Mayor Menino’s announcement comes after Massachusetts finalized a three-year plan to triple utility investments in energy efficiency. Boston and the State of Massachusetts are moving toward a clean energy future. But will it be enough?

An emerging coalition of faith, business, environmental, and workforce development groups are joining The Leadership Campaign in challenging the Massachusetts State Legislature to double-down on recent clean energy and energy efficiency investments by creating a task force to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2020. The campaign – The Commonwealth Challenge, launched on March 4th – is not your typical political initiative.

The motto of the Commonwealth Challenge is “When the people lead, leaders will follow.” 40 years after the first Earth Day, the people of Massachusetts are putting down their phones, pens, and signs and picking up caulk guns and home retrofit contracts. Residents of the Commonwealth are demonstrating a real solution – hire local workers, including workers with barriers to employment, to make homes more energy efficient and pay them family supporting wages and benefits. Following in the footsteps of Van Jones, Green For All, and the Green Justice Coalition of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth Challenge is creating a green collar economy that works for people and the planet. And along the way, people are measuring the results and holding themselves and their leaders accountable.

The Commonwealth Challenge aims to engage 3,000 residents by Earth Day, April 22nd, in saving 100,000 KWh of electricity. If each person saves 5% of their electricity the goal will be reached. 100,000 KWh is enough to power the homes of Beacon Hill, home of the State Legislature, for a full day. It’s also enough to create 2200 job hours for local workers, save residents $20,000 on their energy bills, and remove more than 370 tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

By retrofitting their homes to make them more efficient, residents are taking the first step toward clean energy revolution. But more has to be done if the planet is to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid dangerous climate change tipping points. On April 22nd, residents will present the results of their actions as a challenge to the State Legislature to lead the nation toward the next American Revolution – an energy revolution for good jobs and climate security. The way to get there – pass An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Emergency Task Force, a bill introduced on December 7th that would create a task force to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2020. At the same time, residents are challenging Massachusetts Senators Scott Brown and John Kerry to lead Congress toward finally putting a national price on carbon pollution.

It is not enough to simply promote home energy retrofits. Without a signal from customers or government that they should act differently, many companies will continue to weed out job applicants with barriers to employment such as the disabled, women, people of color, people from marginalized communities, and people who have ever been convicted of a crime. Contractors serving the Commonwealth Challenge must sign on to, the Green Collar Hiring Pledge, a promise by employers to pay fair wages and benefits, hire people with barriers to employment, and choose environmentally preferred products and practices. So far, three companies have signed on and are serving homes through the Challenge.

Before April 22nd, Neighborhood Captains across Massachusetts will organize “Energy Retrofit Parties”, phonebanks, canvass their neighborhoods, and show up at community events to sign people up to retrofit their homes. Thanks to significant subsidies and a group discount from Commonwealth Challenge Service Partners, a home retrofit is an easy sell for anybody in Massachusetts whether they own or rent their home. In fact, the initial energy audit and air sealing work is free. This flier explains what I am talking about.

After Copenhagen many people lost faith in the willingness of political leaders to step up to the plate to address the climate crisis. The question now becomes – what are we going to do about it? With coastlines eroding in the Maldives, fires and droughts raging in Africa, and desperate farmers turning to suicide in India, I believe that it is incumbent on all of us to take this challenge into our own hands. If governments won’t adopt a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty, we the people, have to use whatever power we have to decarbonize our economy and demonstrate the way forward.

Actions speak louder than words, but they also often begin with words. I have one question for people reading this.

Who do you know in Massachusetts? If you are inspired by what we are doing, I urge you to tell your friends and family in Massachusetts about the Commonwealth Challenge and encourage them to retrofit their home. 3,000 people might not seem like a large number; but the difference between 3,000 people signing a petition and 3,000 people signing up to schedule someone to come work on their home is significant.

Use the tools on this website to spread the word and become a fan of the Commonwealth Challenge on Facebook.

It is time to lead.

Much can be accomplished through policy venues.  But we should not delude ourselves that policy alone will solve the problem.  Good policy is nothing without good implementation.  But what happens when implementation fails, when the structures we have created are broken?  What recourse do we have?  As far as I can see we have two options: 1) reform/transform political structures through further policy change and 2) take direct action to stop those failures.

These options are not and should not be exclusive; they are both necessary.

Direct Action is a safety net between well-intended policy and political failure and corruption.

The Wikipedia definition of corruption is “utterly broken.”  It further defines political corruption as “the abuse of public power, office, or resources by government officials or employees for personal gain” and corporate corruption as “corporate criminality and the abuse of power by corporation officials, either internally or externally.”

