronised global response,” making “growing green” the goal of every government. First, they must start “expanding green stimulus elements, including energy efficiency, renewables, mass transit, new smart electricity grids and reforestation, and to co-ordinate their efforts for rapid results… Second, we need “pro-poor” policies now… Third, we need a robust climate deal in Copenhagen in December. Not next year. This year. Copenhagen will provide the green light for green growth.”

Gore and Ban Ki-Moon end by saying, “For millions of people from Detroit to Delhi these are the worst of times… We must not let the urgent undermine the essential. Investing in the green economy is not an optional expense. It is a smart investment for a more equitable, prosperous future.” Speaking from Delhi, times are bad for millions. But opportunities are good. If Delhiites are talking about American wind jobs instead of American banking jobs, change is blowing in!

Today Climate Scientist Dr. James Hansen released a public service announcement calling on all of us to join the Capitol Climate Action (CCA) on March 2nd. If you haven’t heard, it will be the largest protest on Global Warming in U.S. history.

“It’s time to take a stand on global warming,” Dr. Hansen says in the video. “We want to send a message to Congress and the President that we want them to take the actions that are needed to preserve climate for young people and future generations and all life on earth.”

Dr. Hansen is a world renowned-scientist more accustomed to the lab and the library than the picket line. When he sees a problem so urgent that he is willing to take to the streets in protest, we can be sure it means that the government must act.

Some 2,000 people from across the country are expected to join Dr. Hansen at Congress’s own coal-fired power plant in Southeast Washington, D.C. Over 70 public health, faith-based, labor, racial and environmental justice, and climate groups has endorsed the action along with such leaders and figures as Vandana Shiva, Tom Goldtooth, Daryl Hannah, Michael Franti, Bill McKibben, Gus Speth, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Noam Chomsky, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Paul Hawken, Adrienne Maree Brown, and Wendell Berry. Grammy Award-winning country singer Kathy Mattea will also join the protest and perform.

Coal-fired power plants are largest source of global warming pollution in the country, and the Capitol plant is widely regarded as a symbol of the country’s dangerous reliance on the fossil fuel. Burning coal also cuts short at least 24,000 lives in the U.S. annually, inflicts catastrophic damage to the landscape and water supplies and jeopardizes the lives of coal miners. Furthermore, coal leads to approximately $167 billion in healthcare costs annually and diverts scarce resources away from energy efficiency and clean energy, which create more than twice as many jobs per dollar as money for coal.

RSVP to be a part of CCA and make history now!

“Not One More Mile!” Over 1400 miles of streams have been destroyed because of mountaintop removal, and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth gathered hundreds  in Frankfort, KY today to draw a line in the sand and say, “Not one more mile!”

A full count of the numbers attending isn’t in yet, but the AP is buzzing with the news that Eastern Kentucky native and world famous actress came out vehemently against mountaintop removal today at the I Love Mountains Rally.  Keep an eye out for the youtube version of her powerful speech, which calls out the coal industry for it’s systematic oppression of Eastern Kentucky and mocks the hysteria and lies and misinformation the coal industry is spewing forth.

Another high point, for me, was the children leading the chants as we marched to the statehouse. “Save Our Mountains! Not one more mile!”

Feel like you missed out on something incredible? Does Ashley Judd inspire you to action? Head over to www.ilovemountains.org and see how you can contact Congress and Obama about ending mountaintop removal — and learn about attending the End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington March 14-18th.

Originally posted at WattHead – Energy News and Commentary

President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency pledged to regulate global warming pollution from coal-fired power plants today, granting a petition filed by the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations. The decision casts an almost palpable shadow of doubt over the fate of roughly 100 proposed coal plants awaiting permits throughout the United States and should offer a brief respite in the ongoing fight against continued reliance on the dirty fossil fuel.

Under the leadership of new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the Agency overturned an unlawful “midnight memo” filed by outgoing Bush EPA admin Stephen Johnson in December that amounted to a last ditch effort to saddle President Obama with the Bush Administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming. Today’s announcement makes it clear that Obama’s EPA will stand by the rule of law and uphold the so-called Bonanza ruling made by the EPA Environmental Appeals Board in November, which concluded that EPA had no grounds to not require “best available control technology” for new coal plants.

