It’s Getting Hot In Here

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law today that doubles the amount of energy power companies will be required to buy back from customers with solar panels today. That means that customers will be able to sell back up to 5% of the energy they generate, double the old rate of 2.5%.

A home with rooftop solar panels Los Angeles, California. From Flickr.com

This is exactly the kind of incentive that people need to expand solar technology. Many scientists and researchers say that solar technology is best implemented on an individual home basis. With legislation like this, homeowners will have a greater incentive to invest in the expensive technology.

We’ve heard of the homeowners that get paid by the power companies, but it is usually an amount so small that it rarely covers the cost of equipment. If new legislation can double that number, like it has in California, then more and more people may turn to solar. Continue reading ‘Solar Incentive’

“Give light and people will find the way.” This quote by Ella Baker, civil rights leader and youth activist, sums up the last day of the Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Bus tour. Baker mentored young civil rights stalwarts like Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks and Bob Moses.  Today, she would be proud as the new generation of activists rallied behind the need for clean energy jobs and their right to economic equality in our nation’s capital.

Imagine it. After touring the nation and meeting with young people in urban communities all along the way, the Hip Hop Caucus’ Clean Energy Now! Bus Tour brought its message of clean energy solutions to the steps of the Capitol Building for a closing rally.  The event began with music from DJ Biz Markie. His classic beats were heard around the Capitol while hip hop echoed off of our nation’s government buildings. As Biz began, a bus full of Howard University students marched up to the rally with Clean Energy Now! signs and took their place on the stage as one of the nation’s leading universities. Continue reading ‘Hip Hop Tour Rolls into Washington: We are the Light, Clean Energy Now!’

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that General Motors’ bid to sell the brand to a Chinese heavy equipment manufacturing company fell through. Unless the contract is picked up quickly, no more Hummers will be manufactured.

Hummers have been notorious as environmentally unfriendly vehicles and a source of controversy ever since they were introduced to the public. The most fuel-efficient Hummer averages about 16 mpg, a frighteningly low number when considering that some hybrids get an average of upwards of 40 mpg. That’s more than double the fuel-efficiency of the Hummer.

The popularity of the Hummer brand has declined in recent years. The brand was popular soon after its release, with 71,524 Hummers sold in 2006. By December 2009, sales were down 85%.  Stock prices have continued to drop, and GM recently filed for bankruptcy.

The discontinuation of the brand is a good sign. Continue reading ‘The Hummer is history’

The RFP

“We need heroes. Build them, dont put your fist up, fill them. Fight with tools.”

These lyrics by a popular band out of Denver, The Flobots, embodies the type of change we need within the youth movement to obtain what we want most; a holistic clean energy economy. The easy question is, how do we do this? The answer, if we do our part together, might not be as difficult as you think.

First, we need to to address our cities and communities that are no longer transforming themselves. The good news is there are those that have already started to do this. Heroes, as we call them. They are individuals who have brought about areas of positive change because they envision something greater. Each of these heroes are people just like you, links of a chain bounded together by community or organization, each with a story to tell, each empowered to make a positive difference.

These are the types of stories and individuals that create the positive synergy within a movement that turns a vision into a reality. There’s no question visions such as these have been plagued with the apathy and skepticism. Radical change has many opponents. But now is the time to work with communities on finding answers to problems that continue to plague them.

This Summer, the Energy Action Coalition is listening. Communities such as yours will have the opportunity to connect to something bigger, something that can be leveraged for relevant, real policy change. This will aide the movement in scaling-up to become a size needed to achieve the kind of positive transformation our cities and communities crave. Continue reading ‘Request for Proposal: Build the Clean, Energy Economy’

For the past year, I’ve been anxiously waiting for the federal government to address the growing climate crisis, but month after month new delays to passing healthcare reform brought my desire for a fair, just and ambitious climate bill further and further out of reach. As Senators found excuse after excuse to avoid moving forward, I started thinking back about the fundamental role that healthcare played in motivating my climate change activism.

