It’s Getting Hot In Here

Hey climate movement, you know what I missed about us that Power Shift pumped right back into me last week?

The awesome.

Yeah, flashmobs, pranks, swiftly organized warroom tweetups, late-night dance parties of 15,000. Remember that rebellious side of us, that “we won’t take the past for an answer” side of us? Remember that “join us because this is awesome and you’re invited” side of us?

Politics is personal identity built into popular movements. The Tea Party is powerful because it ready-makes an identity for those who feel left behind by the 21st Century. It’s a safe space in a post-9/11, post financial collapse, peak-global-hegemony America. And the Tea Party’s done well wiping up a messy identity crisis by defining what they’re afraid of.

We’re also proud to define ourselves as what we’re not: we are cooler than the fossil forces of the past. They rail on chalkboards; we rally with giant puppets in the streets. They are talking heads for septuagenarians; we are sneaking into shareholder meetings and embarrassing giant fossil fuel companies. They are snarking about crosshairs on Facebook from defensive compounds in Wasilla. We are 10,000 lithe young people fighting for our future while a crotchety old pitbull like Tom Donohue screams to get off of his front yard at the US Chamber of Commerce. We are in the West Wing interrupting the President of the United States of America to remind him that energy shouldn’t kill.

But the past is where we leave the comparison. Those fearful forces haven’t got much vision for the future, and we sure do: we are identity awesome. We are the people not afraid to build something better than the assumptions handed to us.

Other American generations have staked their identities on propositions equally grand – rebelling from tyranny, beating back fascism, defending the world from communism. Our generation is staking its identity as the people responsible enough to face climate science for what it means, and political corruption for what it is. To build a cleaner, leaner, more durable and more prosperous way of life on our full tide of vibrant energy. The people smart enough to put our moral muscle to work.

But we need to remember how to have a blast doing it. Where’s the rebelliousness, the youthful energy pulling more pranks to call out our opposition? Remember when the Yes Men and the Avaaz Action Factory staged a mock press conference on the US Chamber’s “sudden” climate action? Remember when Tim DeChristopher tied on his bandanna and marched into the fray of a corrupt shareholder process? Remember when young people lay down on the train tracks against tremendous new coal facilities? (That hasn’t happened yet, but it should.)

We mustn’t abandon tried-and-true organizing tactics, nor our hard-earned insider game. And if we do rebel our way into a better world, we do so on the shoulders of giants: after all, we’re now defending the Clean Air Act that our foremothers first passed, celebrating Earth Day last week because our forefathers founded the first four decades ago. And we need the scientific white papers still, because after all, we’re fighting for a political reality that keeps pace with the chemical reality of the atmosphere. This is a movement of the young and young at heart – if you are awesome, you are in.

Crossposted from The Wonk Room,  WeArePowerShift.org, Climate Progress and Climate Solutions.

By Daniela Lapidous, high school junior at the Harker School in San Jose, CA, and member of ACE Youth Advisory Board

Phew… it’s been a week since one of the most amazing weekends of my life.

You see, from April 15-18, fellow ACE Youth Advisory Board member Shreya Indukuri and I got the chance to attend PowerShift in Washington, D.C. and it was INCREDIBLE!

Basically, it was a gathering of about 10,000 inspiring young people rallying for clean energy action – you can read more about our trip on the blog post Washington D.C.’s awesome regional educator, Daisy, wrote up.

Besides the details of who we met and what we said, I guess one thing I still marvel at when I look back at the experience is the unified diversity we saw there. (Attack of the oxymorons!)

The thousands of college students there came from all walks of life – from all parts of the country – from all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. We don’t listen to the same music, we don’t all say “hella”, and we probably don’t even have the same definitions of what being completely “green” looks like – but we were all there, being united by the issue of clean energy! Who expected that?

The fact is, everyone should have expected that, because the issue of climate change and clean energy deserve to unify us all.

Shreya and I met people who are being affected by these issues now. We met Cassie, a 17 year-old activist from Southern California who got asthma because of pollution-emitting factories in her city. We met countless people who live next to toxic waste, who have seen extreme weather, and who are seeing pollution destroy their communities. We heard stories of people in Appalachia who are suffering enormously because of mountaintop removal (for the sake of coal mining!).

Climate change and dirty energy are not issues that will “someday” affect our “grandchildren” – they are right here, right now. It’s only a matter of time before they show up on all of our doorsteps and force us to work together, whether we like it or not.

Shreya and Daniela shake hands with Aneesh Chopra and staff

There was also the diversity of people we met outside of PowerShift. We met Aneesh Chopra, the Chief Technology Officer of the US, and Arun Majumdar, the director of ARPA-E (an innovative energy research department of the government).

