Hundreds Rally for 100% Clean Electricity in 10 Years

Close to two hundred students and community members came from across Massachusetts to rally for 100% Clean Electricity in 10 Years outside the Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston yesterday.

Rally Speech

The Massachusetts Power Shift-sponsored event had a celebratory mood, after the Massachusetts State Senate passed a RePower America Resolution on Thursday, calling upon the federal government to RePower America with 100% Clean Electricity in 10 Years.

The resolution, drafted by members of Massachusetts Power Shift, will head to the Massachusetts State House sometime next week. Assuming it passses as expected on the house side, copies of the joint resolution will be sent to Massachusetts’s Congressional Delegation, relevant cabinet members, and President Obama.

The RePower America Rally was co-sponsored by several community organizations, including the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, the Massachusetts Green Jobs Coalition, the Massachusetts Chaper of the Sierra Club, and Clean Water Action.

Activists from across the state are using the momentum and energy from the rally to plan up to 10 Focus the Nation events across Masssachusetts on April 18th – one in each congressional district. Invitations to the congressmen and congresswoman will include an invitation for them to join Al Gore and the Massachusetts Legislature to publicly declare their support for 100% Clean Electricity in 10 Years.

Speakers at the event included Senator Marc Pacheco and Representative Frank Smizik, co-sponsors of the Resolution and chairs of the respective Senate and House Committees on Global Warming and Climate Change. Other speakers included members of the co-sponsoring organizations and Mass Power Shift student leaders from Boston College, Brandeis University, Harvard University, MIT, Northeastern University, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Wellesley College, and Williams College.

The event also supported by the Alliance for Climate Protection, the non-profit founded by Al Gore that has led the charge for 100% Clean Electricity in 10 Years. More details about the event, including pictures and future updates on the resolution, will soon be available on the Massachusetts Power Shift website, at http://www.masspowershift.org/events/repower-america-rally.

About Craig

Craig Altemose is a joint degree student at the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School, where he is in his fourth and final year of an M.P.P./J.D. joint degree program. Craig is the Coordinator of Students for a Just and Stable Future (MA's state network) and a member of Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club. He has previously served as the Co-Chair of the National Association of Environmental Law Societies, worked with Energy Action as an intern and a fellow, and served on the Executive Committee of the Sierra Student Coalition, a group he remains active with. He helped plan PowerShift 2007, and was the Lead Organizer of the Massachusetts Power Shift conference in April, 2008.