On February 27th to March 2nd, 12,000 students and recent graduates left their homes and dorms, put on their green hard hats, and headed to the Nation’s Capitol to advocate for green jobs and clean energy solutions at PowerShift09.
Despite driving snow and bitter winds, students lined the West Lawn to rally for PowerShift09
I was one of the 14 percent who attended PowerShift07 just 15 months before, where 6,000 of us came to speak to our Congressmen and women about our demands. PowerShift07 was considered the largest lobby day on climate change in the history of the United States…now just 15 months later- Energy Action- the group behind much of the organizing, was able to double the number and make this the largest lobby day on any issue in our country.
Students gather in the D.C. Convention Center for state breakout lobby training sessions
Standing Room Only
There is power in numbers. You don’t have to convince me on that…but it goes far beyond the “Standing Room Only” signs that hung outside so many of the workshop doors- from “Creative Activism” to “Climate Justice” to “Building a National Movement to Power Past Coal.” There is an electric energy that circulates when humans come together- especially when we are there to unify our voices. That energy is undeniable and unreplicable. It builds ideas, it builds confidence, it builds spirit. It’s the stuff that movements are made of.
Standing room only in much of the rooms
Now I’m not the type to hold hands and sing “Kumbaya,” but there is power in standing in solidarity. I was there once again at our testimony to the Select Committee on Climate Change & Energy Independence, the second time that young people would go on record to encourage, if not implore our Congress to take bold actions. In 2007, I sat behind Billy Parish. This year, I sat behind Jessy Tolkan, the newly anointed Executive Director of Energy Action. It was calmer this year – or maybe a bit more serious. Edward Markey, the Chairman on the Select Committee addressed the crowd first: “To truly launch a renewable revolution,” he began,
“Congress must pass climate legislation that will cap pollution and invest in the technology of tomorrow. It is a moral obligation to the children of the generation testifying today.”
Juan Renosa, a member of the New Mexico Youth Organize – a green jobs program in his state, remarked that the job growth in his area relies on the prison industry, the uranium extraction industry, and the gambling industry. “It puzzles me,” he said to audience, “because New Mexico is #2 in the entire nation for solar potential, and #12 for wind potential. We are literally having an opportunity shine right down on us, but we are letting an opportunity blow right past us.”
Youth delegates testify to the government on climate change and green jobs
Kandi Mosset, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations in the state of North Dakota and a representative of the Indigenous Environmental Network, emphatically spoke to the uranium mining and tar sand extraction that happens on and near her native lands. She also spoke out on the rare form of cancer (that is not so rare in her homeland) that she was diagnosed with at the tender age of twenty years old.
“Over the last year there have been over 30 cancer-related deaths that I know of on the Forth Berthold Reservation…and I’m here to tell you that I don’t believe that is a coincidence,” she said fighting back her tears and finding her voice. “Indigenous peoples have been systematically targeted by the fossil fuel regime for years…Because our cultures are so dependent on our relationship with the land, we ultimately become economically dependent on our own cultural destruction.”
“There is a wealth of renewable energy on indigenous lands,” she continued, “Wind capacity on our reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota alone are equal to 200,000 megawatts. That is enough energy to produce 1/3 of America’s energy demands. The solar electricity potential generation on Indian lands is 4 1/2 times greater than the current U.S. annual generation.”
It’s this type of emotional upheaval that hits you right in the back of the throat. And the type of information that when you hear uttered from a strong, sensible young woman makes you wonder how on earth we got here – and where in fact, we are all heading…
Erasing the borders
My grandmother had placemats – in fact, she still does – with the North American map confined to it’s 12″x18″ plastic blue borders. The state and national borders were distinctly defined, outlined in solid black lines, each state flaunting it’s own bright hue to show it was different from the next. I used to eat a bowl of spaghetti-o’s and look down at that map, analyzing the different state shapes and learning the state capitals. I would look up to Canada – just a shaded map of gray with no provinces listed – or let my eyes head down south to Mexico – another land body awash in some other tonal color. That’s how we’re taught to think about the world, isn’t it? In a piecemeal fashion – confined by borders, when really, our environmental issues, rights and responsibilities operate in a borderless environment, hitting on the fact that we do not represent just our interests and our rights, but the interests and rights of all beings.
This became much clearer to me upon speaking with our legislative assistant to one of our Senators in the State of Pennsylvania. This year we had the second largest delegation and we spanned from inner city schools in Chester County to rural areas in Bradford County; steel towns in Pittsburgh to old coal mining towns in Scranton…It was a diverse mix of people – something I think we could be very proud of.
