'The struggle of the Amazonians is for all Peruvians'

On June 5, 2009 I was vacationing in Cuzco, Peru awaiting the start of my 5 day hike to Machu Picchu, when I stumbled upon a protest in a small square.  It was an impromptu gathering of people allied with indigenous people in the Amazon region who are resisting the privatization of the rainforest for oil and gas development.  The effects of rainforest destruction and the use of oil on our climate are well documented.  Instead, I’d like to look at why the rainforest is being sold to private companies and its effect on the indigenous people who have lived there for generations.

Why is the rainforest being sold off by the Peruvian government?  It all comes back to the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement, which requires the government to allow oil and gas development by multi-national corporations.  The protesters I met were demanding that the law granting oil and gas concessions on the indigenous people’s communally held be land permanently repealed.

The small protest is Cuzco wasn’t the only thing going in on Peru.  In Lima thousands of people took to the streets demanding the law be repealed.  Indigenous people have been blockading the roads that the oil company uses for the past two and half months.  As a result, the Amazon region has experienced a shortage of cooking gas and food prices are on the rise.  On June 5^th the Peruvian President Garcia decided he had enough and moved to clear roads.  The communities were armed with sticks and lances; the police with guns, helicopters, shields, and gases. Police attacked the blockaders, killing hundreds of indigenous protesters (according to witnesses, the government reports put it at only 30) and in the process about a dozen police were captured or killed.

In the following days a curfew was imposed and witnesses reported seeing the police dump bodies into the river in the middle of the night.  I’m sure when you read this you’ll think, like I did, that these are the kind of things that happened in the 70s and 80s, but not today.  It crazy, but it’s true, even in 2009 there are governments that, in the name of defending free trade, are throwing protesters’ bodies into the river.  Violence is continuously perpetrated in the name of Free Trade, here in Peru against the indigenous in the Amazon, in Guatemala against banana workers, or in Colombia against union members.

This is the worst political violence in Peru since the Shining Path civil war of the 80s and early 90s, and it comes back to the fact that the USA engages in free, and not fair trade with Peru.

Please ask President Obama and Congress to denounce the Garcia Administration’s violent repression of its people, repeal the unconstitutional “free” trade laws, and open meaningful debate with indigenous communities concerning any development in the Amazon.  Take action with the Sierra Club.

I’m spending this week in Lima meeting with Fair Trade NGOs and furthering a positive trade solution to inequality around the world.  Want to help out even more?  Shop Fair Trade, not free trade the next time you’re looking for coffee, chocolate, or a hand made gift (remember Father’s Day this Sunday!).

Carbon capture and storage: Trouble in store

Politicians are pinning their hopes for delivery from global warming on a technology that is not quite airtight

Read the full article from The Economist print edition: Mar 5th 2009

• Put utility companies in the energy efficiency business by changing how rates are set in the Public Service Commission. Today, these companies make money selling us electricity and natural gas. The more you use, the more money they make. Tomorrow, they’ll make money by helping us use less of both.  Unlike the coal we buy from Wyoming and Montana, money we spend on energy efficiency will produce tens of thousands of jobs in Michigan.
• Make Michigan the first state in the nation to let every homeowner, every business, become a renewable energy entrepreneur who can make money by installing solar panels or wind systems on their home or business and selling that renewable energy back to the power company.

If every state did this, the private sector would do a lot of the work we’ve been calling for  Not a bad idea to start with, but she goes further, saying “By the year 2020, Michigan will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity by 45 percent,” AND promises:

To evaluate . . . both the need for additional electricity generation and all feasible and prudent alternatives before approving new coal-fired power plants.

This effectively kills Michigan’s six active coal plant proposals for the next year, if not for good.
It’s not quite the commitment of 80% reduction in all emissions by 2050 that we’ve been calling for, but along with the utility restructuring plan, good things are on their way to the state shaped like a mitten. I’ve been watching Michigan politics since a friend convinced me head there and work on a state race last October, and today am I glad I did!  My candidate, State Rep. Jennifer Haase, had me talking on the campaign trail about the jobs that could be created in Michigan constructing wind turbines and weatherizing homes.  Now Haase and her colleagues in the Michigan legislature have the chance to follow through on their campaign promises and create a clean energy economy out of a failing auto industry.

Normally I’d end my post here — that was a lot of good news for one day, from one state executive.  Granholm’s speech was so full of green goodies, that I can’t stop quoting her!  Here are the details of her Green Jobs proposal:

1. Create the Michigan Energy Corps to put thousands of unemployed Michigan citizens back to work this year, weatherizing 100,000 homes, schools and other public buildings, installing renewable energy technology, and turning our abundant natural resources into renewable fuels.
2. Launch Michigan Saves, which will allow Michigan families and businesses to weatherize their homes and install Michigan-made energy efficiency technology with zero upfront charges. The monthly savings will pay the cost of the improvements.

