All of us concerned with global warming, human rights, and the impacts of oil on health and the economy should be watching the progress of Hurricane Gustav very closely.

Currently the predictions for the storm are truly alarming.

Although itrsquo;s 5 days away from landfall - and a lot can change in 5 days - the current track has the hurricane passing directly over New Orleans at hurricane strength.

3 years ago this very week most, if not all of us, stood by watching helplessly as a racist, man-made climate tragedy of epic proportions unfolded in the gulf.

Although the last thing I want to do is invite alarm, we need to be prepared: we can not be silent if the worst happens again.

I urge all of you too watch this situation closely. The group I work with, Rising Tide, will be taking more over the next 48 hours should the situation continue to look as grim as it does about appropriate, *immediate* responses of solidarity and action.

I urge all of you to join us or to do the same in your communities.

For those of you in the gulf, my thoughts are with you constantly. Please stay safe and strong.

Please post your ideas for action or thoughts on this below.

Pro-Jobs, Pro-Economy, Pro-Clean Water, Pro-Mountain and Pro Wind activists Rory McIlmoil and Lorelei Scarbro of the Coal River Wind Project were on ldquo;Decision Makersrdquo; with Bray Cary ndash;one of West Virginiarsquo;s most watched TV shows, where they, shall we say, eviscerated him during a wind or coal debate this past Saturday morning. (Sorry I canrsquo;t figure out how to make them show up herendash;let me know if you can!)

Part I

Part II

Part III

I highly recommend watching these videos, especially if you want to learn about facts and figures pertaining to wind and MTR and see exchanges such as this:

Bray Cary: ldquo;My understanding is that if you cut the top off of Coal River Mountain, that the wind will swoop down through there, come up on the uplift of the next mountain and create twice the forcerdquo;

Rory McIlmoil: ldquo;Thats a lie, first of all, and I would like to see that source.rdquo;

Bray: ldquo;Yoursquo;re lookinrsquo; at the source.rdquo;

Rory: ldquo;So you basically just made that up.rdquo;

Bray: ldquo;And one other thing, these windmills.  One of the main concerns I have is are the birds, I mean you guys are just killing the environment.rdquo;

Lorelei: ldquo;Oh can I go there.rdquo; (Lorelei proceeds to explain that mountaintop removal kills or destroys habitat for every animal on the mountain, and the more than 500,000 acres of MTR  in Appalachia has likely killed more birds than any windfarm, and adds that house cats and windows kill multitudes more birds than windhellip;so wind is really the lesser evilhellip;and Bray Cary hollers out, lsquo;Bird-killer!rsquo;rdquo;

PSgt; Our Governorrsquo;s office recently admitted that they have the power to stop the mountaintop removal and put in the wind farm mdash; BUT THEY ARE AFRAID OF GETTING SUED BY MASSEY (nasty coal company). It makes me sick that corporations have this much control over our government.  Let the governor know where the real power lies and sign the petition at www.coalriverwind.org!

Thatrsquo;s right, the EJCC is back at it with Redefining Progress causing a stir all over the place. Whether itrsquo;s their report that they just released called ldquo;A Climate of Change,rdquo; or the new urban radio talk program theyrsquo;ve got going on. Of course EJCC has a very warm place in my heart with all they do and are up against, and I am so pleased that things seem to be rolling on forward for them.

The first step of disaster prevention efforts is often on the individual or family level, even though a disaster may affect the whole community, region, or state. People are encouraged to set aside emergency supplies to last for three days without electricity or water, including extra equipment such as first aid kits, flashlights, and blankets. For people living in poverty, these basic necessities are often difficult, if not impossible, to keep in reserve, especially if there is hunger in the family. When a disaster is imminent, these same families are sometimes encouraged, but often mandated to evacuate. Yet without a car or adequate transit or evacuation systems, how are they to do so? If they are homeowners, and are uninsured, there may be an incentive to stay and protect their homes.

Kari Fulton, EJCC#039;s Campus Coordinator, at the DNC

The excerpt above is from ldquo;A Climate of Changerdquo; the report written by Nia Robinson, Director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC), and J. Andrew Hoerner, the Director of the Sustainable Economics Program at Redefining Progress and it shows the most recent data on how African Americans in particular have been and continue to be disproportionately impacted by the effects of global warming and the pollution that causes it. Just flipping through the report is an incredible experience; it delves into such needed information regarding the energy markets and unemployment, the effects that oil-related wars have on the African American Community, and how disasters, health, and the climate are all inter-related and have an enormous impact. It not only gives us a sense of where we are at and where we have been, but it shines light on how to pro-actively make a difference. And! if in case yoursquo;ve been wondering what a just climate policy looks like and how to make sure that any candidate you support or any policy thatrsquo;s on its way through has all the right elements, check out the guide, ldquo;A Climate of Changerdquo; has right there for you.

I encourage everyone to download the report and keep it by their bed-side table or their desk so as to always remain conscious of who is most at stake, and how we want to change this world so that all people and all peoples can live in peace with the world and themselves.

Also, keep on the look-out for the new urban radio program EJCC is airing weekly at noon on WCLK 91.9, ldquo;The Jazz of the City,rdquo; and live online at WCLK.com. This show will feature informative discussions of problems and solutions for healthy, sustainable lifestyles.

On August 28th, 1963 Dr. King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said ldquo;I have a dream today.rdquo;

On August 28th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina was a day away from making landfall, where it would rip apart homes and lives and show the world which communities are hit first and worst by climate change.

Today, working people all over the United States are joining the struggle for racial justice and eco-equity. From DC to Chicago, Albuquerque to Richmond, people are building an inclusive green economy.

This Thursday, August 28th (10am Pacific time) join us for a national conference call on the significance of and context for Green Jobs Now, A National Day of Action to Build the New Economy (9.27.08).

