Here’s more on the project:

A charitable initiative by the world’s largest coal company to provide free “novelty-themed” inhalers to asthmatic children may have seemed for a moment like a (somewhat misguided) breath of fresh air, coming as it did from an industry whose emissions are directly linked to childhood asthma, and which is fighting to gut clean air legislation that would save children’s lives.

Coal Cares™ (www.coalcares.org) purported to “make asthma cool” with decorative and pop-culture inspired inhalers (“The Bieber,” “Harry Potter,” “My Little Pony,” and “My First Inhaler” were particular favorites). The site also announced that Peabody would offer $10 coupons towards asthma medication (about 5%-20% of the cost) for families living within 200 miles of a coal-fired plant. It featured a “Kidz Koal Korner” with asthma-related games for tots, an extensive asthma trivia section and FAQ (Peter the Great was asthmatic, who knew!), and a thorough condemnation of solar and wind alternatives.

It was, of course, a hoax, and it was aimed at Peabody Coal, which is lobbying ferociously against new pollution standards for power plants proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), standards the agency says will prevent 120,000 cases of childhood asthma each year in the United States. Peabody spent over $6 million lobbying Congress last year, and the industry has created a dizzying array of fake “grassroots” front groups to distort the public debate and fight legislation.

(Meanwhile, a new study by the American Lung Association notes that coal-fired power plants produce more hazardous air pollution in the United States than any other source, with the pollution killing 13,000 people a year. Coal-ash disposal alone increases risk of cancer, learning disabilities, birth defects and other illnesses due to exposure from heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury.)

The Coal Cares™ hoax was devised by a group called Coal is Killing Kids (CKK), a small environmental and public health group that aims to challenge Big Coal’s expensive lobbying against sensible updates to the Clean Air Act. “We don’t have their millions, but we do have a knack for incredibly tasteless jokes,” said Veronica Tomlinson, a pediatrician and member of CKK. CKK worked with the Yes Lab, which is a project of The Yes Men to help activist groups carry out media-savvy creative actions on their own.

“Sure, it’s kind of tasteless to say that ‘Bieber’ inhalers are a solution to childhood asthma,” said Janet Bellamy, a spokesperson for CKK. “But it’s a great deal more tasteless to cause that asthma in the first place, as coal-fired power plants have been proven to do.” Added Justin V. Bond, another spokesperson for CKK: “It’s even more tasteless to disproportionately kill poor people.” Coal-fired power plants are very often built in areas populated by low-income citizens, who then bear the brunt of the health effects.

“People may laugh at our sick jokes,” said Bellamy, “but they also understand the real health impacts of burning coal. That’s exactly what the coal industry doesn’t want people to think about, because if enough of us were aware of it, we would shut these plants down once and for all.”

After a year-long effort by students Clemson President Jim Barker announced the university will be investing in several university upgrades including ending the use of coal on campus!  The campaign, spearheaded by Students for Environmental Action at Clemson, has been working with the administration to stop burning dangerous coal in the campus steam plant situated near the aptly named “Death Valley” – the university’s football field.  Ending their use of coal is just phase I of several planned utility upgrades over the next five years and a significant step towards meeting the university’s commitment to reduce their overall carbon emissions to zero by 2030.

Students are excited and looking forward to another address by the President planned for next week at their “Solutions for the Next Decade” teach-in where they hope to hear more details for the transition.

“Clemson is making strides in becoming more aware of sustainability and taking concrete steps to reduce its carbon emissions.  No where is this more evident than in President Barkers’ announcement to begin Phase 1 of taking the campus coal plant offline.  This will catapult Clemson toward our goal of becoming a carbon neutral campus by the year 2030 and we are very excited to hear yesterday’s announcement,” said Graduate student and SEA leader Holly Garrett.

“This decision to move our university beyond coal shows that the university is really listening to the concerns of students and faculty who want a cleaner, healthier campus and demonstrates our dedication to environmental, economic and social leadership.  I’m very proud to go a university that is committing to building a clean energy future,” said CU Beyond Coal leader Rose Kinane.

