It’s Getting Hot In Here

A powerful new tool was released today which allows you to see (for free!) the potential for wind and solar power installations at any location North or South America, and includes wind maps for the entire world.  I like the site because it utilizes the easy to navigate Googlemaps technology that most people know very well.  I know that state-level wind maps are publicly available in some areas, but this is the first comprehensive solar map I’ve seen, and is by far the easiest to use. From the company’s website:

On October 13, 2008, 3TIER, one of the world’s largest independent providers of assessment and forecasting of renewable energy, released the first comprehensive, contiguous and high-resolution solar map for the entire Western Hemisphere.

Go ahead, play around and find your city.  What type of renewable energy would be most effective in your community?

Yesterday I attended the Dynegy Corporation’s annual shareholder meeting to remind Fossil Fool of the Year Nominee Bruce Williamson it’s time to cancel plans to coal burning power plants. Dynegy is planning to become the next King Coal (pictured below, see more pictures of the protest here) by building six new coal plants, more than any other company or utility.

Like most share owner meetings, the event was designed as a corporate love-fest. Nancy Henchel, a Sierra Club volunteer, and I attended the meeting to speak on behalf of the NGOs calling for the cancellation of the coal plants. Since I called ahead and spoke with the Corporate Secretary, I was given a spot on the agenda to speak at the meeting and a packet of materials I prepared was distributed to each member of Dynegy’s Board of Directors.

CEO Bruce Williamson’s presentation included a 7 or 8 min piece focused on their work to decrease their plants’ pollution output. This mainly focused on reducing NOX and SOX, although one sentance about climate change and a discussion about “increased barriers to entry for building new coal plants” (due to financing/ the capital market crises and future regulation) was mentioned. The presentation also mentioned the company’s focus on “diversification of fuel sources,” although the graph that was up during this discussion showed energy production from only coal and natural gas. During the question and answer period I pointed out that this was not a truely diverse portfolio, since it excluded renewables, the only type of energy production that has no carbon risk. Williamson’s response to this was that they only build new plants which have long-term buyers lined up in advance and if he could find someone willing to buy a long-term contract for a renewable facility, he would consider building a production facility to meet that contract.

Then I had a chance to make my presentation, which focused on the climate risks that shareholders will have to deal with:

We, as Dynegy Shareholders, will have to deal with the negative financial consequences of a large coal portfolio when carbon regulation is implemented. Thankfully, this impending regulation does not have to hurt the company. Renewable energy sources like wind are demonstrating increased profitability with each year that passes.

Coal is last century’s technology. Renewable Energy is the future. Dynegy can invest in the past or lead the way to a new energy economy. The choice is yours.

Click “Read more” for the full text of my statement. CEO Williamson thanked me for my comments but did not respond directly. Nancy Henchel then spoke from the heart about her concerns, which focused on the health and well being of future generations

I’m glad that I got the chance to deliver the message of No New Coal to the inside of the corporate beast. I’m confident that we made it a bad media day for Dynegy and shifted the focus from profits to climate change the people it effects. The power that I had inside the corporate boardroom was that I represented not only the 10,000 Co-op America members that signed my letter, but a movement that has held two Step It Up events in over a thousand communities nationwide, a movement that has convinced the Supreme Court, the leader of the House and Senate, and every major presidential candidate that carbon must be cut 80% by 2050. I got inside the belly of the beast and I told them that our government is going to regulate carbon and that we are going to continue to fight every plant they proposed until they invest in renewable energy instead. I only have that power because of the work that we all do together. So keep up the good work and keep on organizing!

Continue reading ‘From the Belly of the Beast’

I’m sitting in a church guest house in Houston, preparing to attend Dynegy’s annual shareholder meeting tomorrow. We’ve gathered in Texas to confront Dynegy CEO Bruce Wiliamson, King Coal himself, because he plans to build six new coal burning power plants — more than other corporation in the country. They say everything’s bigger in Texas and it’s especially true with the anti-coal movement, which has turned out over one hundred activists from around the country to challenge Dynegy’s plans. Activists from Iowa, Arkansas, Georgia, Texas, Michiga and Nevada, each state in which Dynegy plans to build a coal plant are gathered here. As expected, the youth climate movement has provided most of the energy and activists for the event. Twenty students working with Seth Gunning in Georgia caravaned out! There’s also representation from the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition, the University of Arkansas and the University of Texas here.

Tomorrow I’ll be representing Co-op America inside the shareholder meeting, bringing the argument that the coal business is bad business to the boardroom. Outside the meeting, the youth climate activists will be joined by representatives from the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, RAN and Houston Climate Action Coalition to send the message to shareholders: it’s time to invest in a renewable energy future, not our grandfather’s coal plants!

It’s me and Mr. Williamson. The youth vs. King Coal. The time is now for us to rise up and declare: NO NEW COAL PLANTS. NO NEW COAL INVESTMENT. ITS TIME FOR A RENEWABLE ENERGY FUTURE!

Unroll the green carpet, strap on an eco-gown, and get voting! The first annual “Foolies”- the official awards of Fossil Fools Day- have begun.

