MTR is the subject of increasing regulatory and legislative scrutiny, with a focus on the permitting of MTR mines. While this extraction method is permitted, PNC will not provide funding to individual MTR projects, nor will PNC provide credit to coal producers whose primary extraction method is MTR.
We’ve been calling on PNC for many months to end their MTR financing, so I asked why the company made this new policy public. PNC responded that awareness of mountaintop removal and its impacts has been growing and that groups like RAN put the issue on their radar. Continue reading ‘Another Big Bank Turns Away from Mountaintop Removal!’
Yesterday hundreds of people convened in downtown Pittsburgh to protest the development of “fracking,” a new and untested method of natural gas extraction that is threatening to take over Pennsylvania and neighboring states. Fracking has been shown to pollute water supplies, cause cancer, and destroy the countryside and infrastructure in rural areas. The rally took place during a conference on “Developing Unconventional Gas” which featured Karl Rove. The following is from the Pittsburgh Student Environmental Coalition, who helped organize the rally.
“Thank you Pittsburgh! Thanks to you the rally was a HUGE success. An incredibly passionate and diverse group came out today, young and old, urban and rural, coming from states as far as California and as close as Ohio. We all came together to protect our constitutional right to clean air, pure water, and a healthy environment and to protest the exploitation of our environment and ourselves by the gas companies.
If you weren’t able to make it today then stay tuned because this is only the beginning. There is much work still to be done and yesterday’s election certainly didn’t make things easier, but this an issue that affects everyone, regardless of age, ethnicity, income, or political affiliation and we at PSEC strongly believe that it’s an issue worth fighting for. In the words of Margaret Meade, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
On October 22nd, four RAN Chicago activists exposed the Canadian tar sands climate disaster by interrupting a luncheon featuring Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer. Ambassador Doer came to Chicago to present on U.S. energy security and cooperative efforts to develop sustainable climate and energy policies. The fact that these two topics surfaced in the same sentence is telling of the Canadian government’s efforts to greenwash the tar sands. This lecture was nothing else than a talk on Canada’s attempt to use energy security scare tactics to push the dirtiest oil on earth into the veins of the American heartland.
As a lifelong resident of Illinois, I refuse to let the Canadian government pave the way for private corporations to bring destruction to my home. Not only is the extraction process of tar sands appalling, the reality of pipeline spills makes it a no-brainer to keep additional pipelines out of our communities. Instead of expanding production of this “difficult to extract” oil, we should be focusing on the obvious transition to a sustainable, clean energy economy.
Young voters celebrated a decisive victory against Big Oil by defeating a deceptive ballot measure, Prop 23. The initiative, funded with millions of dollars from oil corporations sought to wreck California’s clean energy economy and effectively repeal the state’s landmark clean air and clean energy laws.
The California Student Sustainability Coalition’s Power Vote Campaign united thousands of young Californians behind a creative grassroots campaign that exposed Big Oil’s dirty ploy, and mobilized thousands of voters to defeat it. The campaign partnered with student networks across the state to turn out the youth vote, worked with a community coalition to launch the Clean Energy Tour, a music tour merging arts and activism, and directly confronted oil interests bank-rolling the initiative, like the Koch Brothers. Joel Francis, a student leader at Cal State, Los Angeles brought national attention to this issue when he challenged oilman Charles Koch to a public debate on his bank-rolling of Proposition 23. His debate challenge drew national coverage from New York Times, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Huffington Post. Continue reading ‘Young voters lead decisive victory against Big Oil’s Prop 23′
After months of debating and endless news coverage, the congressional elections are finally behind us. Though the results of these elections will determine much of our nation’s direction for the next few years, the elections themselves have told us something significant about our country and where we stand today.
A controversial yet prescient ad illustrating the role of Big Oil in Congress,
As a young person and a voter, I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed by what has become a custom among candidates: all over the country and among both parties, politicians welcomed the influence of dirty money into the political process. In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon Off-shore drilling disaster last April, candidates raked in campaign contributions from fossil fuel industries, some accepting sums totaling over $1 million. How should I have confidence in our leaders when the very industries that funded their campaigns are those corrupting the political agenda, last year spending a combined total of $175 million on lobbying?
But it’s clear that for these industries, this is money well worth shelling out: in the oil industry alone, federal subsidies and tax breaks range between $6 and 39 billion annually. Between 2002-2008, federal fossil fuel subsidies totaled $72.5 billion, going toward tax expenditures, foregone revenues, grants, and direct payments. $14 billion of this total goes to funding oil production overseas; that’s money going to major polluters and not toward creating jobs at home. In 2006, tax expenditures to oil and gas companies made up approximately 88% of total federal subsidies. Most of the largest dirty energy subsidies have been written into the U.S Tax Code as permanent provisions. We’re channeling taxpayer dollars into an industry that is already well established and wealthy and locking ourselves into the gray energy economy.
Cross-Posted from The Point News, the campus paper of St. Mary’s College of Maryland
While the United States Congress has yet to pass comprehensive climate change legislation and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change seems to like negotiating more than creating legally binding treaties, students have been very successful at tackling climate change on campus. Two weeks ago in Kansas City, Missouri, I gave a presentation at the National Collegiate Honors Conference with fellow SMCM students Rachel Waldron and Jimmy Ferioli titled “Cross Currents of Environmentalism: Academics and Activism” that reminded me that colleges and universities really are being forces for change, cutting carbon, and helping to build the clean energy economy.
