It’s Getting Hot In Here

It’s got to be tough being Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid these days. His approval rating is 36% and he is trailing Republicans by 8 points for his re-election bid. He is getting absolutely shelled in the media, the right, and some of the left for his bonehead remarks about Barack Obama’s viability as an African American candidate for president. Joe Lieberman is likely the only Senator the progressive left is more frustrated with for the final state of the Senate health care bill next to Reid. Reid has to negotiate with the likes of Senators Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu for every piece of progressive legislation. He’s in danger of losing his Democratic super majority to a Republican in Massachusetts!? You know the dysfunctional Senate that progressives and climate activists have been railing against? Reid is in charge of that mess! Next to Obama, Reid has to bear the brunt of everyone’s frustrations and outbursts over the fact that the Senate screws everything up.

So why in the world should the environmental and climate community have this guy’s back right now? Because with all the crap Reid has on his plate, he has held his ground on two of our most important issues to this point. Continue reading ‘Now would be a great time for environmental groups and climate activists to thank Senator Harry Reid’

Originally at www.WattHead.org – Energy News and Commentary

Oregon’s largest utility, Portland General Electric (PGE), announced it’s moving forward on a plan to stop burning coal at the state’s only operating coal plant. The investor-owned utility, which serves Portland, much of the surrounding metropolitan area, and the state’s capitol, Salem, informed the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) that it intends to pursue a plant that would either shut down the 550 megawatt coal-fired Boardman Plant or completely switch fuel sources by 2020.

According to a company press release, PGE submitted its most recent integrated resource plan (IRP) to the OPUC in November, proposing to install extensive emissions control retrofits on the Boardman Plant, at an estimated cost of $520 million to $560 million. These controls would allow the plant, located in northeastern Oregon along the Columbia River, to continue to operate despite new, stricter emissions rules from the state Environmental Quality Commission (EQC).

“Our preliminary analysis shows that an alternative plan may be the best option for our customers and we intend to pursue that,” said Jim Piro, PGE’s President and CEO. “We need to complete our analysis and determine whether we have enough support to move forward, but we feel it’s important to let people know that this is our preferred path.”

According to PGE:

The company chose not to include a proposal in its IRP to cease Boardman operations in 2020 because such a plan would not be actionable under the EQC rules; however, further discussion with environmental regulators and other stakeholders suggests that there may be support for a rule change.

“Right now state regulations give us very few options – either shut the plant prematurely at a tremendous cost to customers or install very expensive new controls despite uncertainty about future carbon regulation and technological developments,” Piro said. “We think an alternative plan could reduce cost and risk for our customers while giving us time to develop replacement resources or convert to a different fuel, but we’ll need changes in state rules and help from our stakeholders to accomplish that.”

Piro noted that if agreement on an alternative plan can’t be reached, PGE will continue to seek approval for installation of all required emissions controls and continued operation of the plant – the best option available to customers under current state rules.

PGE intends to work with the OPUC to establish a new schedule for review of resource planning decisions regarding the Boardman Plant.

Closure of the Boardman Plant would mark the end of coal-fired electricity generation within Oregon and the closure of the largest single source of air pollutants in the state (if not west of the Rockies). The aging coal plant was first built in the 1970s and predates the more stringent air emissions requirements of the Clean Air Act.
Continue reading ‘PGE Takes Step Towards Closing Oregon’s Only Coal Plant’

I wanted to share one of my favorite videos from the chaotic two weeks in Copenhagen this December. It’s from the United Kingdom Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC), one of our strongest 350.org allies, straight up kick-ass climate organizers, and dear friends. In the video, Tom Smith, a twenty-year old member of the UKYCC delegation that came to the climate meetings, walks us through the final hours of the talks. Take a look:

Tom shares the sense of frustration and disappointment that many of us in Copenhagen and around the world shared. As he says, at the end of the meetings that there was a perception that the talks “hadn’t moved anything.” The perception of failure was all the more heartbreaking because of what we all know is at stake if climate change is left unchecked. Tom tells the story of Elisha, a 350.org organizer from the Maldives who came to Copenhagen to share her story with delegates and the media. As she told the media in an interview in Copenhagen, she may not have a home by the time she is 40, forcing her and any children she may have to live as environmental refugees (Elisha’s now back in the Maldives continuing to build a movement for climate justice in her own country and working with 350.org to keep that movement building around the world; you can see a picture of her and Jamal, another 350.org organizer from the Maldives, below).

