It’s Getting Hot In Here

Yesterday, I accompanied Joel Francis to Koch Industries’ headquarters to deliver his debate challenge in person to CEO Charles Koch.  Last week, Joel delivered his challenge through a highly publicized online video (NYTimes / Forbes /Business Week / Huff Post / LA Weekly).  Here is our video update from Wichita – Please share with everyone you know!

Because Koch did not respond to the video challenge, Francis traveled to Wichita to deliver the debate challenge letter in person. Francis was prevented from entering the building after requesting to see Koch in person. He handed the debate challenge letter to Larry Moorman, Director of Corporate Security, who assured Francis that Mr. Koch would receive the letter. Before leaving, Francis called Koch Industries’ and was connected to Kay, Mr Koch’s secretary.  Kay said that Charles Koch was unavailable and then took Joel’s name and phone number and assured him that Charles would get back to him.

Regardless, Charles made it clear that he heard about the challenge and responded by posting the “Director of Corporate Security” and a dozen security guards in front of the multi-billionaire dollar company.

Joel and Gabe speak with Larry Moorman, Director of Corporate Security 

Mr. Francis has remained friendly while pushing Charles Koch to debate the Dirty Energy Proposition – Prop 23 – in public before Election Day.  As a graduating college student, Joel is about to enter a tough job market, and that is why he is working to safeguard the bright spot in California’s economy.

It seems that Mr. Koch does not have the courage to respond to a college student and U.S. Marine Corps veteran worried about the negative impact Prop 23 would have on our state.

“As a senior, I’m worried that the dirty energy initiative Mr. Koch is funding would jeopardize $10 billion of private investment in the state’s clean economy and ruin the fastest growing sector of Californian economy. Many of us who are getting ready to enter the workforce are looking to the clean technology sector as a strong employment option,” Francis said. “If Mr. Koch is going to come into our state with his money, a lot of people would like to hear directly from him why he is trying to wreak our economy’s development.”

Over the next week, the California Student Sustainability Coalition will continue mobilizing thousands of young people to ensure our generation votes on Tuesday, November 2 and defeats Prop 23.

Please help spread the word about Joel’s challenge to the billionaire CEO funding trying to ruin our clean energy future.

Pledge to vote NO on Prop 23 at www.powervote.ca !

Post written by Climate Justice Montreal

“Shale Gas fracking sacrifices air, water and land”

Montreal – Tuesday morning, organizers with Climate Justice Montreal set up a hydraulic fracturing, gas shale extraction site outside of the Queen Elizabeth hotel, site of the Quebec Association of Oil and Gas Producers annual conference.

Montreal – On Tuesday morning, organizers with Climate Justice Montreal set up a hydraulic fracturing, gas shale extraction site outside of the Queen Elizabeth hotel, site of the Quebec Association of Oil and Gas Producers annual conference.

“Extracting natural gas from shale deposits is bottom of the barrel dirty energy,” said Catherine Thibault, an organizer with Climate Justice Montreal.” We have seen what shale gas has done across the United States and Canada; poisoned water, toxic air, and destroyed lands that leaves everyone and everything sick, we need to stop this before it comes to Quebec.”

Organizers dressed as construction workers built a tripod fracking rig and hung a banner that read “Les Gaz de Schiste Sacrifient L’air, L’eau et la Vie sur Terre” (Shale Gas Extraction Sacrifices Air, Water and Land) while others represented the communities that would be directly impacted by extraction, sick and dying.

Presently, oil and gas companies have been granted over 450 permits for exploration and extraction in Quebec, many of which are for shale gas extraction, through the process of Hydraulic Fracturing or “Fracking”. Fracking uses over 596 chemicals – many of which are known carcinogens and poisons – mixed with hundreds of litres of water and sand, the majority of which ends up in groundwater, soil and the air.

Organizers also pointed out the danger this poses to the entire St.Lawrence watershed.

“All of our communities are dependent on this river,” Thibault explained. “Shale gas threatens the clean and safe drinking water of every person in Quebec, and that should be reason enough to stop it now and forever.”

