It’s Getting Hot In Here

Chevron is having a really tough week of reality. Following Saturday’s blockade at their Richmond CA Refinery, activists rallied outside Chevron’s offices in San Francisco yesterday. During the rally a group of activists blockaded the Chevron offices further highlighing Chevron’s war, and climate crimes, by disrupting business as usual. At 7:30am activists blockaded the main entrance and parking garage entrance of the downtown Chevron offices with barrels and bodies. 4 other activists got inside the offices where they found Chevron was closing the offices until further notice; those folks in turn, passed out information fliers throughout the building and when they ran out of fliers…well, they started their own blockade from the inside! Soon there after a snake march with 200-300 folks came by the action and rallied around the activists as they shut down Chevron. The action was successful in not just stopping Chevron’s business as usual but, stopping business entirely! Continue reading ‘Tough week for Chevron. No business…period!’

Take Action against Auto Makers in Detroit this Weekend! We refuse to Drive the Cars that are Driving Global Warming.

Heard about the Transportation Challenge? It’s a campaign of Energy Action partners to cut greenhouse gas emissions from one of the largest pollution sources - dirty gas guzzling vehicles. Young people around the country are gearing up to reverse climate chaos through the Campus Climate challenge, and many of you are doing so by taking on tailpipes and advocating for transportation alternatives that end oil addiction and slash global warming pollution.

Global Exchange (GX) and Rainforest Action Network (RAN), two founding member of the Energy Action Coalition, are helping students run the Challenge by making transportation changes on campus. We know that we need a renewable grid, better efficiency, and the elimination of fossil fuels, right? Well, the Transportation Challenge is a great place to start making our campuses and our planet carbon free.

The Freedom from Oil team, a joint campaign of RAN and GX is holding the first ever Transportation Challenge Weekend Getaway in Detroit, MI. Learn how to run hard-hitting effective transportation campaigns on your campus: January 11-13, 2008.

Friday a range of speakers will speak to reaking our addition to oil and clean transportation soltions build though greening the economy. Speaker will include mass transit activists, community members for an oil free future, and members of UAW, and students creating clean transportation solution on their campus.

Saturday is an opportunity to build skills and develop regional relationships and allies. Whether your goal is more bike paths, fewer vehicles, clean fleets, or better mass transit, we will offer training to help you achieve your campus’s goals of a carbon free future. Continue reading ‘Come to the Transportation Getaway Jan 11-13 Detroit MI!’

The auto industry was struck with a huge decision in Vermont’s Federal Courts yesterday. On the same day oil hit record highs, auto-makers including Ford, GM, and Toyota lost a suit suing the state of Vermont for passing a law requiring a 30% reduction in automobile emissions. This law is a mirror image of laws passed, or waiting to be passed, in over a dozen states nationwide,and sets the stage for similar results. These laws, adapted from the California law passed in 2005 regulating the poisons being spewed from vehicles tailpipes, are a wake up call to our Federal Government and amplifies the need, and want, for sweeping regulations on what comes out of our automobiles tailpipes.

The auto industry had long hid behind the argument that the technology is not there to meet these state imposed requirements. That argument was rejected with a resounding thud by federal court’s Judge Sessions. “It is improbable that an industry that prides itself on its modernity, flexibility and innovation will be unable to meet the requirement of the regulation, especially with the range of technological possibilities and alternatives before it”. A quote right on the money considering that GM had admitted itself the technology is there. GM introduced it’s new concept car with Flextreme technology in Frankfurt just 48 hours before the ruling, the Chevy Volt PHEV is ready to hit the road in 2009, and the original zero-emission car EV1 is over ten years old. Seems as if the messaging isn’t quite in line. The technology is there, the industry just needs get itself out of the pocket of big oil.

While this is a great precedent setting victory (leave it to VT) there is still a lot of hurdles until the auto makers are held to these reductions. The next hurdle lies in California. The largest automobile state in the US, now sits in the forefront in the battle to reduce auto emissions. The same lawsuit, with the same auto corporations suing, is in the courts again on Oct, 11 in Fresno CA. The Vermont decision certainly strengthens the case in CA, and following another victory in the courts of CA the EPA must issue states waivers enabling them to enforce these reduction laws. Easier said than done. California has been waiting for two years for a waiver. California’s Governor (hey that guy) has threatened to sue the Bush Administration is the EPA does not grant California the waiver by November. Things are happening fast in the next few months and, pardon the analogy, we need to keep our foot on the gas.