It\’s Getting Hot In Here

We’ve got exciting news: Nobel Peace Prize Winner, former Vice President, and long-standing climate advocate Al Gore will be joining us at Power Shift 2011!

Vice President Gore has been a lifelong champion for climate science – from hosting the first Congressional hearings on the climate crisis in 1976, to bringing science to the public through An Inconvenient Truth – so we’re excited for him to bring his experience and knowledge to Power Shift 2011.

Register for Power Shift today!

Read Vice President Gore’s note to you below, and join his call to action!

Dear Power Shifters,

This year, I will deliver the opening keynote address at Power Shift. I’ll be speaking about climate change and how we can take action to solve the climate crisis.

I’m coming to Power Shift because I truly believe we must lead the world to a clean energy future, and young leaders like you are the driving force behind the movement that will make it happen.

Continue reading ‘Al Gore is joining YOU at Power Shift 2011!’

via PeabodyEnergy.com

“Then the coal company came with the world’s largest shovel,
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land.
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken,
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.” —John Prine

Paging Tim DeChristopher.

Today the Dept. of Interior announced that they’d be making coal-rich tracts of lands available to the mining industry in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Leasing bids worth somewhere between $13.4 billion and $21.3 billion and producing 758 million tons of coal.

Citing political unrest in the Middle East Interior, Secretary Ken Salazar said “we ought not be subjected to the ups and downs of what happens in the Middle East or in Libya, so part of it is moving us towards an energy-independent America,”

Why do I get the feeling that some sleazy corporate lobbyists are seizing some opportunities behind the scenes.

Salazar also said that nuclear energy is still part of America’s energy future. But, Japan’s nuclear meltdown seems to be a bit of a boom for the coal industry. Stocks are up and the future looks bright for dirty coal after years of progress made by environmentalists.

Big coal corporations make the continued use of public lands sound like it’s contributing to society’s progress, but really why can’t we have leadership rise to the top who finds energy solutions not rooted in destructive strip mining? Continue reading ‘Big Coal Scores on Wyoming’s Public Lands’

In the next couple of weeks Washington state legislators have a window of opportunity in which to set this green-minded state on the path to a coal free future.  By agreeing on a timeline to phase out the TransAlta Coal Plant – Washington’s biggest source of carbon, mercury, and many other pollutants – the legislature can follow in the footsteps of neighboring Oregon, which has already committed to transition off its single coal plant.  The US Pacific Northwest can provide an example for the rest of the country to follow by phasing out its reliance on the world’s dirtiest fuel.

In the last few months student on campuses from across Washington have been organizing for the state’s coal-free future.  This school year seven student governments representing over 60,000 college and university students are passing resolutions in favor of transitioning off the TransAlta Plant.  Students have been organizing campus events to educate their peers about the impacts of coal pollution and urging elected officials to support a future powered by clean energy.  However student organizing is just part of a much broader movement to replace coal with clean energy in Washington.  A diverse coalition of environmental, faith, health, and labor groups has risen to stand up for clean energy and a just transition away from burning fossil fuels.

After months of negotiating, there is finally a bill in the Washington legislature that would end coal combustion in the state – though not nearly as fast and many activists, including myself, would like.  The Coal Free Future for Washington bill (ESSB 5769) would begin the move off coal in 2020 by requiring TransAlta Corporation end the use of one of its two coal-fired smokestacks.  The remaining smokestack would come offline in 2025.  Very importantly, the bill also secures funds to help the community where the plant is located transition to other sources of employment. Continue reading ‘Time to Pass the Coal Free Future for Washington Act’

At a youth climate meeting in Minnesota in January 2008, a neat idea emerged from discussion:

‘We need to start training young people, not just FOR green jobs, but TO CREATE green jobs. We should start in the Twin Cities this summer.’

Fast-forward three years, and over 250 young people have been trained over three years in Summer of Solutions programs around the country to create innovative and self-sustaining solutions around energy efficiency, green industry, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and smart transportation and design that advance job creation, social justice, and community empowerment. A network of over 70 youth leaders has coalesced to launch a national organization from nothing and develop 2011 Summer of Solutions programs that will support hundreds of youth in creating the clean energy economy in 15 cities nationwide. These programs have expanded rapidly in number, quality, and sustainability over the years without grant support, and with a major influx of funding and leadership in late 2010, we’re just hitting our stride.

As you read on, I’d encourage you to think of any young people (individuals or groups) who might be interested in a summer program based on community-based innovation in the clean energy economy. If so, please invite them to apply to any of our 15 programs nationwide by April 24th at www.grandaspirations.org/apply2sos

Continue reading ‘Youth Forge Solutions Nationwide – All Are Welcome’

For immediate release

March 21, 2011

Contact: Rae Breaux 818-271-0386

extraction@risingtidenorthamerica.org

www.extractionaction.net

Groups to mark Gulf Oil Spill anniversary with direct action against fossil fuel extraction.