I’m very pleased that the College Park Patch’s interview with Governor O’Malley started off by asking my question “Do you support offshore wind, and if so what will you do to make it a reality over these next four years”. Not only did Governor O’Malley answer the question in support of offshore wind and list steps he has taken, but he proceeded to discuss clean energy and energy efficiency policy for a full six minutes!  This is pretty good for an election where the the environment and clean energy policy has scarcely come up in debates or the media.  For more background on why O’Malley should be re-elected Governor, read my op-ed in the Diamondback from a few weeks ago.  See the video below for my question Continue reading ‘My Offshore Wind Question for Governor O’Malley, and Candidate Ehrlich’

The anti-coal movement is on the move against PNC.

PNC: Stop Funding Mountaintop Removal

Nov. 18 Day of Action against PNC’s Mountaintop Removal Investments

Join Rainforest Action Network and allies all over Appalachia and the country in stopping PNC’s investments in mountaintop removal.

WHAT: PNC: Stop Funding MTR; Day of Action against to end Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Sector
WHERE: Your Town USA
WHEN; Nov. 18, 2010
CONTACT: sparkin@ran.org or 1-800-989-RAIN
INFO: www.dirtymoney.org
FACEBOOK RSVP: http://on.fb.me/c3hk2L
SIGN UP: http://ran.org/content/pnc-stop-financing-mtr

Pennsylvania based bank PNC is the biggest U.S. financier of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Join us as we send a message to PNC to stop financing mountaintop removal! Continue reading ‘Nov. 18 Day of Action; PNC: Stop Funding Mountaintop Removal’

**Coming Soon: Video update of our experience at Koch Industries’ Headquarters! Check back in a few hours!**

This afternoon, I accompanied Joel Francis to Koch Industries’ headquarters to deliver his debate challenge in person to CEO Charles Koch.  Last week, Joel delivered his challenge through a highly publicized online video (NYTimes / Forbes / Business Week / Huff Post / LA Weekly).

From Left: Joel Francis, Michelle Oyewole, Natalie Gaber, Dina Cervantes, Gabriel Elsner

Because Koch did not respond to the video challenge, Francis traveled to Wichita to deliver the debate challenge letter in person. Francis was prevented from entering the building after requesting to see Koch in person. He handed the debate challenge letter to Larry Moorman, Director of Corporate Security, who assured Francis that Mr. Koch would receive the letter today. Before leaving, Francis called Koch Industries’ and was connected to Kay, Mr Koch’s secretary.  Kay said that Charles Koch was unavailable and then took Joel’s name and phone number and assured him that Charles would get back to him. Continue reading ‘Charles Koch Refuses to Accept Debate Challenge In-Person, Responds with Security Team’

Next week’s elections might affect climate and energy conservation less than you might think. Although politico says that it will be difficult for GOP candidates to succeed unless they are climate change deniers, evidence suggests that stance may not be so important in terms of protecting the environment if you approach it for the right reasons. It does not necessarily matter what people believe causes environmental changes, as long as we address them as best we can.

Even though states’ energy efficiency and policies seem to reflect their political stances, there is a lot more to it than what we see on the surface, according to a recent study. Though the top ten best and worst states in terms of efficiency and policy may have been mostly “blue” and “red” respectively, there are a number of reasons states focus on energy efficiency. Maggie Molina of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy told the New York Times that those reasons include supply and infrastructure concerns, as well as economic development and job creation.

Many churches have taken a completely apolitical stance to protecting the environment, calling it “creation care“. Nancy Jackson, chair of the Climate and Energy Project, told the New York Times that you can avoid the climate debate and still reduce environmental impact by targeting key areas such as cost-reduction, job creation in “green” fields, and “creation care”.

Continue reading ‘Climate Debate and Next Week’s Elections’

Recently, I was asked to post this letter to the Itsgetttinghotinhere.org community, and upon reading it I felt so excited to share this with you all.  For a while, I too have been feeling the many things laid out in this letter.  While it is is addressed to 1 Sky, I think the lessons and perspectives shared are invaluable to the larger climate community including (but not limited to) larger organizations serving youth such as the Energy Action Coalition and 350.org.