Let’s face the facts: Shreya and I are still high school juniors. We are from California, and we do not wear business clothes on a regular basis. We have APs next week and prom in two weeks. We are very different from the high-level executives we were lucky enough to meet.

But hearing about a low-cost, very effective solution to energy efficiency – the smart meters that we are installing at high schools – was positive for everyone! Mr. Chopra and Mr. Majumdar were both impressed that we saved 13% off our school’s energy bill in one year and they want all of the schools in the country to get involved.

No matter how different you are, passion and simple solutions can inspire and connect people – “environmentalists” and “non-environmentalists” alike. When you share your story, people are inspired to craft their own. Continue reading ‘Unified Diversity – lessons from PowerShift ’11′

As fast as the world’s biggest coal companies move to make the Pacific Northwest an export zone for their deadly product, people across the region are organizing to prevent coal exports from Northwestern ports.  From impacted community members, to students who are watching their future go up in flames as China burns vast quantities of US coal, concerned residents of the Northwest are uniting for a clean energy future.

The Northwest has already made great strides.  On Thursday the Washington legislature passed the Coal-Free Future Act, which will phase out coal combustion in the state (albeit much more slowly than many of us wish).  This builds on an agreement reached in Oregon last year to close that state’s only coal plant (again, we’re working to bump up the timeline).  But even as the Northwest closes the book on its own coal plants, the likes of Arch Coal, Ambre Energy, and Peabody are looking to ship coal abroad.

On Earth Day the Rainforest Action Network and youth organizers at Evergreen State College delivered over 7,000 petitions to Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, asking her to oppose coal exports.  Students also dropped off a list of six Washington colleges and universities where student governments are endorsing goals for a coal-free future, including a commitment to build no new coal export terminals in the state.   Closer to proposed terminal sites, students and community members are building a movement  to prevent export projects going through.  On Saturday I joined representatives of the Sierra Club and a group of thirteen students from Portland’s Reed College, who travelled to Longview, Washington to learn about the impacts of coal exports first-hand. 

On a warm spring morning we met with members of Landowners and Citizens for a Safe Community, a grassroots organization fighting a proposed coal export terminal.  Millenium Bulk Logistics, the US branch of Australia’s Ambre Energy, wants to export up to 60 million tons of coal yearly out of Longview to markets of China and elsewhere.  Arch Coal, the second biggest US coal company, has a 38% stake in the project.  If Millenium gets its way, Longview will see five coal trains charge into town every day, each consisting of 125 cars.  This drammatic increase in rail use would tie up traffic and restrict access to the community’s only hospital.  As Longview residents have begun to quip (and it isn’t a joke), how many babies will be born in the backs of cars that get stuck waiting for the latest coal train to pass through town?

Continue reading ‘Tracing Coal Exports’ Deadly Impacts’

Last Saturday at Powershift 2011, climate activist Tim DeChristopher challenged the climate movement to join Appalachian groups in their campaign to stop mountaintop removal. He called for waves of activists, young and old, to occupy mountaintop removal mine sites and create a crisis for the coal industry and for political administrations which allow mountaintop removal to continue.

This fight is happening in the hills and hollers of Appalachia.

For five years, Mountain Justice has built an infrastructure to fight mountaintop removal in Appalachian with training camps, campaign houses and long term campaign aimed at shutting down the coal industry’s economic grip on the region.  On May 20-27, Mountain Justice is hosting their annual camp to continue to build this movement. If you want to take risk and shut down the oppressive coal industry than join them in Letcher, KY.

Mountain Justice training camp 2011!
Letcher County, Kentucky
May 20^th – 27^th

Registration will be open soon!

As the campaign to stop mountaintop removal gains national awareness, we have more and more opportunities for folks to help out. We’ve got a job for every interest, skill set and time commitment! We invite you to spend the summer working in Appalachia with one of our ally groups or to work with us in your hometown throughout the year!

Mountain Justice training camp is an opportunity for veteran and novice activists to build the skills and vision needed to abolish mountaintop removal and build vibrant, healthy, self-reliant communities. We ask that you attend camp with the intention of using these skills either working with allies in Appalachia or working on this issue in your hometown. The registration process will help you develop a plan for how you will use this training. Training camp is a time for training, strategizing, bonding, service and action for people living both within and outside of the Appalachia, for people of all sex and genders, for people of all races, for youth and elders, and anyone in between. Continue reading ‘Appalachia Needs You! Join the Mountain Justice Movement in Letcher, KY May 20-27′

Crossposted from Bridge The Gulf

Last weekend in Washington, D.C., more than 100 Gulf Coast residents called for action from President Obama and Congress to make BP pay for its ongoing disaster, and to clean up and restore the Gulf Coast.  The contingent was part of Power Shift 2011, a youth climate summit and organizing training, nearly 10,000 people strong.  Watch the top five videos from the historic summit, as children, students, workers, advocates, and whistle-blowers challenged big polluters and took a stand for America’s Gulf Coast.