A large international delegation came to represent PowerShift09. Since PowerShift07, many other youth-led conferences have cropped up all over the world. Considering that we had such a representative contingent on American-soil is a testament that shows what we do will greatly affect – and matters – to everyone else on the planet.
Some of us were still in a meeting with Spector, our other Senator, but about thirty of us made our way over to Russell Hall to request a meeting with Casey. We couldn’t get an initial scheduled session, so a few of us went to the secretary to request one. Alexander, the Legislative Correspondent, came out to meet us. “Sure I’ll be happy to meet with you three,” he said with gusto.
“Actually, there are a bunch of us waiting in the room over there,” I said pointing.
“Oh,” he said with a hint of surprise. “Did you clear the room with the secretary?” he asked.
“There wasn’t anyone in it, so we just camped out there,” we replied. “And we’re expecting about a hundred more.”
I have to say that our conversation with Alexander was quite amicable. He engaged us with questions for at least twenty-five or so minutes. I looked at him and saw a spark of young, hungry, realistic idealism balanced by the sensibility of the political sphere he works in. He agreed that coal is dirty, but “How -” he asked, “Are we to stop coal production in Pennsylvania, a state that is disproportionately reliant on it? We are not like California. Fifty two percent of our energy demands come from coal,” he remarked…and I can say he was genuinely interested in an answer.
I have to say that we didn’t have all the answers. Here we are asking for bold legislation – cutting carbon dramatically, investing in green jobs, renewable energy investments and representation of the U.S. at Copenhagen’s climate meeting in December – and we don’t have the exact road map on how to get there.
Rainforest Action Network and the Indigenous Environmental Network helped organize a strong voice on tar sands extraction. Most tar sands tailings are just 500 yards away from 1/4 of the clean energy water sources that supply North America. Areas are stripped-mined and piped to be refined.
“I think it will be wise for us,” I began, “to get a number of us here together in this room to form a council that will help research and inventory Pennsylvania’s renewable energy capabilities and help advise and guide you for those answers,” I said.
“That would be extraordinarily helpful,” he remarked. “As you know, we’re not scientists here, and Casey knows this is important and where we need to head,” he said. ” Alexander asked if CO2 is listed as a pollutant by the EPA – whether we would even need to pass legislation. We chorused back that we would need legislation to help with job creation and ensuring we have a cap-and-auction mechanism that provides revenue for clean, renewable energies and job creation. “It’s a good start but it’s not good enough.” He cocked his head towards the ceiling – and nodded in agreement – as if he hadn’t considered that. “And by the way, what do you all think about nuclear?” he asked us all.
I felt a lump form in my throat. The same lump I had in 07 when the last legislative correspondent asked us about “clean coal.” It was the same fist-sized rock that hit me earlier that day when I heard Kandi’s impassioned talk about uranium mining on North Dakota’s land.
“As you know,” I said. “We’re here at PowerShift representing 12,000 young people from all 50 states, every Canadian province, and over a dozen nations. We are here representing a much larger movement – and those of us who couldn’t be with us today. Our environmental issues know no borders. We want clean, renewable energy that is safe for all. The uranium mining that is happening on indigenous lands is causing great sickness – and how we store that waste – is expensive and contentious. We prefer to concentrate on realistic, clean renewables, but we need to the appropriate legislation – and your support to get there.”
Within the next 3-4 months, important climate legislation will be sent to the House and Senate for approval, but our voices need to be heard.
We need more than you vote
For so long, the entire legislative process was enshrouded in mystery for me – and remains that way for so many of us. Of course I would go to the voters booth and cast my vote – sometimes never knowing who the people were on the ballot – and just voting by party lines. I’ve learned however, that our vote doesn’t begin – or even remotely end there. We often talk about our rights – as voting citizens – but much less so on our responsibilities. I firmly believe that it is our individual and collective responsibility to continually be engaged in our democratic process, to learn about the issues that affect us, and to help guide those that we helped put in office. If we do not speak up, those that we hired to speak for us will be silent. And in this case, there is no honor in silence, only missed opportunity.
See you in Copenhagen,
In solidarity,
Summer Rayne Oakes
The video above is a highlight of PowerShift09
Excellent post, Summer.
Again, excellent post, Summer.
Juan Renosa was right on when he commented on the prison industry (among others). The ever-growning, big business of prisons in this country is bankrupting states while not making us safer.