Reserve your spot right now.

A Call to Dream: The Context for Green Jobs Now

Thurs. August 28, 2008

10:00am Pacific / 1:00pm Eastern

The national conference call for Green Jobs Now, will feature:

* The Honorable Drsquo;Army Bailey, Founder of the

Civil Rights Museum

* Van Jones, Green For All President and Founder

* Gillian Caldwell, 1Sky Campaign Director

RSVP now to get the call-in information. Spread the word! All are welcome.

Cross-posted from the Breakthrough Blog.

Itrsquo;s not just about framing—“new energy jobs” are the best and only shot at bringing down the political impasse between America and the energy policy it needs.

The effort to pass a sensible climate and energy policy is not working. I donrsquo;t just mean wersquo;re not getting the right content in legislation—whether itrsquo;s trading or taxing or new investment. I want to face facts: right now there isnrsquo;t serious political support, or even interest, for an “energy bill” with climate change solutions at its heart. Not from most Democrats in Congress, and not from the vast majority of Americans, whose support is desperately needed by us climate and clean energy advocates.

This can be our crucial moment—a point of deep popular unrest over energy hikes and economic decline. In the self-righteous furor of “drill here, now” and in the sparring over loafers and houses, we see a political establishment desperate to connect with a distrustful electorate. At this sudden crossroads, both we and the defenders of the fossil economy have an incredible opportunity to define the way ahead. So now, we canrsquo;t spend one more day still trying to convince 41% of America to come to our 10% side. We have to go to them, and meet them where theyrsquo;re at.

I think we have one shot; our legislative solution cannot be a “clean energy bill” or a ldquo;climate change billrdquo; which require good economic times to stay afloat. It must be a “new jobs bill”, which—to work at all—requires sweeping change of the energy foundations of our economy.

And what do most Americans say they want, now? Cheap energy and a healthy economy have been the top political demands of the year.

This is a godsend! Isnrsquo;t it amazing good fortune that with a new energy jobs bill, we can give most people exactly the kind of answer theyrsquo;re asking for? Populism—a strategy that embraces the terms and opinions of the majority—can provide the solutions to this economic, energy, and climate dilemma.

Our Flag

Right now, no major politician has a plan to solve problems at the heart of the US economic crisis—the collapse and exile of manufacturing, the dissolution of its steady union careers, and our treacherous dependence on unstable supplies of foreign oil.

But we have that plan; a new energy economy. With 10 million new energy jobs.

This plan means real dignifying livelihoods, accessible to the most disadvantaged communities. It means a nation that knows what to expect from its future, free of the knee-weak uncertainty of foreign fossil dependence. It means streets from the small towns to the inner cities coming to life again, with the boisterous hum of new industry and a blooming middle class. It means a stronger America, once again rising in the world.

10 million new energy jobs. Savor that. It has to be our rallying flag, because it will be most vigorously waved by the people we have always had the worst time “convincing”. These are the laid-off steelworkers and the three-job moms, the folks who never had direct reason to connect with the climatersquo;s plight. Though billions for research and deployment are surely the only way to deliver the new energy economy and the climate solutions we need, we must be careful to remember that government research investment is not a flagndash;only the ground on which a flag stands. New energy jobs is a flag, and if we want a good energy policy, this flag has to be ours.

A Deeper Commitment

This plan is more than just framing: it demands that we become jobs advocates first and climate activists second. Across the environmental movement, consensus is building behind the framing of a “new energy economy”, with websites of the Sierra Club, NRDC and the DNC all extolling the jobs virtues of such a plan.

But these frames still lack potency—they feel like footnotes to campaigns trying to convince the electorate against drilling, or for cap-and-trade. In our campaigns, we must stop trying to convince others, and start telling them that theyrsquo;re already right, and that wersquo;re fighting together for the only plan that will work. We must lay claim to a simple, hard rhetoric that forces conservatives into a defensive role, as deniers of the potential of American hands and American wind. And we will have to painfully let go of any parts of our plan that donrsquo;t resonate deeply, quickly, with the very people who need this plan most.

The elegance of this plan, though, is that we canrsquo;t compromise in the wrong way; this plan binds pocketbook and climate as inseparable. Because the only thing that will make these jobs possible is a transformational energy policy. This means serious RDDamp;D, along with massive support for engineering education and job training programs. These latter programs are succeeding in the Bronx and Chicago and Oakland, and not just as skill factories—but as community-run schools that become the base for powerful local political organizing, environmental education, and social justice work.

Once this new energy bill is passed, the jobs will be here, and span an astounding number of sectors: careers in manufacturing the windmills and windows, in rebuilding and maintaining our energy infrastructure, in localizing food and goods production, in remaking our transportation and shipping networks, and in making our workplaces and cities and homes drastically more efficient. And these will be career-path jobs, true livelihoods which pay well and cannot be outsourced.

The Blue-Dog Open Door

This dream can happen right now, because itrsquo;s most of the country’s dream already. A plan for 10 million new energy jobs will become the call of the Walmart workers of Virginia and New Mexico, of the industrial ghost towns of Ohio and Michigan, of union truck drivers on strike. And these voices will carry in the crucial votes of their moderate “Blue Dog” Democrat representatives, and shape the policy of a certain half-Kenyan presidential candidate who needs these swing states to win.

These moderate Democrats are populists, and know they only succeed by meeting people where theyrsquo;re at. They will see that a new energy jobs plan is an incredible way to build and unify the party. Therersquo;s no other way to achieve our goals than to have moderate Democrats—maybe half of the party—vote in “the new energy jobs plan” as the best way to serve their constituentsrsquo; economic demands. So, herersquo;s looking at you, B.O., Harry Reid, and Rahm Emanuel—a new energy economy we need, want, and can do.

Best of all, therersquo;s nobody to convince. Wersquo;re already on their side.