Continue reading ‘UKYCC Video: “Copenhagen was never going to be the end.”’

UPDATE! Runners for human rights arrested, Chevron “freaking out” More below.

Who knew that leg stretching and laps could challenge the CEO of one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations?

I arrived in Houston, TX yesterday (yeehaw!) to run for human rights in Ecuador at this weekend’s huge Chevron-sponsored Houston marathon.

We have a rad team of people who are running the marathon for Emergildo Criollo, an Indigenous Ecuadorean man who has had to bury two children and nurse his wife through cancer because Chevron refuses to clean up their toxic legacy in Ecuador. Over 18 billion tons of toxic sludge was DELIBERATELY dumped into the Ecuadorean Amazon (on people’s home, in their water, etc) in one of the largest environmental disasters of all time. Emergildo’s family drank, fished, and bathed in the water that Chevron has refused to clean up.

Check out this great, short video made by our friends at Amazon Watch about the crisis in Ecuador.

While we’re in Houston, besides running, Rainforest Action Network advocates will drop “Change Chevron” banners along the race route, distribute “I’m Running for Human Rights” stickers to runners at the Marathon expo, and host a free screening of Crude – the critically acclaimed documentary about the crisis in Ecuador – for Chevron employees and the Houston community. Stay tuned for more marathon and changing Chevron fun.

Chevron wants the world to believe they are company that cares – and they sponsor community events like marathons and concerts- to hide their real, dangerous impacts on communities around the world. I feel it is important to bring the voice of people and communities that are literally dying because of Chevron’s deadly operations to these events.

That’s why at the Chevron Houston marathon on Sunday I’ll be running for Emergildo and the over 1,400 Ecuadoreans who have died because of Chevron’s negligence.

UPDATE. January 15th at 1:20 pm

The RAN team that is running for human rights in Ecuador at this Sunday’s Chevron Houston Marathon was just kicked out of the marathon’s Expo by Chevron Marathon Managing Director Steven Karpas!

The runners had paid for a table to distribute “I’m Running for Human Rights” stickers and information about Chevron’s refusal to clean up over 18 billion tons of toxic oil sludge they are responsible for in the Ecuadorean rainforest.

At approximately 10 a.m. this morning, Managing Director Steven Karpas told the Rainforest Action Network team, “higher ups at Chevron are freaking out” and threatened to arrest the peaceful runners. Police then ejected the runners from the city-owned and operated building for exercising their right to free speech.

“We are outraged that Chevron would deny marathon participants the right to run for what they believe, in our case, human rights in Ecuador,” said Rainforest Action Network runner Maria Ramos. “It is sad that the Chevron Houston Marathon – which raises awareness and money for many important causes – would deny the rights of participants to appease a corporate sponsor that is clearly ashamed of its human rights record.”

When asked for a reason for their ejection, Steven Karpas told the runners they were being removed for “protest activities.” The Rainforest Action Network team’s objective at the Expo was not to protest, disrupt the Expo or dampen other runners experience at this important race. The runners merely wanted to sit at their table and invite other runners to run with them for human rights.

Let’s “freak out” Chevron even more! Go to www.ChangeChevron.org and let Chevron know you’ll be a part of the global movement to mend the oil giant’s evil ways..

This Climate Generation series is well-timed. Like every other national group I know working on the transition to a clean energy economy, the Energy Action Coalition is going through a strategic planning / soul-searching process to figure out just what the &$*$ to do next. The outline of the broader movement’s situation is pretty well understood, but few really good ideas about how to solve it have surfaced. Despite some meaningful accomplishments in 2009 — mainly through the Recovery Act and executive actions — the big goals of passing strong federal legislation before Copenhagen and securing a binding international treaty have not been achieved.

The chasm between what’s needed and what is being discussed in Washington grows ever wider and the “pragmatists” inside and outside the beltway can barely hear each other anymore. Every week comes with more dire scientific predictions and, newly, worse polling numbers on public understanding of the impacts and support for action. Major Democratic losses predicted for the 2010 midterm elections confirm the widespread feeling that our golden opportunity for change is slipping away.

We’re still just not powerful enough as a movement to make the changes we so desperately need. As Jamie’s great post yesterday clearly laid out, we need to be thinking about strategies that go big. To complement Jamie’s history, I want to sketch out my understanding of how the Energy Action Coalition’s strategy has evolved over the past 6 years with the hope that a better understanding of our strategic history can inform the decisions we make moving forward.