The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, which commits institutions to becoming carbon neutral, has 675 signatories to date (including St. Mary’s College of Maryland). This agreement must be signed by the chancellor or president and is a very clear sign that climate change is no longer a fringe issue that only a fraction of students care about. It’s an issue that is of enough concern to warrant institutional recognition and action. Even if colleges aren’t signatories to the PCC, chances are that they are trying to get favorable scores on the Princeton Review’s Green Rating System, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), or the College Sustainability Report Card. These ranking systems give positive recognition for schools that have organic farms on campus, purchase renewable energy, composting, and promote eco friendly habits such as walking, biking, and using public transit. While this might not see substantial, according to a survey done by Princeton Review, 68 percent of prospective students prefer colleges or universities that have a commitment to sustainability. All in all, it’s clear that change is coming to the American university.
In an election that’s been characterized by record corporate spending, capitulation to moderation, and a lack of leadership behind visionary ideas, the youth clean energy vote is showing the leadership it demands. In hundreds of locations, thousands of young voters are standing up to Big Oil, challenging special interests, and mobiliziing their peers around bold clean energy solutions.
In California, young voters are literally standing up to Big Oil. The oil industry has been bankrolling two dirty and deceptive ballot measures, Propositions 23 & 26 and young voters are fighting back with hard work, wit and people power. The California Student Sustainability Coalition’s (CSSC) Power Vote Campaign, in partnership with CalPIRG and Environment California, has organized on over 50 campuses and collected over 160,000 “No on Prop 23 pledges.” The CSSC and the statewide community organization alliance against Prop 23 launched the Clean Energy Tour, a traveling hip hop show to merge arts and activism. And Joel Francis, a student leader at Cal State, Los Angeles issues an incredible debate challenge to oilman Charles Koch, one of the lead financiers of Proposition 23, has drawn national attention to the people-powered battle against dirty corporate interests.
In response to the BP drilling disaster, young leaders are mobilizing peers around clean energy solutions that can protect their coasts from dangerous energy like offshore drilling. The Southern Energy Network and Florida YES Coalition have engaged over 5000 young voters in their Power Vote campaign to promote Solar in the Sunshine state. Their creative actions on campus, like “Human oil spills” and “Marches to the polls” have captured the attention of local media, and their energetic presence at the Florida Senatorial debate pushed energy into the dialogue.
“Windmills, Not Oilspills” is the chant you’ll hear around Virginia. They’ve mobilized thousands of voters around it, and brought it to political debates across the state, inculding to Virginia’s 5th Congressional District where their most active chapter has been an important voice in the tight race. Over 1000 young people from Charlottesville and University of Virginia have pledged to carry their demands for clean energy to the ballot box on November 2nd, and in the lead up to the election they organized Halloween events and Dorm Storms to ensure strong turnout.
Ever seen “mass transit train” Halloween costumes? You would have if you were in Ohio on Halloween. You also would have seen young clean energy advocates captivate an enormous rally with break dancing – it sounds crazy, but it’s true! The Ohio Student Environmental
Coalition is mixing it up and breaking it down with creative tactics and brass-tacks grassroots organizing. They stormed dorms across Ohio in costume, and are organizing all day phonebanks for election day.
But election day isn’t over and the chips haven’t settled yet. Get out there and join these young people in voting, standing up to dirty money, and pushing through for a clean energy economy – if we don’t, no one else will.
On Sunday we headed to a rally to pull it all together. President Obama, Gubernatorial Candidate Ted Strickland, and Senatorial Candidate Lee Fisher we’re all going to be there, so we knew we had to make it big! Since it was Halloween we stormed the crowd with “mass transit train” costumes and talked to hundreds of people about why we’re voting for clean mass transit in Ohio, and got them signed up on the Power Vote pledge. (We even got Governor Strickland to sign the pledge!)
Things really started to heat up when the rally got started. Rolling deep with lots of Power Voters we caught the attention of the speakers and they mentioned clean mass transit several times. But the leadership we were looking for came from one of our own ranks! When the musical guest, Common, took the stage, Gabe Morgan from Bowling Green University decided it was time to literally “break–it–down.” He cleared a spot in the crowd, and busted out some ridiculous break-dancing moves. The crowd went wild, and he captivated the entire audience around our message for clean and just energy! Reporters came up to him afterward wanting to get a quote and learn more about the Power Vote campaign. It was epic! Everyone left amped up and ready to turn out the youth vote from across Ohio.
Young people across the state have been raising their voice and turning out the youth vote for clean and just energy. Last night we took our “mass transit costumes” to Bowling Green State University where they had a Trick Out the Vote event and led a major dorm storm.
The Southern Energy Network and Florida YES Coalition have engaged over 5000 young voters in their Power Vote campaign to promote Solar in the Sunshine state. Their creative actions on campus, like “
Cross posted from 
Young people across the state have been raising their voice and turning out the youth vote for clean and just energy. Last night we took our “mass transit costumes” to Bowling Green State University where they had a 