1. Children stand up to BP with a song

“I open my mouth to BP, and I won’t turn back,” sang three girls from Biloxi, Mississippi, in front of the BP lobbying headquarters in Washington, D.C.

On Tax Day (Monday, April 18th), thousands of youth marched on BP’s offices in Washington, and demanded they pay the $9.9 Billion in taxes they are dodging by writing off loses from their own oil disaster.

  The girls are from the group Coastal Women for Change.

Continue reading ‘TOP 5 VIDEOS: Gulf Coast communities take on Washington, BP at Power Shift 2011′

Ten thousand young activists descended on Washington, D.C. and just as suddenly left, leaving behind a trail of protest signs, guerrilla posters on the tar sands on virtually every street corner in Chinatown, and a number of summons for court dates for direct actions. Those activists are taking with them their crash training  in the grassroots organizing skills and storytelling that propelled much of the field operation of the 2008 Obama campaign, as well as new connections and a flurry of new Facebook friends. However, the lasting legacy of Power Shift 2011 will be declaration that the youth climate movement is no longer willing to play by the rules, to no longer accept business as usual.

At Power Shift 2009, everything seemed to be lined up for a clean victory. Van Jones, the keynote of the 2007 conference, was going to be the new Green Jobs czar, almost every high ranking administration official came for a rockstar welcome and made huge promises, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Chairman Ed Markey promised a climate bill. Big environmental organizations weren’t exactly praised for their strategies to move climate legislation, but there was this sense that with this President, this Congress, and the momentum behind them fueled by their generation’s political engagement, we were going to see real change.

Instead, while Speaker Pelosi held up her end of the bargain, they watched as they were cut out of a process dominated by backroom deals by major environmental organizations, un-transparent ‘war rooms’, and a hostile senate and indifferent President. The narrative of the tea party dominated the year, bankrolled by mountains of corporate cash, as the health care fight seemingly exhausted the policy making capacity of the Democratic party, but those youth activists were not called upon, brought in, or presented with a way to engage. Even the worst environmental disaster in recent history, the Gulf Oil spill, seemed to derail progress, with a feckless response by the US government.

So, they came to Power Shift, this year, pissed off and determined not to take a back seat again. Speeches by Bill McKibben, Van Jones, and Tim DeChristopher hammered home the idea that change was not going to come without radical changes to business as usual. In fact, the US Chamber of Commerce, seen by many of the face of American business, was singled out for its mask slipping and it being revealed as a front group for big polluters trying to appropriate the mom and pop image of local chambers of commerce to block climate legislation. Direct action, sit-ins, movement building, and working to get people out into the streets were prioritized over lobbying and other politer political activity.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81EZUkYzrxU] Continue reading ‘Power Shift 2011: the End of Business as Usual’

By defending the Clean Air Act, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley can protect Oregonians from mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal plants

For immediate release

Eugene, OR – On Wednesday the youth-run Cascade Climate Network and the University of Oregon-based Climate Justice League called on Oregon’s US senators to defend the Clean Air Act and public health. With Republicans and conservative Democrats in Congress now attempting to restrict the Clean Air Act’s authority, students urged Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley to stand strong for the law this Earth Day.

“The first Earth Day in 1970 helped usher in the wave of awareness that spurred passage of the modern Clean Air Act,” said Casey Gifford, a junior at University of Oregon. “Forty-one years later, we need to ensure regulators retain their ability to enforce the Clean Air Act and protect Americans from pollution.”

Gifford just returned this week from PowerShift 2011, a youth energy summit that brought 10,000 young voters to Washington, DC to push for clean energy and a transition away from dirty fuel sources like coal plants. “I realized how fortunate I am not to have a coal plant in my immediate neighborhood,” Gifford said. “One speaker at PowerShift began to cry as she told how she has suffered from cancer three times because her home is surrounded by coal plants.”