Likewise, it defines Direct action as “politically motivated activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political goals outside of normal social/political channels.”  It is important to note that while many direct actions involve civil disobedience, not all do.  Actions that disrupt daily habits or social norms can be just as effective at drawing attention and applying pressure as those that break the law.

In the 1980s the first Reagan EPA sought to dismantle environmental protection laws.  In response, Congress placed stricter requirements and timelines on the EPA, in essence forcing them to fulfill their mission.  Additionally, environmental advocacy groups began training lawyers and activists to bring citizen suits against the EPA and polluters.  While lawsuits are legal in nature, I consider them direct action in this context because they had never really been used to force government implementation of its own laws before.

I want to take a look at the relationship between corruption and direct action in West Virginia and Utah, two of the most fossil fuel dependent states in the country.  When Massey CEO Don Blankenship ousts WV a Supreme Court Justice who rules against Massey and then parties on tropical islands with other justices, and when WV Department of Environmental Protection employees are afraid to do their job because of the fear of retribution from the coal industry, we have corruption.  When the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining bypasses county authority to speed the development of tar sands near Moab by a foreign company, we have a system that is broken.

In these situations, legal recourse has a very long shot at being effective.  Powerful interests are entrenched and will exercise their power to prevent change.  While it is possible that lawsuits, elections, referenda and laws may enact change, direct action can increase their likelihood of success.

Direct Action creates political space for champions to promote change.

Traditional organizing strategies of electoral mobilization, building public support or disapproval and advocating for policy change all take time.  This change does not come quickly.  And yet, there are situations where time is in short supply.  In the Coal River Valley, WV, activists with Climate Ground Zero are physically stopping mountaintop removal blasting through direct action.  At the same time, their allies around the region are working to end mountaintop removal through policy change.

Likewise, at the end of 2008, the Bush Administration attempted to sell off huge swaths of public lands for oil and gas drilling in Utah.  Local organizations were filing lawsuits against the process, but were not sufficient to stop the auctions.  Instead, Tim DeChristopher intervened in the auction to prevent the oil and gas industry from purchasing these parcels.  Eventually the Department of the Interior under Ken Salazar voided the transactions, but Tim’s actions both prevented immediate harm from drilling and generated attention and political pressure on the DOI to take action.

Direct action can capture public attention more vividly than policy.

Policy changes are not particularly sexy to the mainstream media.  Reclassifying the term “fill” to be included as “waste” may not hit headlines, but it could halt most mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.  Young and old people chaining themselves to mining equipment not only presents a striking visual, but attaches a human face to our work.  The broader attention to direct actions can increase the political pressure for change.  Of course with all direct action, but especially acts of civil disobedience, we must be careful to control the message.

Direct action very much has a role in our organizing, and is often most successful when paired with traditional organizing tactics.  As an organizer, I’ve been trained to pursue strategies that will be successful with the least amount of confrontation.  The premise is to avoid making enemies as long as possible.  Do not provoke opponents needlessly.

Where lobbying works, do it.  Where creating local energy solutions is possible, do it.  Where forming partnerships with business, government and civil society creates lasting agreement, do it.  Direct action is not always essential.

But there are places in this country (and world) where those options are not working.  There are places where our government has been corrupted or broken, there are places where policy doesn’t prevent exploitation.  In many of these places, victories do not come easy and expanding the grassroots base is difficult.  And it is in these places that direct action is most necessary.

The question that remains, is how badly broken does a situation need to be to warrant direct action?

The Student Green Energy Fund campaign has really taken off this year, after failing in the Higher Education and appropriations committee last year students have organized a strategic grassroots, media and lobbying plan. With both a Florida Senate Sponsor (Senator Constantine (R)) and a Florida House Sponsor (Representative Schecnk (R)) Florida students are hopeful.

A little less than a month ago Florida Students had their first victory on what will be a very long legislative process. The Student Green Energy Fund went through its first senate committee hearing (Higher Education). With Senator Oelrich (D) a UF alum chairing the committee and our Senate Sponsor, Senator Constantine (R) sitting on the committee, students were fairly confident the bill would pass with no problem. However, also on the committee is Senator Lynn (R) who is the chair of the Senate Higher Education and Appropriations Committee, Senator Lynn is responsible for the bills defeat last year.

With a large amount of confidence it would pass through this particular committee students took this opportunity to target Senator Lynn. Three weeks before the hearing committee two students from UCF lobbied Senator Lynn. Two weeks before the hearing, UF students met with senate Oelrich’s office to confirm his support. A week away from the hearing students from all eight campuses started pushing for media support and gathered on their weekly call to set specific grassroots tactical goals targeting Senator Lynn specifically. These tactics included very specific messaging, phone calls, hand written letters, emails, and of course tons of photo petitions.

