It’s Getting Hot In Here

(crossposted from www.climaterealitytour.org)

It’s been an inspiring time here in DC thanks to the Appalachia Rising and the Voices from the Mountains conference. After sharing skills, strategizing, and training all weekend, Monday’s mass action was unbelievably powerful. Readers already know that over 100 were arrested sitting in at the White House to abolish MTR coal.

The whole weekend was extremely powerful. Tears flowed freely from my eyes as a man screamed at the EPA just behind me in the march. “Do your job! Shame on you, EPA! Our people are dying! Do your JOB!” he shouted, his young daughter tethering him back. Moving beyond words.

Coal poisons people and kills the planet. No doubt. Problem is that tens of thousands of us depend on it for work, and ALL of us in the U.S. enjoy products made possible by its contaminating combustion. What’s more, if we’re ever going to get suitable climate legislation, we’re gonna need just these working folks on board demanding sustainability in our economy. Continue reading ‘AppRising & Just Transition Off Coal’

Remember that wind farm in Oregon I wrote about last week? Portland General Electric just purchased the project and were attempting to bypass an Oregon law requiring competitive bidding. Now, those plans and the entire project seem to be brought to a halt. By what you ask? The endangered golden eagle.

The Golden Eagle (from Wikimedia Commons)

The Oregonian is reporting that a golden eagle nest has been found in Wasco County, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Oregon Department of Energy recommended in a letter to PGE that no wind turbine be built within six miles of it

In response to these recent events, PGE has given up trying to skirt around the Oregon competitive bidding law and has backed off trying to build the wind farm.

How about this for a development? Many of you have said that PGE’s wind farm plans were more about good business and publicity than an environmental agenda. Nonetheless, this means the odds of another large wind farm being built in the near future have gone from good to slim (if not nil). Is the (potential) risk to golden eagle(s) worth halting a wind farm’s construction?
Continue reading ‘Wind Farm Construction Stopped by Endangered Eagle’

This election we face a major attack on California’s clean energy and global warming policy – Big Oil is pushing Proposition 23, a ballot measure to gut California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act. The California Student Sustainability Coalition, and young people across the state are mobilizing behind Power Vote California to defeat Prop 23. We think with our people power we can stop Big Oil from ruining our drive to a clean energy economy.

Today I joined a meeting with City College of San Francisco’s environmental group, Green Corps. Over the weekend they had trained 20 people on the Power Vote California Campaign, and today they were finalizing their plan to mobilze thousands of their peers to vote on November 2nd. Green Corps is one of dozens of groups across the state building campus campaigns to turn out the youth vote and make sure the dirty energy proposition goes down in flames. With only 35 days until the election, this sort of work is critical. This coming weekend the CSSC is hosting trainings in San Diego and Los Angeles to make sure our entire network is ready to rock the vote over the next month.

We’re also excited to team up with Communities United, a coalition of grassroots, community and environmental justic groups to host a six-city “Clean Energy Tour.” Through art, activism and music, we’ll expose the dirty antics of Big Oil and plug people into fighting for the green economy. You can check out the tour dates at CleanEnergyTour.com and attend the concerts for free just by pledging to vote.

Continue reading ‘Power Vote California takes on Big Oil’

I’ve written a number of columns in the University of Maryland student newspaper about the horrendous practice of mountaintop removal, in particular the Obama Administration’s failure to acknowledge the science behind mountaintop removal, a call for a ban on MTR following EPA regulations earlier this year which in hindsight were over-hyped, and an introduction to the practice and impacts of blowing up mountains for coal. Although I’ve participated in protesting a bank over funding MTR and taken part in a few campus educational events about it, I’ve never gotten a chance to directly witness the passion, fight, and energy of the movement stemming from Appalachia to stop mountaintop removal. That changed Monday, where I was fortunate enough to take part in one of the best organized rallies and fiercest urgent calls to action that I’ve seen in my years of environmental and climate activism. Continue reading ‘A Day of Fighting for Appalachia’

Hi All,

Yesterday’s Appalachia Rising was an incredibly inspiring event.  It was great to meet folks from the coal fields who live with the extraction costs of this dirty source of energy, and amazing to see them risk arrest to protest at our nation’s capital. Another environmental justice issue threatening communities around the country is the end product of burning coal, the waste.  Today, Greenpeace activists unfurled a banner at the coal ash hearing in Louisville, Kentucky telling the EPA: Protect People Not Polluters! Here’s a cross-post from my friend Robert:

Protect People, Not Polluters

Blogpost by Robert Gardner – September 28, 2010 at 9:12 AM

Highlighting the need for federal standards to protect public health from hazardous coal waste, activists unfurled a banner at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville this morning that read “EPA: PROTECT PEOPLE, NOT POLLUTERS.” The peaceful protest was held at the location of EPA’s Coal Ash public hearing on two vastly different proposals for the regulation of coal ash disposal.

Activists took this step to ensure that the EPA establishes federal minimum standards for toxic coal ash that protect our communities and the environment.

