It’s Getting Hot In Here

In the spring of 2009, students members of ReEnergize Texas wanted to convince the Texas Legislature to pass a bill letting them create campus green funds amidst talk of “the worst recession since WWII.” It was no small feat, but through smart lobbying, a statewide summit and lobby day, and a strategic Earth Day phone bank among other tactics, together they prevailed.

So what did this victory earn them? The opportunity to convince students at public universities across Texas to increase their own fees despite tough economic times and rapidly rising tuition. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, some might say. But that’s not how these tenacious organizers saw things.

ThinkGreenFund.org from Public Citizen on Vimeo.

Then in early March, student bodies at the state’s two most prominent public universities voted in favor of creating green funds – UT Austin with 71% support, and Texas A&M with 57% support. Just a week earlier the state’s most prominent private school, Rice University, had created its own green fund in a campaign not related to ReEnergize Texas.
Continue reading ‘Texas Green Funds Passing Despite Economy’

Note: this post is contributed in honor of the Sierra Club’s national day of action for a strong EPA ozone ruling.  However the words are mine alone, as are any mistakes.

Coal and oil make for cheap energy - but only because polluters aren’t currently required to pay the true cost of polluting.  Inadequate emissions-control laws that let polluters off the hook have up to now been a major reason coal and oil can burn so cheaply.  And nowhere are the true costs brought home more clearly than in the Bush-era EPA’s loose standards for that soup of toxic compounds which form ground-level ozone, or “smog.”  The Obama administration and environmental activists across the country now have a key opportunity to strengthen regulation of ground-level ozone, and protect the health of our communities.

At the behest of EPA scientists, the National Lung Association, and various other health advocates, Lisa Jackson’s EPA is proposing stricter standards to regulate ozone from coal plants, vehicle tailpipe emissions, and other major sources.  The final ruling on ozone is scheduled to be adopted by August 31st of this year, with the public comment period ending on March 22nd.  Continue reading ‘Time to Get Tough on Ozone Smog’

I recently took a vacation from the climate movement to do some personal visioning and exploring in South America.  If you haven’t taken your head out of CEJAPAs and Cap and Trade in a while, maybe that brain break is right on the horizon.  Upon returning last week, I attended a government job fair in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  I like to see myself as a qualified applicant for any given job.  After all I have been an organizer and we all know the gamut of situations we find ourselves in every day.  I was ready to pitch employers when I show up to find a line of 7,000 people waiting just to get in the building.  Everyone there was dressed to the nines in power suits and equipped with polished resumes.  Senator Warner of Virginia worked the lines while his staff offered to hold resumes for people who needed to leave for their first, second or third job.  Ironically, Senator Warner’s net worth (fifth highest in Congress) could provide everyone there a stimulus package, ringing in at over 72 million.  An additional 1,000 people were still in line when the job fair drew to a close at 4:00 p.m, four hours later than originally scheduled.  I walked away without even making it to the door after three hours.  This was a jaw dropping experience to say the least.  I couldn’t help but recognize this event and try to find meaning for our movement from this experience.

• America needs to be put back to work in the clean energy economy.  We’re not just talking about a just transition for miners and manufacturing workers, but people with associates and bachelor’s degrees who are overqualified and underemployed in our current economy.
• Continue reading ‘This is what our economy looks like!’

x-posted from Solutionaries

As communications facilitator for Summer of Solutions, I’m featuring every program to paint a picture of the diversity of solutions young people are building across the country. This post will feature the amazing work happening in Burlington, VT and the dynamic leaders there.

The Summer of Solutions is a summer program designed to empower youth to create self sustaining community based solutions to environment and social injustice, climate change and economic insolvency. We work to build an inclusive, local community that connects across the country that will propel us into holistic, renewable energy economy.

There are seven projects happening this summer in Burlington. Some are continuations/expansions of last summer’s programs, and others are completely new.

Continue reading ‘Summer of Solutions in Burlington, VT’

Last weekend I had the opportunity to speak at a national conference of young Jesuit’s gathered in West Virginia as part of the Ignatian Solidarity Network’s national Teach-in on Environmental Justice and Sustainability. Inspired by the powerful history of social justice work of the Jesuit community I spoke to them about the importance of Environmental Justice, the Energy Action Coalition, the need for urgent action, and of our latest campaign: Define our Decade. During the Q&A one question really stood out: “What’s so special about THIS decade? Why focus on defining the next ten years?” After pausing to reflect, I simply said: “Because we have to.”