The Wednesday night before the meeting twelve students from six universities (UF, FSU, USF, NCF, UCF, FAMU) gathered in Tallahassee (some driving as far as five hours) to strategically write their individual public comments for the hearing.

The bill was introduced and not to students surprise, Senator Lynn had something to say, she claimed to be supportive of the the Student Green Energy Fund. She mentioned the lobby meeting and thanked students for their overwhelming turnout and support. She then went on to say she was not supportive of additional unrelated amendments Senator Constantine had added to the bill. She said because of this she did not plan on voting for the bill. Senator Constantine was quick to speak up and said his top priority for this particular bill was the Student Green Energy Fund and immediately had his staffers draft up amendments that removed the additional language on the spot (now that’s a good politician). With the bill now being a very “clean bill” that only deals with the Student Green Energy Fund, Sentor Lynn voted Yes!

This was just one victory within the Student Green Energy Fund campaign, florida students have a long road ahead of them. With the Florida Legislator officially started students are continuing pressuring decision makers, recently Tyler Offerman from FGCU got Representative Kreegel (R) to also co-sponsor the bill and students are starting to organize a large lobby day at the capital on April 8^thand 9^th. Students in Florida will be tying the student Green Energy Fund lobby day into Energy Action Coalitions Define our Decade campaign!

Check out some media hits the clean energy leaders worked hard to get!

FSU News: Green gains ground at FSU

WCTV6: Students Lobby for Green Energy Fund Legislation

The Voyager: This new fee is worth supporting

The Voyager: Green Fund gets second try

The Alligator: UF students express support for renewable energy fee

The Campus Sun: Students to Push for Green Energy

I’m here at the 5th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, joining residents from the coalfields of Appalachia in meetings with our Congressmen, gathering support for the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696).  This may be the 5th year, but the momentum is tangible.  We have 166 co-sponsors for the CWPA, bi-partisan support in both Houses and committee chairmen who are receptive to moving this forward. To build even more momentum, today is a National Call-In Day to urge your Congresspeople to support these bills.  Their offices are hearing from us in person and need to hear from even more constituents.

Please, take the two minutes to call your Rep.  Below are some of the most powerful points I’ve heard from local residents to communicate with members of Congress.

• Coal jobs are declining.  Mountaintop removal displaces deep mining jobs by replacing people with giant machines.
• Mountaintop Removal drives away jobs.  What business wants to start up in a place with undrinkable water, coal dust and blasting debris falling from the air and buildings that develop cracks in their foundations from the blasting?  As you can see above, mountaintop removal and poverty are highly correlated.  Coal is not the answer for economic revitalization.

• People cannot live without clean water.  When your water is brown, or black or red, don’t drink it. Don’t shower in it (the mist gets into your lungs).  Appalachia once has some of the cleanest, sweetest water in the country, because the mountains and their forests act as giant water filters.  When coal companies shove mountaintops into streams, not only does this pollute the streams, but it destroys the natural filtration.
• Support is needed from outside the region.  The almost non-existent enforcement of environmental protections, intimidation from coal companies and elected officials who were bought and paid for by coal money have worked to silence this issue.  Appalachia deserves to enjoy its rich natural resources, not destroy them forever.  Mountaintop removal has already destroyed an area the size of Delaware.  How many more states are we willing to sacrifice?

Please call your Rep.  We can change this.

Hi, my name is Junior Walk, and my family has lived in the coal fields of southern West Virginia for generations.  It pains me to see my heritage destroyed and defamed, and to see my friends and family poisoned by unclean water.   So, I decided to take a little trip to Washington D.C. to put a stop to it.

Today, I’m in our nations capitol to stop the heinous practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.  I’m here with the Alliance for Appalachia, as an employee of Coal River Mountain Watch; I’m here as an environmental activist; I’m here as an affected coal field resident; but I’m mostly here as someone whom cares about people, and all other living things.

My meetings today were cordial, I met with the offices of three different congressmen.  The first one was on the fence about the Clean Water Protection Act, the second one will probably co-sign, and the third was already a co-signer.  I think we’re making serious progress here, we already have more than 160 co-signers, and we only need 40-50 more co-signers.

When this bill becomes a law, it will effectively end mountaintop removal by making valley fills illegal (which they were in the first place).  This would greatly benefit the people of Appalachia, save lives, and open up mountains like Coal River Mountain for use as wind farms.