“Now, we hope to see the university to continue invest in solutions like efficiency for our buildings and renewable energy projects that will make our school a 100% clean energy institution.”

Pinwheels and signs set up at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Right now hundreds of young people from all over the world are in Cancun, Mexico fighting for an international climate treaty.  And today, we’re taking over Washington, D.C. as well.

Over the past month students across the country held actions on their campuses to show our demand for the clean energy solutions we need and today those voices are reverberating throughout our nation’s capital. We’ve set up displays at the Environmental Protection Agency and near Capitol Hill showing off the bright, colorful pinwheels handmade by students from across the country.

Join the effort by posting your own messages to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Facebook and Twitter today.

This week the EPA celebrates their 40th anniversary, just in time for us to celebrate their awesome recent work to protect public health and stand up to Big Coal.  Their actions to implement new rules for polluting energy sources will help safeguard our communities by reducing pollution in our air and water.

At the same time, we’re working on our campuses to retire the fleet of more than 60 campus-based coal plants and move all our schools off coal to 100 percent clean energy solutions.  We’ve come to D.C. to show that we’re leading the way and ask our nation’s leaders to follow.

SSC Students put up pinwheels and signs on the pathway to Capitol Hill

Already schools like the University of North Carolina, University of Illinois and Western Kentucky University have committed to stop burning coal on campus. We’re on the way, but still have a lot of work to do and need our leaders in Washington to join us in creating a cleaner, safer, healthier energy future.

So let Lisa Jackson know you’ve got her back when she steps up to the plate to take on Big Coal.

Our generation was lucky enough to grow up with the EPA, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other federal environmental policies and we must ensure we maintain these critical protections for the health and prosperity of our and future generations.

From the Missourian, Photo Credit: Lindsay Moser

Yesterday and over the past week students coast-to-coast

demonstrated their demand for a clean energy future with displays of hundreds of paper pinwheels on more than 50 campuses.

With the National Action for a Clean Energy Future students turned their quads, libraries, administration buildings and campus walkways into creative centers demonstrating our demand for cleaner energy to power our campuses and our nation.  The colorful pinwheels represent the creative and innovative solutions we need, and will now be sent to Washington, D.C. where local youth are bringing them to members of Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy on December 1st to demonstrate the demands of young people nation-wide.  Here are some of the stories from yesterday…

At Mizzou students set-up 500 pinwheels at their quad. From the Missourian:

“The pinwheels were created by MU students out of recycled paper as a symbol our generation’s desire for a clean energy future,” said Melissa Vatterott, a spokeswoman for Coal Free Mizzou. “The pinwheel idea is used to symbolize clean energy sources, such as wind power.”

University of North Carolina students used the event to focus on their university’s broken promise to stop purchasing mountaintop removal coal with their Music Saves Mountain event featuring Ben Sollee who helped them deliver a letter directly to Chancellor Thorp.

Clemson University students share the clean energy message in the cafeteria

Students at Clemson University passed out their pinwheels as they had conversations about moving from coal to clean energy – even engaging their favorite lunch lady as part of their effort to urge the university to expedite the retirement of their campus coal plant.

In Virginia, the story about actions at both Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia reverberated state-wide.  Both groups are working to transition off coal burning in plants right on campus.  At Virginia Tech students set up hundreds of orange and maroon pinwheels to show that they need a better alternative to their coal plant that is responsible for coal dust accumulation in a nearby dorm and has been blamed for increased asthma attacks.  Similarly, at UVA coal dust and acid rain are causing their iconic university rotunda to literally crumble.

At Michigan State University students held a rally with more than 500 pinwheels calling for the school to transition their campus coal plant, the largest in the nation, beyond coal.  From the State News:

“The windmill is kind of the easiest representation of clean energy,” [Eric Price, a leader of MSU Beyond Coal] said. “Five hundred of these pinwheels will … push for what we want to do — push for clean energy.”