At first the student questioner probably thought my answer sounded like a mother answering her seven year old on why she couldn’t eat the cookie for breakfast, “Because I said so.” But really, it’s true that we have to make this decade one of the most transformative in American history. Period. Anything short of that is morally inexcusable. Over the next 10 years our generation will unleash the full power of the clean and just energy revolution and secure our climate from the duel threats of the economic and climate crisis. Why? Because we have to. This is not just a campaign slogan but the reality that we have inherited an insane global emergency and failure to rise to the challenge will result in the suffering of millions of our fellow human beings. We cannot continue to live under the corporate polluter domination that is poisoning our communities and disproportionally affecting communities of color the world over. I for one can’t live with it. And I keep going because I know that everyday there is a movement of people out there that feel the same way. Let us now let us speak with a unified vision for Our Decade. Continue reading ‘Our Decade Starts Today: Events Across the Country Kick-off Efforts to Define It With Clean Energy’

Thursday morning, I went to a press conference hosted by Clean Energy Works. I knew there would a variety of speakers but I didn’t expect was to be blown away by the words of two young women, both in high school at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School. I should have expected it.

As Callie Guy, a senior, pointed out to the crowd, “For my generation, the controversy over global climate change simply doesn’t exist. We know what the price of inaction is, and it will fall on me and my friends unless we act now. It is time for my generation to declare their independence from the fossil fuels of the past and lead our country on a clean energy revolution. “

Callie’s right. My generation has moved past deciding if global warming exists to deciding how to solve it. We refuse to listen to false solutions such as clean coal and nuclear. My generation will Define Our Decade with 100% truly clean, safe, green energy.

Maggie Chambers, a junior, closed the press conference with these words which I want to share with all of you.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that not all energy sources are created equal, that all people are endowed with the undeniable rights to clean air, liberation from foreign oil, and the pursuit of permanent clean energy jobs- That to secure these rights, Government should follow the path of pursuing strong clean energy and climate legislation… Continue reading ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that not all energy sources are created equal’

Cross-posted from: The Dernogalizer

So I get an e-mail from the Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council this morning with the title “Please Help Maryland Save 5,000 Clean Energy Jobs”.  Intrigued, and thinking this might have something to do about Maryland investing it’s RGGI money into energy efficiency, or accelerating solar standards, I open it.  Needless to say, I’m surprised to see that natural gas is passing for clean energy jobs these days.  Clean is all relative in this game.  Natural gas is cleaner than coal.  Oil is cleaner than tar sands oil or shale oil.  Yet I think the notion of calling conventional oil “clean energy” would be utterly ridiculous. Continue reading ‘The Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council is Lying to Maryland’

Originally posted at LeadEnergy.org

This week, the youth energy and climate movement achieved a victory when Johns Hopkins University — one of the largest research universities in the world — announced a major new climate and energy plan, resulting in large part from student activism and leadership.

Announced by JHU President Ron Daniels, the plan includes (1) a $73 million energy investment to cut university carbon pollution over 50% below projected levels by 2025, (2) a new Environment, Sustainability, and Health Institute to promote new research and education in climate, energy, and sustainability, (3) a new Master’s Degree in Energy Policy and Climate, and more.

“Global climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges,” declared President Daniels in his statement. “Facing this challenge head-on is our shared responsibility, especially as residents of the developed world. But universities have a special role in our society and a special responsibility. We are institutions that discover, that educate and that, often, set an example. When it comes to global climate change, Johns Hopkins will be a leader in all three.”

Continue reading ‘Johns Hopkins University Launches Climate and Energy Project’

Ding ding ding!! It’s round 2 in the public debate between Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President of Waterkeeper Alliance and outspoken mountaintop removal critic.  The Hill, a daily

Maria Gunnoe, organizer with Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, shows coal dust she wiped off Frankie Mooney's home in Twilight, WV

congressional newspaper in Washington DC, published a set of opposing op-eds yesterday just as the 5th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington wrapped up.  See Blankenship’s here and RFK Jr.’s here.

This follows the televised debate of Blankenship and Kennedy in Charleston, WV in late January, which helped focus national attention on MTR after Science magazine published an article on its destructive effects earlier in the month.   Climate Ground Zero also launched a treesit the same day as the debate, which halted blasting on Massey’s Bee Tree site in Pettus, WV for nine days.

Blankenship is feeling the pressure (and surely realizes Congress is too!) as he alludes to in his op-ed, and he makes clear he believes everyone, including the media, is against “energy producers.” Continue reading ‘Round 2: Blankenship versus RFK Jr. on Mountaintop Removal’

{Written by Dan Cannon, Florida Organizer at the Southern Energy Network}