I grew up in the small rural community of New Town on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. When I was 20 years old I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer known as a level 4 sarcoma tumor. It’s an extremely rapid spreading cancer that’s usually attached to the muscle or bone. What made it rare was that in my case it wasn’t attached; it was right there on my stomach where I could see it and feel it. I remember the morning I woke up and noticed that the pea sized lump I had discovered on my tummy just a few days before had grown and was now changing color. Because of the fact that so many people on the reservation had already dealt with cancer in the past I knew that it was not good and that I had to get to the doctor. At that point I was in college and my only form of health care was through the Indian Health Service (IHS).

Continue reading ‘Healthcare and Climate Reform, Inextricably Linked’

Sometimes I get so upset about the tar sands, I just need to pick up the phone and tell someone about it.

In the lead-up to Copenhagen, I was calling the Canadian Prime Minister and other members of parliament. I wanted them to know that they need to make responsible decisions in Copenhagen to ensure that Canada would do its part in addressing the climate crisis, and to do this they would need to shut down our dirtiest industry.

Now, in the lead up to a rally against the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and their financing of the tar sands—I am calling RBC employees.  I want them to know that they need to act responsibly and stop financing the tar sands. Royal Bank of Canada is the top financier of tar sands projects which are making up 95% of Canada’s increase in emissions, violating over 24 aboriginal treaties, causing rates of diseases and cancers to skyrocket in nearby communities, using up local freshwater resources, and destroying the environment.

Do you think all RBC employees know that? I doubt it.

Continue reading ‘Did YOU Know Your Employer Was Financing Fossil Fuels?’

Mountain Justice Spring Break is an alternative spring break aimed at coal fields residents, college students, environmentalists, and any concerned citizens that are interested in learning more about mountaintop removal coal mining and cultivating the skills and visions needed to build a sustainable energy future in Appalachia.

This March 12 – 20, Mountain Justice Spring Break will bring hundreds of young people face to face with the impacts of mountaintop removal and the coal industry – and give you the skills and knowledge you need to build sustainable communities in Appalachia! Through education, community service, speakers, hiking, music, poetry, direct action and more, you will learn from and stand with Appalachian communities in the struggle to maintain our land and culture.

I had an Op-Ed out today in The Diamondback on RE-ENERGYSE, a federal clean energy education initiative the Obama administration is proposing.

Clean energy education: RE-ENERGYSE America

As far as states go, this state is fairly ambitious when it comes to producing clean energy, creating green jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, Gov. Martin O’Malley approved a law mandating the state to reduce these emissions to 25 percent below 2006 levels by 2020. This can largely be achieved by reaching for low-hanging fruit, such as energy efficiency and deployment of existing low-carbon technologies. But what about after 2020? What about the other 75 percent? Continue reading ‘Clean energy education: RE-ENERGYSE America’

It’s Oscar time and people are all counting the days until we can sit down, play the Oscar polls, critique the Oscar De La Renta dresses, and cringe at the hot mess that is Mariah Carey. Oddly enough I’m now eagerly waiting with them this year; not to compare my impeccable eye for style, or guess the winner of the Best Song (Weary Heart, from Crazyheart duh), but to see if James Cameron, director of that little movie that could, will put some action where his mouth is.

In recent weeks James Cameron himself has been calling Avatar a catalyst for environmental action saying he now wants to “use the spotlight that’s been put on him by Avatar’s success to bring attention to environmental causes“. This caught the eye of Rainforest Action Network’s Becky Tarbotton. On yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle website Tarbotton started a call to Mr. Cameron to help expose the “real-life Avatar” that Chevron continues to enable in Ecuador.

In the article Tarbotton asks:

“What if in his acceptance speech James Cameron mentioned the real-life Indigenous Ecuadorean heroes who are battling the real-life evil oil corporation Chevron?

She then continues:

If Director James Cameron accepts an Academy Award next month, he should let his faithful fans know that while Pandora is fictional, what is happening to communities in Ecuador because of Chevron’s actions is as real as it gets.”

Continue reading ‘James Cameron, the Oscar’s, and the Real-Life ‘Avatar’.’