Cross-posted from the Breakthrough Blog and WattHead - Energy News and Commentary..

With Americans focused on energy prices as never before, a game-changing shift is occurring in the American political climate. The time has come for climate and clean energy advocates to adopt a new strategy and policy agenda. Next year will see the inauguration of a new president, a new Congress, and a new international agreement on global warming. The moment is far too urgent to fall on our swords for a cap-and-trade agenda developed in an entirely different political environment.

Therersquo;s one thing at the top of Americansrsquo; minds these days: energy prices. Prices at the pump have been hitting Americans hard for months now, and an overwhelming majority (87%) do not foresee things getting any better before the end of the year. As of June, concern for energy prices eclipsed the Iraq War as #2 on the Gallup monthly poll of top American concerns (just behind concerns over the ailing economy). And as Republicans and Democrats enter their conventions still sparring over oil drilling, energy is now the #1 election issue.

All of this paints a very clear picture of where Americans are at: they are focused on their pocketbooks, grimacing every time they head to the gas station to fill lsquo;er up.

This new focus on energy prices is a game changer for the world of energy and climate policy.



On the one hand, these developments spell Trouble-with-a-capital-T for politicians and environmentalists pushing a climate-centered agenda and policy solutions aimed at capping and pricing carbon to reduce emissions. At a time of extreme sensitivity over energy prices, we cannot hope to price our way to deep reductions in global warming pollution.

On the other hand, energy now lies at the forefront of the American political environment in a way that it hasnrsquo;t been since the Oil Shocks of the 1970s. This opens up a unique but urgent opportunity, a chance to advance a robust and bold new policy agenda centered on energy solutions.

Newt Gingrich and his ldquo;American Solutionsrdquo; organization clearly recognized this opportunity. Their ldquo;Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Lessrdquo; petition garnered over 1.2 million signatures in a matter of weeks. This ldquo;drill here, pay lessrdquo; meme has been so successful, GOP strategists now think energy might be the Republican partyrsquo;s last best hope this election season.

In response, environmentalists and Congressional Democrats scrambled to lsquo;block and tacklelsquo; and stop the gathering momentum to simply Drill! Drill! Drill! for more oil. With drilling opponents beaten up by the ldquo;drill here, drill nowrdquo; push, a compromise proposal seems increasingly likely.

Meanwhile, the push for climate policy seems to be on hold, as climate advocates attempt to regroup from the defeat of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Once touted as a bipartisan proposal, the cap-and-trade bill ran into a Republican filibuster in June and failed to secure the support of at least ten Democratic senators. After the repeated failure and declining support for cap-and-trade in Congress, environmentalists and Congressional leaders are surely debating what the next move should be.

Itrsquo;s time to recognize that these two conversations - how do we halt the push for more oil drilling and how do we advance a new climate strategy - are really the same conversation. The question at the heart of both discussions is this: how do we meet Americans where they are at and give them compelling solutions to our mounting energy crisis?

In todayrsquo;s new political context of economic insecurity and energy price spikes, we must provide Americans with what they want: credible promises of affordable, abundant energy.

That calls for a critical pivot away from a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and halting climate change and towards a new focus on making clean, cheap American energy sources a reality.

Itrsquo;s time to get serious about winning the frame game and make the critical pivot to a new message, a message that sounds something like this:

Oil is hurting our economy. Coal is poisoning our air. Both are threatening our climate and our future. Itrsquo;s time to make clean energy cheap and abundant. Which would you rather invest in? Coal and oil - the old, dirty, expensive stuff? Or clean, cheap, new American energy sources? Which will power Americarsquo;s future?

Americans are crying out for new energy solutions. They are hurting at the pump and ready to turn to anyone who can offer a credible path forward. Gingrich beat us to the punch, but the game isnrsquo;t over.

Support for drilling as the solution to our energy woes seems to be pretty shallow, especially once alternatives are presented. We want somebody to do something, so in the absence of any compelling alternatives, the ldquo;drill here, pay lessrdquo; meme is kicking our butts. But Americans arenrsquo;t stupid. We understand that the old stuff really isnrsquo;t working very well and that more of the same will not relieve the strain on our pocketbooks.

If climate and clean energy advocates consistently position the dirty, old, expensive, poisonous stuff on the one hand and present compelling examples of clean, new, renewable, stable, secure and affordable energy sources on the other hand, I think the choice for Americans will be pretty clear and easy. I also canrsquo;t think of anything else that will work!

This pivot goes far beyond just fighting off a push for drilling and far deeper than simply adopting a new messaging veneer on top of the same old policies. It goes right to the core of our entire energy and climate agenda.

This kind of message - ldquo;make clean energy cheap and abundantrdquo; - is incompatible with a policy agenda that expects unrestrained carbon prices to do the heavy lifting in igniting a clean energy future - i.e. a ldquo;hardrdquo; cap-and-trade program without provisions to control the price of carbon. One could conclude that we should shy away from this new message and find one more consistent with the carbon pricing-based policy agenda that has been the focus of climate advocates for so long.

The conclusion I reach, however, is the exact opposite: we donrsquo;t need to abandon the ldquo;clean, cheap energyrdquo; message in favor of cap-and-trade; we need to make this change in focus about more than just our message.

If we want this message to stick - and I believe the success or failure of our entire effort to advance a clean energy future may hinge upon that success - we need to adopt a policy framework thatrsquo;s actually in synch with our message. We need a policy agenda focused on developing clean and cheap energy for every American. If we donrsquo;t, wersquo;ll soon find ourselves incoherent and inconsistent, and our message will fail when the public sees that.

The time has come to advance a compelling and effective set of solutions focused on making clean energy cheap and abundant, not making dirty energy expensive and scarce.