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students make the message clear

Students set-up colorful displays at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, beat their goals for pinwheels at schools like Lewis and Clark in Oregon and are still planning big events at the University of Iowa and Indiana University for today and next week.

And many, many more stories are still coming in!  Please share yours with us.  If you hosted an action, tell us about it and send us your photos.  If you missed it, don’t worry!  You can still be part of the action on December 1.  Just sign our national petition to President Obama and we’ll be sure you get info on upcoming events.

The University of North Texas, like most of our nation’s universities, relies heavily on coal-generated power for its electricity. It’s not one of the 60+ schools with their own campus coal plants, but still get nearly half of its electricity from a Texas coal plant.  That’s bad news for our climate and the health of communities in this state that already has dangerously high levels of air pollution from power plants.

So, like students on more than 50 campuses they’ve teamed up with the Campuses Beyond Coal campaign to do something about it and push the university to switch to 100% clean energy, starting now. Today, as their Board of Regents meets and deliberates on a proposal to install three wind turbines at the site of their new LEED Gold stadium, the Sierra Student Coalition group has set up more than 1,500 handmade paper pinwheels to represent the clean, safe and prosperous energy future they envision.

Over the next couple weeks students at more than 50 campuses are doing the same as part of the Sierra Student Coalition’s National Action for a Clean Energy Future. After their campus events students are shipping their pinwheels to Washington, D.C. where a group of local youth will be setting up demonstrations around the city.  The demos will represent the voices of young people from Oregon to Illinois to Georgia who all want to see their campuses and our nation move to clean energy solutions. You still have time to join the action and plan an event for November 18th at your school to draw attention to your community’s coal dependence and potential to switch to clean, innovative and safe energy solutions. Sign-up to join this visionary, bright action for our future!

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.

In order to comply with these new rules the university would need to install expensive new pollution controls that would have locked them into another generation of coal burning in the more than 80-year-old steam plant, or finally make the switch off coal entirely.

The upgrade will switch the plant to natural gas, although what type or where from is still a question as the university seeks to shore up gas contracts.  The budget request for the conversion comes in at $25 million, less than projected costs for coal scrubbers.  This move is expected to serve the steam plant another ten to fifteen years, rather than another 40 or more of coal, and coupled with a $129 million research grant Penn State recently received to research and improve building efficiency signals major moves towards finding real, clean energy solutions for the institution – the ultimate goal of students with the Beyond Coal group.

The switch to natural gas is acknowledged to be an imperfect solution, especially for a school in the middle of the controversial Marcellus Shale region where unconventional hydraulic fracturing for shale gas poses a significant threat to local water supplies, but the students and local Sierra Club will continue fighting unregulated drilling to ensure our communities are protected.  And the move, particularly for these smaller plants, is far better than locking into decades of more coal by installing scrubbers on the plant, creating a bridge to even cleaner options for the future.

“This was a major decision for the university,” explains Rose Monahan, President of Penn State’s Beyond Coal group, “and this was clearly a smart economic choice for the school that will reduce air pollution and environmental destruction from coal.  We see natural gas as a bridge fuel that can get us of coal quickly, but ultimately we want to see the university powered by 100% clean and renewable energy sources. ”

The budget request has to go to the Pennsylvania General Assembly and then onto the Governor, so the campaign isn’t done yet and students will be following this all the way through the state budget process.

In the meantime students from Penn State will join students from UNC who last spring won a commitment from their school to move off coal as soon as 2015 to craft a 100% clean energy framework for moving schools off coal entirely that will include efficiency, new building standards, working with local utilities to clean up the grid and joining off-campus efforts to reduce pollution and the other dangerous effects of coal reliance.

Have ideas for how universities can move quickly off coal?  Share them in the comments!

The ironies abounded – from Coca Cola (notorious for stealing water from impoverished communities in India) and other corporations speaking about water conservation to a celebration of our precious, yet terribly threatened and already oh-so-contaminated three rivers with their sewage overflow, toxic dumping and now unregulated natural gas drilling, called “fracking” in the Marcellus Shale.