To the Board and Staff of 1 Sky,

We are grassroots and allied organizations representing racial justice, indigenous rights, economic justice, immigrant rights, youth organizing and environmental justice communities actively engaged in Climate Justice organizing.

Given the very necessary discussion spurred by your recent public letter (August 8, 2010), we wanted to share with you some of the work we have been doing to protect people and planet, as well as our reflections on a forward-thinking movement strategy. Your honest reflections on the political moment in which we find ourselves, alongside the open invitation to join in this discussion, are heartening.

Organizing a Powerful Climate Justice Movement
Like you, we recognize Climate Disruption as a central issue of our time. With the right set of strategies and coordinated efforts we can mobilize diverse communities to powerful action. Our organizing strategy for climate justice is to: 1) Organize in, network with and support communities who have found their frontlines[1] of climate justice; 2) Organize with communities to identify their frontlines of climate justice, and 3) Coalesce these communities towards a common agenda that is manifested from locally defined strategies to state and national policy objectives through to international solidarity agreements.

Continue reading ‘Open Letter to 1 Sky from Grassroots Organizations’

Greetings fellow activists and mindful citizens;

I wish to share news of an exciting development unfolding in the Appalachian mountains of western North Carolina. The Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy (AIRE) is preparing to launch a cooperative business venture for community-owned renewable energy. We’ve been working for the past 18 months to develop and tweak a model of collaborative financing that makes purchasing PV solar considerably cost effective; with a potentially significant return on investment within 5 or 6 years. Currently we are organizing demonstration projects here in western North Carolina, while drafting our strategic and business plans for expansion.

We are a nonprofit organization. However, we are pioneering a “hybrid” development model, in which we seek to establish a network of community-owned Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) comprised of small businesses, congregations of faith, individual homeowners and other community constituencies; to pool their finances and invest in renewable energy. These locally owned LLCs will take advantage of state and federal tax incentives, which are generally written to benefit wealthy investors and large corporations. By forging these innovative partnerships we seek to build the capacity of communities to generate their own electricity using clean, renewable resources … while creating sustainable economic opportunities for local interests, and reducing dependence on the monopolized power grid.

AIRE was recently awarded funding from a progressive private foundation to write an in-depth business plan, upon the completion of which we will potentially be given a “transformational grant” … which would enable us to launch our vision for community-owned renewable energy far and wide. One step in the process of finalizing our business plan involves gathering public interest data on community-owned renewable energy and other related issues. Please, consider taking our quick survey … it will be of great assistance in our efforts to restructure the modern energy economy to be more clean, sustainable, and democratic!

<<< http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/aire-nc >>>

Today 44 volunteer ‘reclamation workers’ (activists) illegally marched onto a supposedly reclaimed mine site to plant trees. Why? Because the ‘reclamation’ efforts done by the mining company resulted in a barren hillside with sparse grass and baking sun – a far cry from the lush and diverse forest destroyed in the process.

After negotiating with the police and planting all the trees, all 44 were allowed to leave the site without repurcussions.

The fight over mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia revolves around jobs. Even though the highly mechinized practice has drastically reduced the number of people employed in the mining industry, the proponents of mining say that West Virginia is poor and needs the jobs. Opponents say healthy and prosperous economies can be created in the area if only the destructive and poisionsous processes of the coal companies are stopped and the natual wealth is not destroyed.

John Johnson, forester and environmentalist said, “The coal industry does not attempt to return the landscape to its previous biodiversity – leaving it up to the citizens to reclaim it themselves. Fixing the ruined landscape will provide long term jobs for those put out of work by the abolition of mountaintop removal.”

At 12:30 today, hundreds of people rallied at Stanley Heirs Park, adjacent to Larry Gibson’s home on Kayford Mountain. Statesman Ken Hechler and Kayford Mountainkeeper Larry Gibson, along with two miners from Colombia lead the march to the mine site, with participants aged 18 to 96 years old.

Lifelong Coal River Valley resident Junior Walk says, “Coal companies sure as hell aren’t going to take it upon themselves to do something about it – some one’s got to do it.” Continue reading ‘Risking Arrest to Plant Trees on a Mountaintop Removal Site’