Gorersquo;s clean energy ldquo;moon-shotrdquo; speech was (almost) dead-on. He shifted the focus from climate change to the energy challenge and from reducing emissions to increasing clean energy production. Whether we make this transition to 100% clean energy in ten years, twenty, or longer, I think the timetable is far less important than the overall thrust of the message: wersquo;re going to make your energy cheap and clean and secure. And who wouldnrsquo;t want that?



Irsquo;m sympathetic to arguments that failing to price global warming pollution at itrsquo;s full societal cost is simply economically inefficient. And I understand that principles of justice would call for a push to make ldquo;polluters pay.rdquo; However, as we develop our new suite of clean energy solutions, we must make sure that our policy is built as if politics actually mattered. Our ultimate success depends less on appeals to economic efficiency and principles of justice than it does on our ability to meet Americans where they are and overcome the vagaries of the U.S. Senate.

This new policy platform should be centered around a new national project of strategic investments necessary to spark a clean energy economy and develop cheap and clean energy for every American. Carbon pricing and regulation play a role here, but they cannot be the top-line items when it comes to messaging, nor are they likely to do the heavy lifting that unlocks our clean energy potential.

A policy like this is really the only way wersquo;re going to pass something in a political climate of high energy prices and economic insecurity, and the only way wersquo;ll enact a solution set that gets the job done.

Next year will see the inauguration of a new president, a new Congress, and a new international agreement on global warming. The moment is far too urgent to fall on our swords for a cap-and-trade agenda developed in an entirely different political environment than the one that exists today. Nor do we have time to just make Americans care enough about global warming to act.

What we have is a unique moment of opportunity when Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about energy and about energy prices, and hungry for new solutions. If we can credibly advance ldquo;make clean energy cheap and abundantrdquo; as an alternative to the ldquo;drill here, pay lessrdquo; crowd, we can win the battle. In fact, itrsquo;s probably the only way we can win.

Flanked by Majora Carter, Jessy Tolkan, Billy Parish, and Kal Penn, Erica Williams of Campus Progress kicked off today’s College Democrats of America’s panel on climate change at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO.

A more accomplished panel speaking on behalf of the youth climate movement would be near impossible to put together. (photo right: Kal Penn signing the Power Vote pledge)

The panelists began by speaking a bit about their personal stories which led to their work in the clean energy movement. It was a particularly poignant and important starting point as it provides the backbone for the extraordinary nature of what the panelists are doing throughout the United States.

Billy Parish – a co-founder of Energy Action Coalition – described the point at which he knew clean energy would be his life’s work. It was a trip to India. “The moment I knew…was when I hiked to source of the Ganges and saw the glacier there from which 450 million people get their water - and which scientists talked about being gone in a very short amount of time. While I first thought my work would keep me in India, I then thought about my own country (the United States) which uses 25% of the world’s energy, and the changes that needed to be made here.”

Kal Penn – an activist as well as an actor in such films as The Namesake and Harold and Kumar, and on the popular television show House – is pursuing a masters in international security, and early on found that so many of the important factors related to security were also related to energy. Penn, like Parish, consequently became interested in the ways that the world’s highest energy consumer (the U.S.) could implement changes. When asked how his role as an actor could impact the opinions of young people towards energy, he referenced the launch of the Toyota Prius. When the Prius first came out, it was people like Leonardo DiCaprio who made it as strong a status symbol as a Mercedes among the wealthy and trend-setters. He was also quick to add, though, that while celebrity endorsements can be helpful, they are often empty and need to be backed up by the bold initiatives of grassroots efforts.

Majora Carter - founder of Sustainable South Bronx and co-founder of Green For All - shared the story of those in the South Bronx where she works. She challenged policy makers and analysts to take a deeper look at the real cost of having an environmentally impoverished community – saying we need to look at it from all angles including economics, security, and health. Her charge (and her work) is to empower the economically challenged to be on the front lines of the green movement, to not only lead the green charge, but to also pull people out of poverty.

“It’s in all of our self-interests to think about the ways we can mitigate climate change …and it’s not just changing light bulbs. Until we as a society realize that it’s going to take EVERYONE to create a new, green economy, we won’t get there.”

The discussion was lively and challenging, with questions from the crowd addressing controversial topics like oil man T. Boone Pickens’ wind energy initiative and the high cost of gasoline.

A main point made by Energy Action executive director, Jessy Tolkan, is that there is still a problem on college campuses across the country with the same old folks being involved. As great as it is when anyone takes any positive action, “5-7 white kids who come at these issues from an environmental perspective, is not enough to create the kind of revolution that we need.”

Similarly, the point was made that we enviros and energy advocates have to preach beyond the choir; that is to say: Power Vote and similar efforts need to reach those for whom the environment is not a top priority .

We need to communicate “where is the ‘there’ that we’re going” to more people remarked Erica Williams. It’s clear that “policy makers don’t really care about our issues. At least not enough so far to take bold action. How do we change this insider-activist ballgame into real action among the non-committed?”

This is an extraordinarily important question, and one that will continue to be addressed throughout the next several days here at the Democratic National Convention.

What are your ideas?

IGHIH is reporting from the sweet new media building a few blocks from the Democratic Convention called The Big Tent. This week you can expect a variety of dispatches from the bloggers stationed here, on the Convention floor, and at various happening around Denver. Below is the first of many posts covering the climate change panels that the hosts of The Big Tent have put together.

Van Jones: Nothing Radical Here

Big Tent is playing to a select audience of activists and journalists. We don’t need the basics, dire warnings of impending doom, or lofty rhetoric about the need to work together. Oakland area activist Van Jones wastes no time getting to the heart of how clean energy can be sold as a pragmatic solution in the current political climate, and he does so by tipping his hat to everyone’s favorite capitalist, Adam Smith.