It wasn’t all a loss though as we seized the opportunity to call attention to the terror of gas drilling in our state and beyond.  Several residents did a successful on-kayak banner deployment demanding we “Stop Drilling Marcellus” at the flotilla (release below the jump). Members of the Pittsburgh Student Environmental Coalition (PSEC) planned a dance mob that got rained out, but didn’t stop them from collecting petitions and talking to tons of locals about the threat of fracking.  And the capstone was a screening of Gasland (watch this movie!) to a packed house of over 200 people who united in collective anger, frustration and a call for a ban on drilling, at least until substantial regulations are in place.

Overall the day gave us, local residents, an opportunity to elevate the dialog on this terrifying threat to our rivers, drinking water and land, even while allowing for corporations and politicians to flaunt astro-turf green pasted on smiles.

Click to view slideshow.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 5, 2010

On World Environment Day, Pittsburgh residents highlight threat to city drinking water
Contingent in record-seeking kayak flotilla displays message against Marcellus Shale drilling

With a banner reading “Our Drinking Water Maters: Stop
Drilling Marcellus” we call for a moratorium on further
Marcellus shale development in Pennsylvania. As Pittsburgh
hosts the U.N. World Environment Day, there is great
public focus on the importance of clean water and on
Pittsburgh’s transition to a green economy. We are deeply
troubled that this dialogue has not addressed the serious
impacts of Marcellus Shale gas drilling on our water,
land, and health.  The scope of its impact across
Pennsylvania is truly enormous, but as yet the public has
little familiarity with the issue.

In the summer of 2009, the Monongahela River exceeded the
safe maximum daily levels for total dissolved solids and
thousands of residents whose drinking water comes from the
river were told not to drink from their taps[1].
Marcellus shale gas drilling caused this pollution.

Across Pennsylvania, the problem is only going to get
worse.  In 2009, 763 Marcellus wells were drilled; over
2000 additional permits have already been granted, and
thousands more are in the works[2].  Each well uses
between 500,000 and 3 million gallons of water[3].  The
water is used to open the gas well, contaminated in the
process with mineral salts and industrial chemicals, then
disposed of back into our rivers and streams.

State and federal regulators are allowing the drilling to
proceed, even though there are no wastewater treatment
facilities in Pennsylvania that are capable of removing
the high levels of mineral salt pollution in the
wastewater[1,4].  Wastewater treatment systems do not
remove the industrial chemicals in the water either, which
have been documented as harmful to human health[5].

Marcellus drilling also poses a grave threat to the health
of aquatic communities.  Disposal of high volumes of
wastewater full of mineral salts, combined with high
levels of water withdrawal, can destroy entire ecosystems,
as exemplified by the disaster in Dunkard Creek in
Southwestern Pennsylvania in the fall of last year. The
wastewater created by Marcellus drilling will inevitably
escalate levels of this same kind of pollution all across
the state.

We wish to correct a public perception, aided by the PR of
drilling companies, that Marcellus shale gas drilling
represents an economic boon for rural communities.  Many
new jobs go to trained rig operators from Texas[6],
royalties for landholders often do not cover depreciation
in property values due to damage caused by drilling, and
increased tax revenues for municipalities promise to last
only a couple years. Meanwhile, rural residents are
subjected to extremely high noise levels, constant vehicle
traffic, and toxic emissions into their air and
water[7,8].  The promised benefits appear increasingly
illusory.

The BP oil spill in the gulf has taught us that we should
not risk what we cannot clean up.  The same companies
involved in the production chain for the BP well are
involved in the production chain of Marcellus gas wells.
We are calling for a moratorium on Marcellus drilling
because we do not want to see Pennsylvania’s water and
landscape sacrificed carelessly for profit as the Gulf
coast has been. So far the state and federal government
has only paved the way for energy companies to go forward,
without sufficient consideration of the grave health and
environmental consequences of normal operations, much less
the potential risks of technology failures[9].

The promised benefits are illusory, and we do not think
they are worth the sacrifices.  We call instead for
Pennsylvania to make a true shift to a green economy by
investing in the development of renewable energy sources,
rather than accepting the plunder of our natural resources
for short-term payoff.