Vote in the online poll and this year’s winners will get a “special” delivery of their awards on April 1st, Fossil Fools Day . Vote today!

Nominees for this year’s top prize include the CEOs of General Motors, Bank of America, ExxonMobil and Dynegy, as well as the premier of Alberta, Canada.

Organized by the Energy Action Coalition, Co-op America and Rainforest Action Network, the “Foolies” recognize the world’s biggest contributors to our devastating global addiction to fossil fuels. The awards feature five different categories: Fossil Fool of the Year, Outstanding Performance in Corporate Greenwashing, Most Inauspicious Newcomer, Lifetime Achievement and Biggest Human Toll.

Check out the full listing of the nominees and VOTE TODAY!

Continue reading ‘Announcing the Foolies’

Youth were singing to delegates entering the UN Climate Negotiations a day before the high level negotiations kick off, highlighting the negotiation’s failure to move fast enough to address catastrophic climate change. With the latest scientific information about climate change explicitly outlining the dangers of a two-degree temperature rise, youth spoke out against the misleading threshold, which is not strong enough to protect their future.

A rise in temperature of two degrees Celsius gives us only a 50% chance of maintaining a stable climate. “Would you bungee jump off a cliff if your life line had a 50% chance of breaking?” asks Kartikeya Singh, a US youth delegate at the conference.

Youth delegates from around the world are gathering in solidarity today at the conference to encourage delegates to up the ante, especially in light of Kyoto’s 10th anniversary. Katrina Genuis, a Canadian youth delegate, emphasized that, “Delegates need to step it up now, we don’t have another decade to wait for effective action.”

It another day at the climate negotiations, so there’s another action on the ground from our youth delegation.  Today, street theater was in style as youth dressed the part of big business attempting to sell “dirty development” to delegates as they entered the United Nations Climate Change Conference.  Given the significantly increasing roll industry plays in the negotiations young people wanted to point out that all too often the negotiations are being heavily weighted towards creating a framework to ensure a ‘climate business’ rather then address climate change.

Watch As Big Business Sells Delegates On Dirty Development:

Read on for statements from youth that participated in the event… Continue reading ‘BaliBuzz: Youth Mock Industry Buy-Outs of Negotiations’

Video from the International Day of Climate Action’s March for Climate Justice in Bali.

Did you participate in a Polar Bear Plunge or other action? Let us know how it went in the comments.

SustianUS, representing the US youth climate movement, met with the US government delegation to the Climate Negotiations in Bali today. Take a look at how the meeting went:

The US government’s response was: “Do you have the votes?“

Let’s show them we do: Flood Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky’s Inbox with messages of solidarity, so that they can’t forget that their positions represent the past and that WE represent the future!

Check for updates on the Bali Vblog.

Combating global warming calls for a complete moratorium on coal. Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels — it creates more pollution than oil, natural gas and gasoline when burned. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said recently, “There’s not a coal-fired plant in America that’s clean. They’re all dirty.” If we’re going to get serious about fighting global warming, we need a complete halt to the coal industry.

Mountaintop removal (MTR) mining flattens mountains, devastating communities and ecosystems in Appalachia. A biologically diverse habitat is being destroyed, and the rich Appalachian culture it inspired is threatened. It is a deadly lose-lose for climate change – accelerating coal burning and deforestation.

Tell the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining: Stop Mountaintop Removal

(Please note that comments on this rule are not accepted via email. If you responded to a previous IGHIH post by emailing comments in, you should take this action and Co-op America will hand-deliver your message to the Department of Interior. If you have any questions, contact yochi [at] coopamerica.org)

In the process of mountaintop removal mining:

• forests are clear-cut to expose the tops of mountains, which are then blown off with explosives
• coal is extracted using large machinery
• unused soil and rock are dumped into adjacent stream valleys, filling them up and creating a flat landscape

Residents of Appalachia living near these mines are threatened by:

• dangerous toxic sludge dams
• dynamite blasts that damage homes
• clouds of rock dust from poorly regulated mine operations
• poisoned or depleted well water and polluted streams
• increased flooding
• the loss of traditional fishing and hunting areas
• breathing coal dust in their homes

Continue reading ‘Save Appalachia: Stop Mountaintop Removal’

By Massimo LoBuglio and Sabrina Mondschein

Without an ace closer, what are the chances that your favorite baseball team will succeed? What happens to the football team whose key running back fumbles the ball ten yards short of the goal line? Without the finishing touches any plan falls short. Can we find a better way to explain the current state of sustainability than through analogy?

Participants at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit and a small band of social scientists are quickly learning to argue no.

Mayors and business leaders from forty of the world’s largest cities convened in the world’s foremost polluting country last month to do what this site has been attempting from the outset: putting climate change on the menu and making it palatable – and dare we say a delectable staple – for the public.
After all, global warming is no longer about facts, but perceptions. What does sustainability really mean to the person who falls within the six out of ten Americans who can’t name one solution to global warming? According to a recent study by advertising firm Landor Associates, most people consider themselves green minded, but remain disconnected to even simple solutions. Continue reading ‘Bringing the Message Home: Where Politicians and Academics Converge on Climate Change’