The central premise of Van’s presentation is that establishing a green collar economy is perfectly consistent with the traditional American economical model. “The other side has climate destroying solutions,” he notes, “but by playing on our economic fears, they are winning the debate.” For anyone exposed to the harsh political attacks associating a green economy with higher taxes, higher energy bills, and a lesser quality of life, the ease with which Van distills the green economy to cutting demand, diversifying supply, and creating jobs is refreshing.

For example, he explains, weatherproofing homes, particularly for elderly folks in rural areas, immediately cuts heating costs and creates green collar jobs. Developing mass transit programs similarly cut energy costs and create jobs. A comprehensive solarization program would not only cut demand for carbon fuels, diversify supply and create green collar job, but also create legions of entrepreneurial opportunities. Finally, in speaking to the job creation the green collar economy would supply in both poor urban and rural communities, Van thundered, “the unemployed don’t just need a paycheck, they need a purpose!” The green economy model will challenge the way politicians think about the poor and the unemployed by giving them a chance not just to pay their bills, but participate in meaningful work no matter how hard their struggles have been.

Van’s second great skill, as you may have gathered, is an oratorical eloquence that takes a somewhat stilted phrase- “green collar economy” – and keeps it lively until you’ve heard it out. Just when you start to tune out (this is a panel, in a hot room, at ten in the morning, after all), Van delivers memorable phrases like “turning pollution into solutions”, “vulture culture”, “acting like crackheads for carbon,” and “taking death (carbon fuel) and blasting it into the sky.” Don King he is not- each catchy phrase is followed by serious analysis, a perfect juxtaposition for activist speakers to master.

Van concluded that the first political step is to acknowledge that “government today is on the side of the problem, providing tax credits to polluters, the Pentagon and the prison system- we need to incentive the problem solvers who use the wind and the sun.” There is nothing radical here. For those in the activist community who have felt beaten back for so long, know that you aren’t just on the side of social responsibility and justice. You’re also on the side of common sense, any way you spin it.

Irsquo;d like to introduce you all to a project Irsquo;ve been hard at work on.  Itrsquo;s called The Trek to Re-Energize America, itrsquo;s a bike ride, and it has the potential to create a massive groundswell of support for real, serious climate action from our new president and congress.

The Trek to Re-Energize America is a bike ride to D.C., starting from wherever you happen to be at the time.  Riders will depart for D.C from all across the country, leaving from their home states and sweeping up media attention and grassroots support as they go.  Many of you have already heard about the Trek as Irsquo;ve had the pleasure of talking to youth leaders in the movement across the country this summer.

So, why a bike ride? Because we need to start thinking outside of the box.  This is not a typical partisan political issue and we canrsquo;t continue treating it like one.  PSArsquo;s, slick ads in hip magazines and blog posts are not going to build this movement to where it needs to be in the small timeframe we have.  It is going to take real, on the ground action from a lot of people in a lot of places.  Hence, the obviousness of a bike ride.  Itrsquo;s been done before and itrsquo;s happening again in a few weeks, but we need to start thinking bigger.

The Trek tackles one of the fundamental problems of our movement, and that is momentum.  Rallies and conferences are great and vital, but they are not necessarily movement builders.  They can be great media events, but they also fall prey to ldquo;flash in the panrdquo; problems. The Trek will take place in the summer of 2009 and will travel across the country, building grassroots support and media attention until converging on D.C at the end of July for a huge day of rallying and lobbying.  And trust me, if you bike thousands of miles to talk to someone, yoursquo;d be amazed at how much more receptive they can be.

Wersquo;re excitred to launch the Trek website today and to start building the coalitions and support that the Trek will need to be succesful.  Wersquo;ll need everyonersquo;s help to make this a success and we hope to hear from you soon.  E-mail contact@trektoreenergize.org if yoursquo;d like to get involved.

08.21.08

4:30 PM

It’s already proving to be an adventure since I’ve returned from an awesome week in the capital of Minnesota. Power Vote training turned out to be the best thing that happened to me this summer and I didn’t even see it comin’. Blessings in disguise right? I remember when Mike first told me that there would be a training way out in Minnesota for the Power Vote Campaign. I was like WHAT! Which of course when I made the invite to other potential trainees they were like…

“WHAT!… MINNESOTA? I ain’t goin’ to no Minnesota.”

That’s some of the problem here in Chester. People don’t like to go DIFFERENT places much. The destination must be predictable or clearly recognizable to their sense of comfort. But then again I guess that’s not just a Chester problem but a human problem.

So I decided to cross the line of my personal comfort zone. I went to MINNESOTA! That’s right folks I was in Minnesota for the first time and probably not my last. (There are plenty on this blog who witnessed my attendance) I drove along with two other great partners Rob and Amy. The ride was 20 hours. Trying to get sleep was an adventure. I found myself practicing involuntary yoga positions in order to get comfortable inside of our small ride but it was all-good. I got a chance to see tons of beautiful stars filling the sky. No bright street lights to drown them out. They were right there. The moon did it’s best to show off it’s borrowed glory from the sun.

It was during the car ride that I began to get “that feeling” like something incredible was happening. I felt this way for the entire week there. An awakening was in the works. There are tons and tons of awesome things that took place during that training week but I don’t have time to get into that right now becausehellip;

I’m on my way to a very important public meeting here in Chester at City Hall @ 5:30. The city is in the process of urban development aka urban renewal aka city planning aka gentrification. And all the while the environmental hazards that could come flooding out of all this development are many. The current concern is with the Soccer Stadium which will be built right on top of a site that once had one of our nations worst chemical fires. The WADE dump. It is not completely clear as to how much needs to be done to the soil since that horrid fire in 1978. The term that is being thrown around is “environmental remediation.”

Actually I better go. I’ll have more on what’s up. Carol and I are videotaping the planning committees response to our questions and so forth. So check back in tomorrow.