So, here I am, I’ve never been into any city, never really had any experience outside of my neck of the woods, and I’m walking up the stairs to the legislature to talk to our representatives about what’s going on in out back yards.

I care about mountaintop removal, and by extension this bill  because it affects me directly as someone who lives in the coal fields, and someone who has seen and worked in the devastation.  There are plenty of people here  with me though that don’t live in the thick of it, or aren’t from Appalachia, and I am very grateful to them.  You can help too; call and urge your congressman to co-sign the Clean Water Protection Act – HB 1310.  Then call and urge your senator to act on the Appalachian Restoration Act – SB 696.  Also, to learn more about mountaintop removal and get involved, click here.

written by Tessa Barker, UO Climate Justice League Show Me Democracy Campaign Coordinator

Students at the University of Oregon want a strong climate bill now! Support on campus for passing climate legislation that would cap carbon and help to create a clean energy economy has been growing throughout the school year.  In November, we organized the regional Powershift West conference, drawing over 500 young leaders to the University of Oregon campus; in December, a delegation of UO students went to the International Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen.  And now, despite the lack of true results from COP-15, student leaders are more determined than ever to pass a strong climate bill in the US before it’s too late, and we are ready to show our community what democracy really is.

On February 18^th, students from the UO’s newly founded Climate Justice League and I rode our bikes to the courthouse for the first of many lobby days as part of the national Show Me Democracy Campaign.  At the heart of this campaign to develop broad-based support for a strong climate bill is community outreach.  From day one, students in our group have been working to build coalitions with members of the wider community, ranging from business leaders, to farmers, to faith-based groups.  The goal is for representatives from each of these groups to eventually join us in lobbying our senators.

Students working on the local level of this campaign in Eugene, Oregon had been meeting and organizing for weeks leading up to our first lobby day. We held lobbying trainings, and discussed our policy principles: cutting carbon emissions, building a clean energy economy, and demonstrating global leadership on climate change issues.  We even held mock lobby meetings, in which some of the student trainers pretended to be senators who were opposed to climate legislation, and who challenged us on almost every point we made.

Luckily, on the day of the actual lobby meeting, we ran into no such problems.  Here in Oregon, we’re lucky to have senators (Senators Wyden and Merkley) who, for the most part, “see eye to eye” with us on issues of climate change and legislation. For our first meeting, we had a video conference with Senator Wyden’s staff in DC, while the second, with Senator Merkley’s aide was a more traditional lobby meeting.  As a campaign leader, I found it incredibly inspiring to see students who weeks earlier had been completely new to the issue discussing the need for a cap on carbon, and weighing the pros and cons of different energy sources with the senator’s aide.  It was also great to see that the aide had remembered some of us from a previous lobby meeting last fall – and proceeded to follow up with answers to the questions the students had asked months earlier.

Both meetings were quite successful – the senators and their aides valued the work we as students have been doing to gather support for a strong climate bill, and they encouraged us to keep it up.  Students came away from the meetings feeling like they actually had a voice in the political process.  Still, the campaign is far from over. Another lobby day is just around the corner, and as we told our senators, we will continue to keep coming back until a climate bill has been passed.

Our planet is in peril and we need our Senators to pass a strong climate bill this year. We are at a critical moment, not only for our planet, but for our country. A new bipartisan proposal is taking shape, and may be introduced in the Senate as soon as this week.

The question is, will this bill create the clean energy economy we need, or will it fall victim to lobbyists from Big Oil and Coal who will fight tooth and nail to maintain our addiction to dirty fuel?

Today, we are joining with dozens of organizations across the issue spectrum to launch a massive grassroots call-in campaign: 72 Hours for Clean American Power. Together, we will flood Senate phone lines to make sure voices for clean energy are heard over the special interests.

Join in! Add your voice to the call for comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

Failure is not an option. It’s our future, and it starts with a strong bill from the Senate which will transition our country to sustainable power sources, end our dependence on foreign oil, and create millions of new jobs along the way.

Only a massive, overwhelming, response will keep the polluters and their allies in Washington from killing or gutting legislation in the Senate. In order to ramp up the volume, Consequence and our youth partners are excited to also announce Earthstock, a first of its kind social media powered rally at the foot of the Virtual Capitol Building to demonstrate the overwhelming demand for comprehensive solutions to climate change.

Join us at Earthstock and make your voice heard for a clean energy future!

The time is now. We cannot wait any longer. This our moment, let’s make it count.