The unreasonably long sentences, unjust parole denials, the parole systems themselves, prison time replacing mental hospitals, the lack of vocational and life skills training, and lack of support once ex-offenders are released cost tax payers too much. This is especailly true for tough-on-crime turned dumb-on-crime states like California, the state of “higher incarceration.”
We need more green jobs and clean engery and fewer of draconian incarceration laws in this country. Those are ruining salvageable lives and families, while not making us safer, and costing too much.
Summer thank you for this post.
It’s wonderful to see so many of our young men and women pressing for substantive, indeed transformational change in energy and environmental policies. Their future is severely clouded if this Administration does not begin immediately to shut down every CO2 spewing entity in this country and lead the way for the rest of the world.
There are excellent alternatives to petroleum, coal and natural gas. anything that can be produced from petroleum can be produced from hemp. The fossil fuel industry promoted the hysteria that hemp would lead to a massive drug culture in the U.S. and lobbied for and got legislation prohibiting the cultivation of industrial hemp in the U.S.. The fear of an uncontained drug culture has not gripped our neighbors to the north or Germany or any of the other 20 or so countries that cultivate, process, and export hemp products.
Young people may want to visit the entire issue of hemp cultivation in America. We are the largest importers of hemp but cannot produce it here because of the fossil fuel industries opposition knowing full well that hemp can replace petroleum. Agribusiness also knows that this nation would be much better off if all of the land and resources devoted to growing more corn for inefficient ethanol, were converted to hemp production. However, because hemp is not subject to the vagaries of markets it can be produced without massive crop subsidies and therefore, is not viewed as a cash crop.
If the land area currently used for corn /ethanol production were converted to hemp, only 60% of that land would produce all of our annual transportation fuel requirements. Annual oil import savings would amount to $8-$900 billion dollars, or $2.0-$3.6 trillion over the next 3-4 years. Social cost would be significantly reduced and ecosystem costs would begin to decline as the Government simultaneously mandated the shut down of facilities which emit CO2 and vastly expanded production, distribution and access to renewable energy.
The urgency in shutting down co2 emissions from whatever source is clearly because of CO2′s damaging contribution to global warming. Many scientists who participated in the IPCC analyses fear that time is running out for the Arctic permafrost. Any significant melting over the next 5-6 years could trigger the release of giga-tons of methane gas as methane hydrates dissociate due to warmer water reaching the “stability zone” where these hydrates are under the right amount of pressure and temperature.
This generation of 16-30 year old environmental activists need to have their science teachers, environmental officials and elected representatives tell them about the dangers of methane explosions. Methane is 20-30 times more psowerful as a warming agent than CO2 and it is entering our atmosphere at unprecedented rates. Summer, you may want to Google: methane hydrates and Lake Baikal, or IPCC and methane, or Permafrost and methane and hydrate.
The fossil fuel folks knew about these hydrates during WWII when they were drilling for oil to support the war effort. They didn’t say anything to the media or public. These hydrates started showing up wherever oil companies used fresh water and CO2 to pressurize there wells. At the same time these hydrates were “a pipeline clogging issue” in drill holes/boreholes and pipelines in the Soviet Union, Japan, China, the Indonesian Archipeligo, and the Gulf of Mexico.
The renewable alternative that replaces coal and gas is of course water. There are 55,000 sluiceways in the U.S. and we have powerful ocean currents and tidal energy at our sea shores and the Great Lakes. All of these hydro energy sources can be harnessed by American inventions that have been ignored by the Department of Energy except for an occasional demonstration grant. One technology in particular is the Gorlov Helical Turbine. Professor Gorlov received the Edison Award in 1991 for his invetion which extracts energy from currents, waves, tides, and running streams. Someone at the DOE knew back in 1992 that this little turbine would change the energy picture for all time if it were allowed to receive the same funding support that DOE gives to nuclear power plant design and natural gas exploration. These two energy producers have received in excess of $500 billion over the past 50 years. Tell me how has that worked out for us? The helical turbine and other hydrokinetic technologies, that are not huge dams, received less than $10 million over the same period.
Bedard, et al, estimate that using appropriate existing technologies the Gulf Stream could provide 20% or more of the energy requirments provided by coal. Expanding upon that to include hydrokinetic sources from all over the U.S. means that we have a perfect renewable, clean and inexpensive substitue for coal.
Industrial hemp and hydrokinetics along with wind solar, geothermal biomass (not ethanol) will combine to deliver us from the evil of oil imports.
Warm regards, and keep up the good fight.
Robert