Oregon only has one coal plant, the Boardman facility located in the northeastern part of the state. But that single plant is Oregon’s largest source of carbon, mercury, and other pollutants that threaten human health and the environment. “Burning coal leads to smog, acid rain, global climate change, and air toxics,” said Terra Smith, who graduated from University of Oregon last term. “The Boardman Plant alone produces 200 pounds of mercury every year, when just 1/70th of a teaspoon of mercury in a 25-acre lake will make the fish unsafe to eat.” Continue reading ‘Eugene Students to US Senate: Defend the Clean Air Act’

Our guest blogger is Noland Chambliss, a member of the Briefcase Brigades.

Ten thousand young people descended on Washington for the Power Shift conference this weekend to call for bold action from government leaders to address climate change and create a clean energy economy for all. Many of these young people had a more specific, and personal, message for Congress: “I need a job.”

Inspired by passionate speeches addressing youth unemployment by AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and green jobs visionary Van Jones, the members of the Briefcase Brigades are bringing attention to the epidemic of un- and under-employed millennials:

We are ready to work. We know the economy is in bad shape. We know the country is in trouble. We want to help. But first, we need jobs.

Watch the story of the Briefcase Brigades at Power Shift 2011:

On April 27th, while Congress is in recess and members are back in their districts, young people are creating Briefcase Brigades and going to their offices all around the country to demand Congress prioritize jobs over budget cuts.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are over 5 million young people who are out of work. That doesn’t count people with unpaid internships, people with low-wage jobs that don’t have health insurance, and people who went back to school because they couldn’t find a job. Continue reading ‘Power Shift 2011: Join The Briefcase Brigades On April 27′

Mike Eberhard, right, a technical manager with Halliburton, talks during a panel discussion on hydraulic fracturing on public lands with representatives from the oil industry, North Dakota state regulators, tribal and conservationist groups at the Belle Mehus Auditorium in Bismarck, N.D. on Wednesday. Photo credit: MIKE McCLEARY/Tribune

The Bureau of Land Management says there are 1,800 oil wells on public and tribal land in North Dakota and asked for public opinion Wednesday on the industry’s method of hydraulic fracturing those wells.

Hydraulic fracturing is coming under increased public and government scrutiny and about 250 people attended a forum in Bismarck on Wednesday, one of three the BLM will hold by Monday – here, in Colorado and Arkansas.

The Environmental Protection Agency is deciding whether to use a fracture fluid spill near Killdeer as one of five case studies for potential regulatory rules.

BLM manager Lonny Bagley said North Dakota was picked because of the level of activity.

“We just want to hear what people have to say,” Bagley said.

He said public comments could affect the BLM’s hydraulic fracturing policy.

Wells on federal land make up more than one-third of all wells in the state, and another 160 are in the permit process now. Nearly 200 wells are on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

Kandi Mossett (Indigenous Environmental Network), a student activist  from Fort Berthold, said she thinks oil companies should have to disclose the chemicals they use in the hydraulic fracturing process.

“There’s a lack of disclosure, no regulation and no oversight” on the reservation, she said.

She’s most worried about surface contamination from chemical spills and the human cost in fatalities resulting from chemical and water trucks traveling to well sites.

Bagley said companies are required to disclose fracking chemicals when asked by the federal government, but the BLM doesn’t ask for that information.

Mike Eberhard said Halliburton, the oil service and frack company he works for, would lose its competitive advantage if it had to disclose its frack recipes.

He said his company is combining “green” fluids and mechanical solutions to replace traditional chemicals.

“No one wants to pump more water down than they have to, or put down chemicals they don’t have to,” Eberhard said.

Fracking involves the pressurized injection of mostly water and sand and a fractional amount of chemicals to crack open the Bakken oil reservoir.

The process requires millions of gallons of water per well. People expressed concerns about chemicals infiltrating groundwater while the well is being fracture-treated, the potential to deplete water sources and the possibility of surface water contamination when fracture treatments fail.

Four have failed since September.

Eberhard said his company records show that the deepest aquifer water is at about 1,200 feet, while the closest fractures from a horizontal well are at 4,000 feet.

He said a new website, www.fracfocus.org, contains information about fracture chemicals, but not much yet specific to North Dakota.

In response to a question about use of diesel in fracture treatments, Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms said the fluid was used at about a dozen wells several years ago, but was discontinued in 2009 because Bakken wells produce too much salt for chemical compatibility.

Don Nelson, a Keene area rancher and member of the Dakota Resource Council, said his group isn’t against fracture treatments, but it does promote responsible development and chemical disclosure.

“Slow down,” Nelson said. “The oil isn’t going anywhere.”

Helms has said 2,000 wells will be drilled in North Dakota this year, more than any other year in history. There are 175 rigs operating in the oil patch.

Go to original: Bureau of Land Management host fracturing forum

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 701-748-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)