All of this comes at a time when the U.S. Senate continues to try to figure out how to proceed with climate and energy legislation. In a Sunday op-ed penned by Thomas Friedman titled “How the G.O.P. Goes Green,” one of the leading figures in crafting legislation, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina acknowledged that he is inspired to take up climate and energy legislation because of young people on college campuses. Graham correctly points out that young voters are driven by deeply-held environmental values, and more lawmakers would be wise to wake up to this, but Graham’s solutions of nuclear and offshore oil-drilling are both counter to our values and economic interests. Every dollar spent on the dirty energy economy, is a dollar that could have created more jobs in the clean energy economy we must create. That’s why in the coming month it’s essential that we, as the Millennial Generation, further define what our vision for a clean energy economy really is.

Already dozens of events are being hosted around the country that will help us do just that. Check out the event registration page for the full listing and see a couple of highlights below:

• At Pennsylvania State University they’ll be constructing the “Foundation of Our Future,” a big art installation that students can write about there demands for clean energy on.
• An open-mic at Murray State Univ (KY) for people to share poetry and vision for the decade!
• Define Our Decade Vermont Kick-off!  On the heels of the Vermont Yankee Nuke Plant decision, and two-years before it’s close date, students at Middlebury College are going to launch their initiative to get a statewide commitment for 100% clean energy!
• Events across the Buckeye State to support Power Vote Ohio in Making Green a Primary Color – they want clean energy candidates to define their future!

There’s a ton of great stuff on the event registration page, I really encourage you to check it out, and host an event of your own! This idea has come about through extensive discussions with leaders around the country about the solutions we have to share, so we are really excited to come to fruition. Register your event to become part of what is turning out to be an incredible movement-wide discussion on our future, and to take action to make our vision a reality! We’ll be having another discussion on a National Leaders Call this Wednesday, March 3 at 9 PM ET – I really hope you’ll join us and register an event of your own!

Take a moment and watch hundreds of those around the world taking action and inspiring others in the fight for climate justice.

All images (unless provided by 350.org) ©Robert van Waarden,
Music – “Open Road Kisses” by Small Affairs

These are the words of contempt Sarah Palin aimed at the Obama Administration two weeks ago, but she may as well have taken shot at the climate movement.

The Copenhagen negotiations were largely a flop.  Climate legislation has stalled out in Congress.  Red States and Fossil Fuel Corporations are suing the EPA to revoke their authority to regulate emissions.

In 2008, millions of Americans were inspired by the message of Hope: hope that government can change, hope that yes, we can change the direction of this country.  Many of those people have now become disappointed, jaded, disengaged.  They hoped for change and they didn’t get it.  But as Mrs. Palin so eloquently reminded us, that hopey, changey stuff isn’t working so well right now.

Why isn’t it working?

You could make the argument that governing is more difficult than campaigning.  You could make lament the obstructionist tactics of the far-right.  You could point out that Palin was just trying to rile up the troops.

You could say all that, but you would be missing the deeper reason.

Hope is passive.  Hope is what you have when you have exhausted all other options.  As Derreck Jensen writes, “To hope for some result means you have given up any agency concerning it.”

By placing our Hope in Obama, in Congress, in the UN, we tacitly resign ourselves to the idea that the outcomes are out of our hands.

During the United Nations negotiations in Copenhagen, which the climate movement had been focusing on for years as the pivotal moment to make progress, the Hopenhagen campaign there inspired a fellow activist to jot down these thoughts:

“I have had a deep unease about “Hopenhagen” since before I left for the summit, but I didn’t know what exactly was bothering me until tonight. As I passed through the vacated Hopenhagen square, looking up at the billboards depicting grainy photos of healthy big-eyed children with “Hopenhagen” spelled out across their hearts, after days on end of being practically blinded by the saturation of bus stop ads, Coca Cola’s “bottle of Hope” ads, and glossy pamphlets blowing around on the ground, it dawned on me: Hope is all we have? Hoping is…begging! This is supposed to be the big moment. I came across the planet to make change myself, and this, this stupid, cheesy, hokey corporate campaign is the best humanity can muster in the face of annihilation?
I stood alone, tonight, in the empty square, and stared ahead, and saw that real human suffering, on a scale we have never seen, was on the way, was on the horizon, and nothing but an abandoned city square was in the way. The cold wind blew through my hair. I shivered.  And despite myself, I cried.”

The climate will not suddenly stabilize by hoping.
Obama will not magically secure bold climate legislation because we hope for it.
The climate movement will not become powerful enough to overcome fossil interests by latching onto hope.

We must let go of the hope that we will win.  Who knows if we will or not?  But we will only win by taking action with our own hands, feet, bodies, and voices.

“And when you quit relying on hope, and instead begin to protect the people, things, and places you love, you become very dangerous indeed to those in power.” -Derreck Jensen