We’ve had some disturbing news come to us from the coal industry. It’s appropriate that it comes to us on April Fool’s Day, as it is a coal industry iPhone application that is designed to fool the American public about the devastating cost of coal.

Watch this video from our Executive Director Michael Brune to learn more.

While this iPhone app is a bit shocking, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised coming from an industry that, besides the coal carolers and the coal coloring books, also unveiled pro-coal cell phone ringtones last year. (We gave those ringtones a reality check in this video)

Check out the Sierra Club’s website on this latest coal industry embarrassment to learn more: www.sierraclub.org/scrubber

Iowa kicked off with 50 people Thursday morning in Ames, getting some great TV coverage and is holding strong as they march south toward Des Moines where Iowa-native Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute, will join them to reinforce the urgency of the issue and the need for major action.

New Hampshire’s Tuesday kick off in Nashua had over 200 people and there’s been a strong group of around 100 marching every day. Their marchers include 2-year-old Nicci Metcalf who has already learned chants including “No coal!” and “Oooh… Its hot in here…” and an organic farmer marching with her two sons.

Read the dispatches from each state at www.climatesummer.org and keep checking back for daily videos and photos. Also, check out our coverage in the Nashua Telegraph and Des Moines Register and listen for us on NPR where there will be continuing coverage in the Northeast and internationally on the program American Voices. Here’s a video from NH:

It’s true. Right now students all over the country are joining the effort to ReEnergizeUS by helping with recruitment for marches happening August 1-5 in New Hampshire and Iowa. Over 30 students have dedicated their summer to organizing across these two states and building towards the Marches to ReEnergizeUS. The goal is to raise the profile of global warming solutions in the national public debate by capitalizing on all the public attention focused on these two early primary/caucus states. We’re demanding our leaders at all levels take immediate action to reduce emissions 80% by 2050 by building a clean energy economy that would create 2 million new jobs for Americans.

The ReEnergize Iowa and ReEnergize New Hampshire student teams have worked their butts off, but now they need YOUR help for the final push to get people to turn out for these historic events. Students around the country are helping out by doing remote phone banks of residents of Iowa and New Hampshire who have signed our petition and said they’re interested in coming out. We need about 80 hours of committed remote phone banking – and that means you.

There are three ways to participate:
1. Phone bank on your own from home, preferably Wednesday 7/25 from 6:30-9pm EST during the group remote phone banks
2. Phone bank on your own at a different time – either Tues or Thursday evening around the same times
3. Get a group of friends together for a phone banking party with free pizza compliments of the SSC for any group that clocks a total of 10 hours! You can do this from home or a local Sierra Club or Energy Action Coalition partner office (i.e. Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Global Exchange, CCAN, etc.). Just let me know if you need help finding a space and see below for parties already happening in DC, MD, MI and Philly.

If you can help with this monumental effort to mobilize people in key areas in the fight to curb global warming and create jobs, let us know and we’ll hook you up with everything you need including scripts, training and call lists.

This truly is the challenge of our generation – so let’s work to tackle it together. Spend some time this week calling people who care about the issue and be part of the movement to protect humanity from the biggest threat we’ve ever faced. To help out, please contact Kim at 267.307.4707 or email kim@ssc.org – and do it now, because we don’t have much time.

Thanks,
The ReEnergizeUS Team

Scheduled Parties w/ FREE Pizza (contact Kim for more info and to sign up!):
Washington, D.C. Phone Bank
Wednesday 7/25 6:30-9pm
Sierra Club HQ
401 C St. NE

Philadelphia, PA Phone Bank
Wednesday 7/25 6:30-9pm
Sierra Club Manayunk Office
4100 Main St., Suite 405

Maryland (DC Area) Phone Bank
Thurs/Fri – contact Kim for more details

Michigan Phone Banks
Detroit and East Lansing
All Week
Contact: Brandon@globalexchange.org

Other parties in the works that need support:
Knoxville, NYC, Boston