Herersquo;s the infomercial we put out over the web using my personal local contacts list: LINK

Irsquo;m in Minneapolis, shortly before the 2009 Republican National Conventionhellip;and the gigantic protest spectacle here to greet it. But I donrsquo;t think Irsquo;m even going this year. Not to dis all the good folks who will be pouring into town in the coming week to express their dissatisfaction with that last 8 years of the Bush regime, Irsquo;m just not sure what my role would be beyond feeling some catharsis in screaming my politics real loud.

4 Years ago I was in New York City gearing up to protest the same convention. The logic of our message was compelling: the Republicans were trying to exploit the memory of 9/11 by holding a convention in NYC, and we were going to expose their fearmongering. New Yorkers overwhelmingly wanted them as far away from their city as possible. It was a great narrative to tell the U.S. public.

Within hours I ended up in handcuffs on a curb, baking in the hot sun. My crime? Riding my bike. Legally. The officer explicitly told me ldquo;yoursquo;re being arrested for exercising rights you thought you had, but I guess you didnrsquo;t have em, didja?rdquo; I guess not. They took hundreds of us to a toxic, chemical-oozing bus depot called Pier 57 and held us in detention. I left with my body covered in a rash. I still have a pending lawsuit against the NYPD. At that moment I was more disillusioned with street protest than I had ever been - I saw my fellow arrestees wearing their day-in-jail as a lsquo;badge of honorrsquo; - like some kind of protest cred. I kept reminding people that getting captured, in most cultures, is seen as a bad thing. It was embarrassing. I wasnrsquo;t sure what the point of expressive protest was anymore. I have since softened up, and I do admit that my heart sings when I see large diverse groups of people demonstrating their power using public space, even if it has no instrumental or concrete goal.

In The Nation yesterday, Michael Gould-Wartofsky wrote an article called The Party Crashers. Its a well written survey piece, getting a pulse of the youth movement protesting the RNC and the DNC. Irsquo;m quoted. What I was trying to express was the basic intention of organizing being relevant to society, rather than simply antagonistic. Symbolic protest can have meaning, but only if it engages our political moment. Unfortunately, it seems like much of the convention protests this year are approaching this election like all the others. The articlersquo;s tagline asks ldquo;In the age of Obama, is street protest still relevant?rdquo; My answer is that it can be, if we think differently than we have been. While dissent in the streets is healthy for any democracy, savvy dissent can help move whole society forward. Even though in The Nation article I talk about the role of activists engaging the current progressive wave and ldquo;pulling it to the leftrdquo;, I may have confused readers with my use of the word ldquo;leftrdquo; - all I mean is that community-based organizers, who have their feet rooted on the ground and dirt under their fingernails, have a crucial role to play in grounding our new progressive majority in the needs of oppressed communities from Appalachia to New Orleans, in orienting a politics that is accountable to people and creates long-lasting, systemic change. Anyway, check out the article below.

THE PARTY CRASHERS

Michael Gould-Wartofsky

At some point during the upcoming Republican National Convention, delegates will look out the windows of the Xcel Energy Center, or down from swank hotels and grand old after-parties, and there, past the security fences and the legions of taser-toting police and private security guards, they will see the other America spilling into the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota.

That is, if the Republicans even make it that far. From September 1-4, the RNC will be besieged by a panoply of protestersndash;including antiwar activists, Iraq War veterans, Hurricane Katrina survivors, immigrant workers, labor unionists, anarchists, environmentalists, feminists and queers. At the frontlines will be Americarsquo;s young dissidents who will walk out of class, lock down intersections and dance in the streets to ldquo;Funk the War.rdquo;

The view from Denver at the Democratic National Convention at the end of August will look a little different. Thatrsquo;s because in the age of Obama many of these same movements, so united against the RNC, are deeply conflicted over the Democrats and the party system itselfndash;perhaps none more so than the youth movement. At issue, say organizers across the country, is not only their relationship to the Obama campaign and the presidential elections but the very meaning of democracy in 2008. Is true democracy possible inside the party system and on the campaign trail? Or is democracy to be found and made by the people in the streets outside? Will the two ever meet?

Not if the conventioneers have their way. Uncredentialed activists are to be fenced off and kept away from the Pepsi Center in Denver by parking lots the size of football fields. The protesters descending on the RNC will be cordoned off into designated ldquo;free speech zones,rdquo; guarded by thousands of police officers to the tune of $50 million at this ldquo;National Special Security Event.rdquo;

The streets will also be haunted by the ghosts of conventions past, from the cracking of skulls at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago to the pre-emptive arrest and detention of nearly 2,000 protesters at the 2004 Republican convention in New York City. Like their predecessors outside those arenas, this yearrsquo;s dissidents have come to see the party conventions, advertised as the ultimate showcases of American democracy, as exhibits A and B of the nationrsquo;s deficit of democracy instead. And they cast themselves in opposition, as the keepers of the flame.

ldquo;It really will be a collision of opposites,rdquo; says Minneapolis activist Katrina Plotz when asked about the RNC, which she is organizing against with the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War. ldquo;A scripted and sanitized spectacle for a homogenous group of wealthy elites inside the convention hall versus a thriving, organic movement of the masses outside.rdquo;

Perhaps the starkest contrast will be between the plutocrats of the Grand Old Party and the Poor Peoplersquo;s Economic Human Rights Campaign, a coalition led by poor and homeless families fighting for the right to housing, healthcare, education and a living wage. They will be camped in a ldquo;Bushville,rdquo; a tent city evoking the Depression, and setting out on the March for Our Lives. ldquo;Itrsquo;s to say to the whole country, lsquo;We are here,rsquo;rdquo; says Minneapolis native Rickey Brunner, who, at 16, has become a spokesperson for the group. ldquo;We plan to show that this is a crisis, this is something that needs to be looked at with a little more urgencyhellip;. We donrsquo;t have enough housing. We donrsquo;t have enough healthcare. And itrsquo;s killing the people.rdquo;