On April 20^th dozens of environmental, climate, and social justice groups will target government and corporate operations with aggressive protests and civil disobedience in an International Day of Direct Action Against Extraction being organized by Rising Tide North America. The protests will commemorate the 1 year anniversary of BP’s Gulf Oil Disaster by demanding an end to the environmental destruction and climate destabilization created by fossil fuel and other extractive industries.

“The Gulf Oil Disaster was the worst manifestation of the disasters that are created by extractive industries on a daily basis.” Said, Rae Breaux of Rising Tide North America. “Communities around the world are terrorized by corporate and state ventures to extract fossil fuels. On top of poisoning our water and polluting our air, extractive industries are at the root of our climate crisis. If we have any hope of averting the worst affects of climate change we must leave fossil fuels in the ground.”

The day of action will feature protests by Gulf Coast residents fighting offshore drilling, Appalachians resisting mountaintop removal coal mining, Pennsylvania and New York residents opposing natural gas hydrofracking, Canadians fighting tar sands mining in Alberta, as well as other community groups engaged in fights against extractive industries. Protests are also planned for the UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

The day of action also seeks to highlight the ruthless manner in which extractive industries treat workers and the communities they operate in. “These companies come into our communities to make millions off of our natural resources and leave behind nothing but poverty and deadly working conditions.  Said, Matt Wilkerson of Rising Tide North America. The 11 workers who died on BP’s oil rig and the 29 who perished in Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch coal mine were killed by the same thing; corporate greed. These deaths are not accidents. They are the direct result of these companies cutting corners in pursuit of profit.” Continue reading ‘Groups to mark Gulf Oil Spill anniversary with direct action against fossil fuel extraction’

Just as it has been getting grim for advocates for climate science and small nonprofits everywhere, Google just announced two major initiatives that hopefully put a little wind in the sails for those beating against the tide.

Google has announced their new Google for Nonprofits program that offers a one-stop application for Google Adwords, Apps, YouTube, Google Earth and more. While many of the organizations and campaigns I have worked with over the years rely heavily on Google tools, this is an effort to make it far easier and simpler for organizations to get access and learn how to use them effectively. They also have setup a Google for Nonprofits Marketplace to connect nonprofits with organizations and consultants able to put these tools to work.

If you are reading this and you are thinking of starting a nonprofit, or you are at a small nonprofit and you feel like technology is always a struggle, this really makes it easy. I am helping a few groups go through this process and if anyone needs help, drop me a line, but they are making it easier than ever.

The other initiative is very exciting to people who care about climate science and have watched horrified as climate deniers have abused public relations techniques and tricked the media in generating fake controversy, forestall action, and create a generational divide in the understanding of climate science.

Google.org has brought together a team of 21 climate researchers to communicate on the issue of climate change. The Google Science Communication Fellows are a number of climate scientists who will be provided with training on new media, data-sharing, and communications, SolveClimate reported.

“Google.org, the technology giant’s philanthropic arm, has hand-picked a team of 21 fellows working in climate research to improve the way the science of global warming is communicated to the public and lawmakers through new media. “We are seeing very clearly with climate change that our policy choices are currently not grounded in knowledge and understanding,” said Paul Higgins, a Google fellow and an associate policy director for the American Meteorological Society.”

It is really exciting to Google come out swinging on climate science. Edmund Burke famously once said “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Google is starting to live up to their motto of “Don’t be Evil” by doing something. Now, it is time of us to step up and use these tools for good.

Originally posted on the Power Shift 2011 blog.

This morning, EPA Administrator (and Power Shift 2011 speaker!) Lisa P. Jackson sat down and took questions about the Mercury and Air Toxics Proposal from citizens, including some Green Corps and Power Shift organizers. [Watch the full-length video or read our highlights from the chat.]

Yesterday, the EPA released a Mercury and Air Toxics Standards proposal – the first to recommend national limits on mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gasses emitted from coal and oil-powered plants.

By enacting this plan and regulating these toxics, the EPA estimates the plan will will prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year, as well as prevent 120,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 11,000 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year. It’s one of the largest steps forward in protecting kids from toxic air pollution in a generation. Continue reading ‘Lisa Jackson answers your questions on Mercury and Air Toxics’

I just read something that made me livid. While we have multiple reactors melting down in Japan, Obama has decided to expand nuclear loan guarantees. The real kicker? I was just reading this article, from the fall, about how President Obama slashed renewable energy guarantee programs behind the scenes after praising them.

Now, instead of restoring his cuts, he is asking for 12 times as much money for nuclear boondoggles. Loans that the CBO reported that half of them are likely never to be paid back.  So, bailing out the nuclear industry to the tune of over $20 billion dollars in non-recoverable bailouts while not proving basic support to clean energy programs that actually are likely to be paid back and support good, green jobs.

Read this from last year:

Obama Talks Big About Clean Energy While Cash Stripped From Key Program – ABC News.
“While President Obama has touted his deep commitment to a clean energy industry, the administration has quietly drained more than half of the $6 billion allocated to a key renewable energy program and senior White House officials have proposed either fixing or scrapping one of the President’s most widely heralded initiatives involving solar and wind power.”