She ends by saying the “New energy sector represents our single best hope for new investment and new jobs.”  I hope that Michigan is read to follow, because this Governor is ready to lead.

The environmental community has labeled Dynegy “the next King Coal” in response to their plans to build these coal plants, the largest new coal fleet proposed in the USA.  The Sierra Club launched a campaign to Clean Up Dynegy in February 2008, that spring thousands of Green America members asked Dynegy to cancel the plants and with the help of RAN, Public Citizen and a busload of Southern Energy Network student activists a massive protest engulfed Dynegy’s annual meeting in Houston last May.  There, inside the shareholder meeting, investors warned about the massive cost of carbon regulation to the company and activists raised concerns about the toll of its coal plants on surrounding communities and the climate.  This summer courts in Georgia dealt Dynegy another setback, halting plans for a new plant until the state developed a plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from the plant.

Today Dynegy is backing down, canceling their partnership with LS power.  The details are a little dirty:  LS Power retains the right to develop the six coal plants on their own.  Without Dynegy’s support financing and securing long-term energy purchasing agreements, the plants are very unlikely to be completed.  In addition, Dynegy continues construction on two coal plants in Texas and Arkansas, but the environmental community has vowed to continue fighting these plants as well.

Welcome to 2009.  There is a hostile climate for new coal plant construction, and a dedicated group of youth pursuing a clean energy future.

See the rest of LCV’s “ads.”

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?

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!

My statement to Dynegy:

Good morning Mr. Williamson, members of the Board and my fellow shareholders. My name is Yochanan Zakai and I am here to speak on behalf of Co-op America and the Sierra Club, two nonprofit organizations which have gathered over ten thousand signatures calling upon Dynegy to cancel plans to build new coal-fired power plants and instead make a serious investment in renewable energy. Outside this meeting one hundred leaders from the six communities in which Dynegy plans to build new coal plants have gathered to ask you not to build new coal plants in their communities.

I would like to commend you for listening to your shareholders and agreeing to investigate adopting greenhouse gas reduction goals. I look forward to reading the report’s conclusions, but this first step in addressing climate risk does not go far enough to protect the value of the company.

Coal-burning power plants are not a viable long-term means of providing safe and affordable energy. Coal-fired power plants produce about 40% of the CO2 emitted in the U.S. and there is legislation pending before congress to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050.

Many voices are calling for carbon regulation:

• Supreme Court has declared that carbon is a pollutant and ordered the EPA to regulate it.
• Utilities such as Duke Energy and Pacific Gas and Electric are calling for government regulation of carbon
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, quote “There’s not a coal-fired plant in America that’s clean. They’re all dirty.”
• Every major presidential candidate supports a cap on carbon.

Considering the inevitability of impending carbon regulation it is surprising that Dynegy is proposing to build more new coal-fired power plants than any of its competitors.

Why does Dynegy continue to make investments in coal when its competitors are abandoning their plans for new coal plants?

Now is the time to cancel plans to build dirty coal plants. Proposals now before congress will tax all carbon sources, including those power plants already built. According to Speaker Nancy Pelsoi, there will be no “grandfathering” of existing plants out of carbon regulation.

If Dynegy builds six new coal plants the company will face higher costs once carbon regulations are implemented. These are costs your competitors, who have already shunned new coal, will not have to deal with in their new facilities.

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.

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!

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!

Nominees for Fossil Fool of the Year, to be given to the individual who has made the most significant contribution over the past year to the development and dissemination of fossil fuel-related pollution, include:

• Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, for keeping America addicted to oil by mass producing vehicles more inefficient than the Model T, and for suing the state of California for attempting to reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions;
• Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, for the bank’s massive financial support of the coal power and mountaintop removal coal mining industries;
• Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, for neglecting to use his company’s record-breaking profits to develop cleaner, more secure energy alternatives;
• Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta, Canada, for promoting oil extraction from Canada’s infamous Alberta tar sands, a project which has the potential to lay waste to an area the size of the state of Florida; and
• Bruce A. Williamson, CEO of Dynegy Corporation, for proposing to build more coal-fired power plants than any other power company in the United States.

You will also have the chance to decide which individual has most effectively fooled the public into believing his or her company is benefiting the environment (Greenwashing); which individual represents a company or organization that has burst into the public consciousness in the past year as a major contributor to climate change (Newcomer); the individual who has done the most over the course of a career to further global warming (Lifetime Achievement); and the person who most negatively impacted human lives in the name of fossil fuel development in 2007 (Biggest Human Toll).

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

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.”