“Not only does today’s decision signal a good start for our clean energy future, it also signals a return to policy based on sound science and the rule of law, not deep pocketbooks or politics,” says David Bookbinder, the lead climate lawyer for the Sierra Club. “With coal-fired power plants emitting more than 30 percent of our global warming pollution, regulating their carbon dioxide is essential to making real progress in the fight against global warming.”
Continue reading ‘BREAKING: Obama Pledges to Regulate CO2 from Coal Plants’

For the second time in as many weeks, activists have been arrested protesting the mining of Coal River Mountain, the site of a proposed wind farm. Massey Energy has started blasting in the beginnings of removing the top of Coal River Mountain.

RAN and Earth First! founder Mike Roselle and Jamie McGinness were arrested blocking a bulldozer at Massey’s Performance Coal Co.’s operation in Boone County. Both were arrested, cited for tresspass and released.

Two weeks ago, Roselle and McGinness were part of a larger group arrested for chaining themselves to mining equipment on Coal River Mountain. They were part of a group of 14 arrested. Since then local media and the coal industry has tried to smear Roselle to the public.

(posted for Lauren M)

Want to play a roll in ending Mountaintop Removal? In launching our new, green economy? Then RSVP this week for the 4th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington.

March 14th – 18th citizens from around the nation will come to Washington DC to lobby for the Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA). The Clean Water Protection Act is designed to end Mountaintop Removal and protect the quality of life for residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding, coal slurry spills, pollution and loss of drinking water as a result of mountaintop removal coal mining.

In 2002, the Bush Administration issued a rule change that redefined “fill material” in order to include mining waste. After the rule change, “mining waste” was considered as acceptable “fill material”. Thereby allowing coal companies to dump millions of tons of “mine fill” (ahem, mining “waste”) into streams and valleys.

In short, the 2002 rule change was designed for the explicit purpose of “legalizing” the egregious practice of mountaintop removal mining.

That’s why supporting the Clean Water Protection Act – written to reverse the 2002 rule change thus making valley fills illegal – is an essential first step to unequivocally ending the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Last year’s week in Washington was a tremendous success — more than 120 people from 19 states attended over 150 meetings with Congressional offices!

Now, in the 111th Congress there is unprecedented opportunity to pass the Clean Water Protect Act. Mach 14th -18th, citizens around the nation will come Washington DC to urge their members to unequivocally end mountaintop removal mining by co-sponsoring the Clean Water Protection Act.

Will you join? Register at – http://ilovemountains.org/action/wiw2009

Scholarships are available on a needs basis, but only if you register by this Friday; final registration deadline is February 25th.

Can’t come? Join the call-in day, Tuesday, March 17th — you can participate from anywhere. You can also sponsor a participant by making a contribution.

Ending Mountain Removal through passage of the Clean Water Protection Act is our nations’ first step in making a clean break from dirty energy -join us.  To register and find out more, visit: http://www.ilovemountains.org/action/wiw2009.

Mass Power Shift rocking out

From Katie MacDonald, Mass Power Shift Co-Coordinator:

On the weekend of the 6th, February 2009, Massachusetts Power Shift held a leadership retreat in West Falmouth Cape Cod. The retreat was initially intended to be a time for the group to build up existing leaders and encourage new leadership for the coming year, but became much more than that as the weekend progressed. Those present got a unique opportunity to find common ground with fellow climate activists and explore their own personal motivations for involvement in the greater movement. 

Massachusetts Power Shift (MAPS) is an unaffiliated youth climate activist network that connects youth and allies from across Massachusetts in demanding bold, and collaborative climate solutions. The group works on the political level, playing a large hand in the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2008, and also locally across the state at over 20 colleges and Universities. Over the course of the last six months, network leaders have been working tirelessly to promote Al Gore’s RePower America Campaign and to build support for their present Adopt a Congressperson Campaign, designed to push legislators to support and create aggressive energy and climate legislation. 

Upon entering the space in which the retreat was held, the energy was palpable. Twenty three members of MAPS crowded around on couches and chairs waiting anxiously for the event to commence. That night the group delved into exploring the concept of personal stories. Everyone was encouraged to ask themselves who they were and what incidents in their lives had brought them to climate action and to relay that story to someone else. One particularly common theme present in many stories told was the idea that that person had at some point in their lives recognized the conflict facing themselves and the planet and had subsequently been forced to make a decision as to if they as an individual would act or remain apathetic. Individuals agreed that by choosing to act they had transformed a potentially horrific situation into a source of motivation for themselves and others. 
Continue reading ‘Group Therapy = Organizing Strategy?’