Three quick notes before I do: 1) I believe the coalition’s collaborative planning processes — and culture of fun, diversity, aspirational thinking, solidarity and action — have been a large part of how we’ve developed smart strategy, but the focus here is on the results and what we actually did, not how we came to the decisions; 2) I’d also commend a look at Sara Robinson’s account of the progression of social change, which provides a broader context in which to situate these decisions; and 3) This is MY interpretation of events, biased as it surely is.

PHASE 1: Finding Ourselves (November 2003 — August 2005)

Continue reading ‘Climate Generation: The Evolution of The Energy Action Coalition’s Strategy’

Who said anything about qualifications?

I never thought I’d be writing a piece on media and messaging. I’m a government major at the University of Maryland going into my final semester as an undergraduate. I’m looking to further my education with a masters in public policy with a specialization in environmental policy. In the student activist group UMD for Clean Energy that I’ve been involved in since the spring semester of 2007, I’ve been the boots on the ground guy getting petition signatures and power vote pledges, the Political Liaison who handled the policy aspects of the campaign like organizing lobby meetings, and last fall I had my first stint as the Campaign Director for the group. Despite my responsibility never being media and messaging, it’s in this area that I feel I’ve learned some of the most valuable organizing lessons.

When applied to our group’s efforts last semester, our new approach to media became one of the most powerful engines for our local campaign on making green issues front and center in our College Park City Council elections, and complimented all of the other aspects of our campaign beautifully. At the end of the semester, core members of UMD for Clean Energy tried to put our finger on how and why media had been invaluable to our campaign, but usually our guesses didn’t go beyond “wow”. This is my imperfect yet necessary attempt to explain what happened, with the hope that other groups can gain from it, and at least so I can convey how important this aspect of the youth climate movement is. By the way, I’ve committed the cardinal sin of making this a longggg post, but it’s worth it so please read.

“This was a lot more efficient than knocking on 20,000 doors” Continue reading ‘Media and Messaging: The Multiplier Effect’

I’ve really enjoyed reading this “Climate Generation” series going on IGHIH right now and was pleased when Julianna and Morgan (read his great piece just below this post) asked me to write up some quick reflections on the youth climate movement and the year ahead.

It’s still early in 2010 and after 2 years of head-down, full out sprint campaigning, I’m still getting all my thoughts in order. But here’s one lesson I’ve pulled out of the last 5 years of organizing and activism that’s accompanied IGHIH in its growth as a blog and community: go big. In this post, I want to tell a bit of my own story of moving from student activist to national campaigning to international organizing and hopefully provide a bit of inspiration for all of us who are making plans for the year ahead.

I got my start in climate organizing as a student up at Middlebury College in Vermont. I’d done some organizing on campus (mostly around fair trade issues) but got pulled into the climate issue while taking a class with Prof. Jon Isham – a long time ally of student organizing. That class transformed into a full on campus movement: by week three of the class, we were having weekly student meetings with nearly 100 participants (the local beer we put in the center of the circle might have helped).

Continue reading ‘Climate Generation: In 2010, Go Big’

It all began when I found myself leading climate activism cheers and marching through the August heat of New Hampshire in 2007… No, let me back up. It began when I signed my campus group up on the Campus Climate Challenge website because we’d been running the campaign but no one had bothered to tell anyone outside our campus. No, not quite, it really began when Billy Parish spoke on an Earthday panel at my school in the spring of 2006.  Well, it really began…

For the Climate Generation series, as we look at how the climate crisis shapes and unites our generation, I want to start with what got me really excited about being part of the movement to stop climate change.  Hopefully this can offer some insight into how we organize ourselves at a generational level and win.

In Sierra Student Coalition trainings like I attended, participants all share what makes them tick. Its called green fire, a reference to an Aldo Leopold essay on the love of wilderness and the spark that makes us fight to protect what we love. He saw the green fire in a wolf’s eyes as it heaved its last breaths. He saw the fierce determination of a mother to protect her domain, to defend her young, and he linked that to his love for the rugged land, vowing to defend it to his last breath.

Listening to Billy talk about the Campus Climate Challenge, I started to get a little fire in my eyes. It felt like someone had let the sunlight in to my little corner where I was busily doing my part, sorting bottles and trying to use both sides of printer paper. His 10 minute slide-show contained a big idea that I’d never heard be: that there was this whole network of people doing important, real things, like reducing the emissions from entire campuses, all over the country. Continue reading ‘Climate Generation: What Makes Us All Tick’