The RNC for many has become a symbol of everything the protesters believe is wrong with America. They are moved to action by all-too-familiar litany of injusticesndash;the occupation of Iraq and beyond, class war and racism, sexism and homophobia, torture and repression, corporate power and the climate crisis, rising tuition and an economic bust thatrsquo;s hitting this generation hard. Yet what they have in common, beyond a penchant for ruckus and a loathing of the GOP, is a persistent belief in democracy from below, in the power of ordinary people to transform the conditions of life in this country and worldwidendash;a power they believe must be exercised in the street, not just in the voting booth.

ldquo;Democracy is not waiting to vote once every four years. Democracy is getting out in the streets,rdquo; says Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, a 24-year-old member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) who refused orders to deploy to Iraq this June and now plans to show up to the conventions with IVAW. ldquo;They [the politicians] are not gonna do it by themselves. Wersquo;re gonna force their hand, because that is the nature of democracy.rdquo;

The dissent at the Democratic National Conventionndash;though less ldquo;massrdquo; than at the RNC, especially after the recent withdrawal of some national organizersndash;is set to feature events like an open-air Festival of Democracy, a Restoring Democracy Parade and a base camp with free housing and medical care, organized by groups like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Alliance for Real Democracy, the Recreate lsquo;68 Alliance and the immigrant coalition the We Are America DNC Alliance.

Activists with these groups report getting the critical questions from their friends and peers about plans to protest Denver: ldquo;Especially now, with a candidate who talks a lot about hope and change, people talk about, lsquo;Why do you need to protest?rsquo; rdquo; says Zoe Williams, a local organizer with Code Pink: Women for Peace and a spokesperson for the Alliance for Real Democracy. Her answer? ldquo;I think that we need to define what hope and change are. We need to decide what that means to us as a people.rdquo;

Even among the activist crowd, there are those who hope the youth movement outside the convention will join with those inside to toast the ldquo;new erardquo; they believe the Obama campaign representsndash;as well as hold Obama accountable and engage the hundreds of thousands of newly politicized young people who have joined in the campaign. ldquo;For people who are disenfranchised by the system, some of them for the first time are being motivated into politics,rdquo; says Rachel Haut, a member of SDS and labor activist at Queens College who is working on the 100 Days Campaign, intended to pressure the next President during his first 100 days in office. ldquo;We want to create a broad progressive movement that can invite these newly politicized people in. And we want to create a campaign that can take that beyond the voting booth.rdquo;

Organizers like Haut feel the stirrings of a new youth movement, newly mainstreamed. Some say itrsquo;s about the power of the stories that are told on the campaignndash;and about what stories will be told at the conventions. Madeline Gardner, an activist from the Twin Cities who now organizes with the Energy Action Coalition, sees a political opening for movements like hers: ldquo;The story Obama tells, about how wersquo;re gonna change this world by regular people taking action,rdquo; she says, ldquo;creates more space for social movement organizing in a way we havenrsquo;t had since the rsquo;60s. I would like to see the conventions and the protests around them take full advantage of that opportunity.rdquo;

That sentiment is shared by Joshua Kahn Russell, an organizer with the Rainforest Action Network in the Bay Area who feels that the youth movement should ldquo;use both conventions to put forward a narrative that we are starting a new chapter in American historyhellip;. Our job is to be part of that progressive wave and to pull it to the left as much as we can.rdquo;

Still, many in the youth movement are riding on a different wave, and they do not want to be swallowed up by the one depicted in Obamarsquo;s campaign logondash;especially following what they see as his betrayals of the movementrsquo;s values. Some of them are tired of being taken for granted, whether as young people or as people of color. ldquo;Because Obamarsquo;s running, they think, lsquo;Wersquo;ve got them, theyrsquo;re coming out, theyrsquo;re gonna support Obama no matter what,rsquo; rdquo; says Troy Nkrumah, a chair of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in Las Vegas, which is convening this summer to forge a national agenda for the hip-hop generation. ldquo;Some of us arenrsquo;t so sure that itrsquo;s gonna make a difference.rdquo;

Likewise, young people like Adam Jung, a farm boy from Missouri who is helping to organize the DNC tent city with Tent State University, are questioning whether Obama and the Democrats are ever going to represent them: ldquo;The Democrats, they count on and expect our votes. Wersquo;re saying, lsquo;If yoursquo;re not representing me, I donrsquo;t have to vote for you. You need to start listening to the youth [and] the 65 percent of the people in this country who want the war to end.rsquo; rdquo;

Most determined of all are the anarchists and anti-authoritarians, as many of the youth activists describe themselves, including two of the most active groups preparing to crash the conventions: the RNC Welcoming Committee and the Unconventional Action network. Unconventional Denver organizer Clayton Dewey acknowledges that ldquo;the candidacy of Obama is a reflection of the publicrsquo;s desire for something different.rdquo; But as an anarchist, he explains, ldquo;we believe that despite the rhetoric Obama uses, genuine change will always come from the bottom up, and that means countering the system as a whole.rdquo;

ldquo;An anti-authoritarian vibe is whatrsquo;s going on,rdquo; says Carina Souflee, an activist with Anarchist People of Color and the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) at the University of Texas-Austin, who was radicalized by the immigration protests and is planning to be in the streets at the RNC. ldquo;People have learned that a top-down approach to things doesnrsquo;t work.rdquo;

To young radicals like Souflee and Dewey, the question remains one of democracy, and to them, democracy has very little to do with the 2008 presidential elections. ldquo;What we have in common is a desire to break the spell that elections have over the US left,rdquo; says a member of the RNC Welcoming Committee who goes by the pseudonym lsquo;Ann Orsquo;Nymity.rsquo; ldquo;Our message is one of direct participation in democracy, bypassing corrupt politicians who donrsquo;t represent us but instead further corporate interests.rdquo;

Still, in the age of Obama, some in the youth movement are bypassing protests that directly confront the Democratic candidate and his party, opting instead to aim their dissent at the Republicans. ldquo;The RNC is a very easy target, because they are so visibly to blame for whatrsquo;s happening in this country,rdquo; says Samantha Miller, who recently graduated UCLA and is now organizing members of DC SDS to bring the grouprsquo;s notorious Funk the War street parties to the RNC. ldquo;Therersquo;s a whole lot more energy for the RNC than the DNC,rdquo; she reports.