Continue reading ‘Greenpeace Unfurls Banner at EPA Coal Ash Hearing’

At 9 o’clock this morning, 13 young people entered the Department of Interior office building to demand that Secretary Ken Salazar bring an end to the Office of Surface Mining’s approval of mountaintop removal mining permits. Carrying a banner reading, “Appalachia is Rising, End Mountaintop Removal”, the 13 activists staged a sit-in in the building lobby and are currently refusing to leave until their demands are met.

Youth stage a sit-in at Department of Interior to hold Mr. Salazar to his word.

Among their demands, the youth are asking Secretary Salazar to:

1. Research, review and revoke all existing and pending mountaintop removal mine permits through the Office of Surface Mining

2. Deny all future mountaintop removal mine permits requests that cross his desk

3. Approve land reclamation permits that require the seeding of native Appalachian plant life to begin the bioremediation process on all MTR sites currently undergoing reclamation. This will accomplish the pressing issue of restoring the region to its original state.

4. Work with mining companies and the Office of Surface Mining to secure employment for local residents in these reclamation efforts.

The action is being conducted in solidarity with Appalachia Rising, a mass mobilization to end mountaintop removal taking place in D.C. today.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS ACTION NOW by calling Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, 202 208 7351, and demanding that he hold true to his words spoken last Wednesday that “Every American deserves a healthy environment in which they can live, learn and play” and bring an end to mountaintop removal mining today.

Appalachians live but a few hours drive from our nation’s capitol, much closer than most of the country, and yet their voices are so seldom heard here. Maybe it has something to do with the hillbilly reputation. And maybe, because their voices are so seldom heard here, they’ve become prime targets for reckless industrial practices like mountaintop removal coal mining, or MTR.

Today, thousands of Appalachians and concerned citizens are trying to change that, by taking to the streets in DC with all the fierce determination and creative enthusiasm that the steep Appalachian mountains engender. Today Appalachia is rising up to demand an end to mountaintop removal coal mining.

The action’s already started – check out these pictures from an early morning occupation of the Army Corp of engineers building. Continue reading ‘Appalachia Rising up in DC’

Wednesday, September 22, I attended a meeting at Hampshire College of Western Massachusetts environmental organizers hosted by the Center for New Community of Chicago.  Rebecca Poswolsky of CNC presented to the group about the rising trend of anti-immigration rhetoric being pushed into the environmental movement.  Videos and advertisements portrayed the messaging of anti-immigration groups vying for an environmental audience.

In one, a line of men in sweatshirts and jeans, baseball caps pulled down, snakes through desert brush in the hidden camera footage.  The voice-over in this Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) film describes the actions of the “illegal aliens,” “They walk, but some get tired.  A few sit and snack. Likely the snack packages will become litter… … more people, more paths, more trash.”

No one likes litter, especially those espousing to be environmentalists.  The narrative of this film is easy to follow.  Immigrants = trash = ruined wildlife = environmental disaster.

It’s a simple argument to pull apart; consumption levels of people in America are astronomically higher than those of our southern neighbors and historically the U.S. accounts for a disproportionate amount of carbon emissions.  Upon entering the U.S. one doesn’t immediately increase their consumption; factors of class and wealth are much better indicators of consumption.  Since the Environmental Justice movement took off in the early 1980s, more and more immigrants and people of color have contributed their voices and values to the fight for the environment and climate.  In short, immigrants aren’t the problem. Continue reading ‘Stand against the “Greening of Hate” for the Movement we Believe In’

Civilization's Addiction to Oil - Impacted Communities Are Held Hostage by the Industry

Amiskwaciwaskahikan. Edmonton, Alberta. Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

On September 22nd, 2010, economic and political pressure from Total positions Mikisew Cree First Nation in a difficult and complicated situation to sign a confidential ‘social contract’ for an undisclosed sum of money. The Joint Panel Review examining Total’s application for the Joslyn North Open Pit Mine Project adjourned the hearing and will reconvene on Tuesday, September 28th, in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Initially at the outset of the hearing Total was faced with a significant legal challenge from the Mikisew Cree First Nation regarding treaty rights. The Mikisew Cree First Nation withdrew their intervenor status, their constitutional challenge with their treaty rights, and settled with Total in a confidential agreement. Continue reading ‘TOTAL Failure to Respect Life, Humanity, and Earth’

PSU Student Rose Monahan at Penn State Beyond Coal rally outside the campus steam plant

Penn State University is moving forward a request from university administrators for funds to convert the West Campus Steam Plant off coal, making it the newest school to make such a move the wake of an active Sierra Student Coalition Campuses Beyond Coal campaign. The request was slipped into the Board’s agenda after a year-long student campaign urging the university to stop burning coal at the plant which sits right in the middle of the flagship campus, and was helped along by strong new EPA regulations that will require several campus coal plants to clean up their acts.

The pending EPA rule targets industrial boilers, such as those on many campuses including Virginia Tech, Michigan State, Indiana University, the University of Iowa and several others. The new rules are designed to protect residents who live near and downwind from these coal plants. Specifically, the rule will substantially reduce emissions of toxic air pollution, like mercury, arsenic and cadmium, which can cause cancer, reproductive disorders and other serious health problems. Continue reading ‘Penn State Next to Join Growing List of Campuses Moving Off Coal’