Then this now:

Obama Seeks to Expand Loan Guarantees for Reactors, Chu Says – Businessweek.
“The Obama administration will press ahead with efforts to expand loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors while investigating the failure of Japan’s power plants after an earthquake, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.

The U.S. Energy Department is seeking to add $36 billion in loan-guarantee authority to the program’s existing $18.5 billion, Chu said today at a House committee hearing. President Barack Obama asked lawmakers to expand the program in Obama’s February budget request…

Obama supports an expansion of nuclear power and increased loan guarantees, and “that position has not been changed,” Chu said. Energy officials “don’t believe there is any danger” posed by U.S. reactors, Chu said today.”

Got it? President Obama cut renewable energy loan guarantees, a critical clean energy investment program, in half, – by $3 billion dollars while now seeking to expand Nuclear energy loan guarantee programs by $36 billion dollars. That is an increase of twelve times! over what he left for clean energy.

Angry yet? I thought so.

I expect to get some crap about how nuclear power is awesome in my inbox, but right now, I am not interested in hearing it. All I have to say is that I thought President Obama and Chu were being tone deaf and short sighted when they came out ahead of the Deepwater disaster endorsing offshore oil drilling. Now, they have stripped renewable energy guarantees and are working to increase nuclear power loan guarantees in the wake of the largest nuclear disaster in modern history. Are they just trying to piss us off and lose the next election? Because, they are doing a heckuva job.

Kaifukuryoku (回 復力), is the Japanese word for resilience. For many in Japan, resilience has become a a way of life, a goal that has driven one of the most advanced efforts at planning for disasters in the world.

The word tsunami is also Japanese, originating in their long familiarity of living on the knife edge of disaster, wedged between volcanoes, fault-lines, typhoons, and the vastness of the Pacific ocean.

Yet, the three disasters Japan is grappling with today are showing the limits of resilience and industrial societies.

Buildings in Japan are subject to incredible standards for flexibility and strength, to survive the earthquakes that threaten cities. Mt. Fuji has incredible lava channels and barriers built to protect Tokyo from an eruption. Volcano, typhoon, and earthquake monitoring systems are linked to alarms that can be activated to warn citizens to seek shelter and/or higher ground.

These all saved lives.

Yet, now as Japan should be mobilizing all its resources to feed, house, and evacuate citizens who have been impacted by this terrible disaster, it is mobilizing to prevent a third and possibly worst disaster, a nuclear catastrophe.

Continue reading ‘Disasters and Resilience: Clean Energy Can Save Us’

Crossposted from the Climate Solutions blog.

Watch out – using energy is a risky business.

At any moment, clean energy might spill across your neighborhood – wind! Or explode from the sky – sunshine! Or roll along our coastlines on an extremely predictable schedule in waves and tides. And energy efficiency (opportunities) are lurking behind every dark and drafty doorway.

Sure, clean energy sources carry a few risks, especially as we’re perfecting our new abilities to harness these age-old sources. Rural wind turbines have thrown a blade in heavy storms. Solar concentrators can zap a bug in the desert. Early geothermal techniques have genuine seismic effects, and tidal arrays add to the bay buoys that fishermen’s nets must navigate. And efficiency, hoo boy – don’t squirt that caulk in your eye!

But strangely, no clean energy source spills, explodes, melts down, or crumbles and entombs our miners and our mountains like oil, natural gas, nukes and coal. And history is littered with violence, repression and genocide fueled by oil and atomic bombs. But clean and efficient energy? I dare you to name the nation or paramilitary arming for war with caulking guns.

To build a cleaner energy economy is to shield ourselves from risk, not only because the sources are durable and tame, but also because they’re spread out. Commercial nuclear has to be giant to be viable, as do oil and gas refineries and coal mines. That means when a deepwater well blows a gasket or a tsunami overtops a nuclear reactor, we’re not just looking at rolling black waves or rolling blackouts. We’re looking at an existential threat.

But clean energy sources do best if they’re more evenly distributed across our geographies. A local dairy farmer’s biodigester can power a rural town of 500 homes. Community solar arrays on neighborhood rooftops can power the local grid. Downtown, a manufacturer’s waste heat can warm dozens of office buildings. Whatever risk clean energy sources pose, they automatically spread it out.

It’s been an awful few years for anything exposed to risk – financial markets, job security, gas prices, global security operations, political fault lines, seismic fault lines. But turning on the lights doesn’t have to risk explosions or war. It’s time we built a cleaner energy economy.

Bonnie Frye Hemphill is the Business Partnerships Associate at the northwest advocacy group Climate Solutions. She is also pysched for PowerShift.

Tags: Japan, solar, wind, wave, tsunami, Japan, earthquake, efficiency, war, security, risk, insurance, distribute, Climate Solutions, PowerShift