Thousands of youth from dozens of groups from across the country are coming together to blockade the Republican convention, using direct democracy not just as an end but as a means. Inspired by the Battle in Seattle and the global justice movement of the rsquo;90s, they are deploying a well-organized web of leaderless ldquo;affinity groups,rdquo; ldquo;assembliesrdquo; and ldquo;spokescouncils.rdquo;

Always the bete noire at a convention (rdquo;Anarchists Hot for Mayhem!rdquo; screamed a typical headline at the last RNC), this direct action wing of the youth movement has already sparked a media frenzy, along with an internal debate, over what tactics they will employ in the streets. Some activists are wary of the plans to blockade the convention. ldquo;I donrsquo;t know what to make of shutting down the RNC,rdquo; says Uruj Sheikh of New Jersey, who has worked with the War Resisters League and with the new SDS since its inception. ldquo;Irsquo;d like to see more of a consciousness raising thing. I donrsquo;t want the left to be perceived as crazy.rdquo;

Yet most activists in the Twin Cities agree that the likeliest scenario will be violence from those in blue, more than those in black: ldquo;We know that it is the police, not protesters or activists who will have the tasers, guns, rubber bullets, concussion grenades, chemical weapons, helicopters, the media spin machine and millions of dollars on their side,rdquo; says the Welcoming Committee.

The same story can be heard over at the DNC protest headquarters. ldquo;Wersquo;re just hoping that the Denver police donrsquo;t recreate the violence that happened in Chicago [in '68],rdquo; says Glenn Spagnuolo of the Recreate lsquo;68 Alliance, ldquo;since theyrsquo;re the only ones capable of doing that.rdquo;

The grouprsquo;s call to ldquo;Recreate lsquo;68Prime; at the 2008 DNC has become a point of contention all its own, even among activists born decades after 1968 and bred amid a new world order. The collective memory of lsquo;68ndash;not just of Chicago, but of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, of Black Power and womenrsquo;s liberation and youth revolts worldwidendash;persists among this generation. But while some in the youth movement may look back on lsquo;68 as a usable past, as a memory of mass democracy they can mobilize and learn from, few activists see it as a moment to recreate. ldquo;It provides inspiration and an example of what can be possible,rdquo; says Arya Zahedi of New York City SDS. ldquo;But it can also prove a disservice. If we just lsquo;recreate lsquo;68,rsquo; we will be destined to also recreate its problems.rdquo;

Not everyone is counting on the conventions, the campaigns and the protests. Not Senia Barragan, who helped found the new SDS at Brown University and in Providence: ldquo;That culture of activist summit hopping, Irsquo;m not really into that. I do think it is important to show a resistance to both parties. I just think that there are different ways that people go about doing that. And I hope we donrsquo;t lose steam over this election. Wersquo;ve got a long way to go.rdquo;

Already youth organizers are looking beyond September, even beyond November 4, 2008, and January 20, 2009. They are looking to the long haul, to the work of movement building, rooted in their communities but linked in solidarity with a global movement. For, they say, the whole world is still watching. ldquo;Our task today,rdquo; says NYC SDSrsquo;s Zahedi, ldquo;is to get to work organizing where we are, at our campuses, workplaces, and in our communities, while at the same time building links with people struggling all around the world.rdquo;

For many, this push begins by showing ordinary people, and especially young, newly politicized people, their own power beyond Election Day. ldquo;We really need to find a way to engage the people who are excited, and really do think that Obamarsquo;s gonna change something,rdquo; says DC SDSrsquo;s Miller. ldquo;We have to do a lot of popular education to say that it isnrsquo;t politicians who make real change, itrsquo;s the movements that politicians have to follow.rdquo;

Cross-posted from the Power Vote blog.

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates - the first and third richest men in the world - quietly toured Canadian Natural Resources Ltdrsquo;s Horizon oil sands project near Fort McMurray, Alberta, this week. Greg Stringham, vice-president at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, says the two men asked the industry body to give a general overview of the oil sands and Canadarsquo;s position in the energy world.

Also of note: The area the men toured is a part of Alberta where a two-headed fish was recently caught.

As reported by Treehugger, Stuart MacMillan of Parks Canada calls the fish ldquo;really unusual. The fish has an obvious abnormality. I had never seen anything like that myself before. I can’t speculate on what might have caused it.”

I canrsquo;t imagine why such a thing would happen to a fish there either. But thatrsquo;s an aside.

According to local media reports, Gates and Buffett visited the $8.7 billion (US) project on Monday where Horizon is slated to begin operations later this year.

With reserves of about 173 billion barrels, the oil sands of the regions are the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East. The regionrsquo;s producers plan to spend more than $120 billion (US) developing the oil sands as a resource (which combined with operating costs adds up to more $215bn) over the next five years, and output is expected to nearly be 2.8 million barrels a day by 2015 and 4.8 million by 2020.

Gates and Buffett were said to be ldquo;expressing curiosityrdquo; in the tar sands and perhaps considering investment.

Letrsquo;s be honest, though. If two men who make gt;$4000 per minute simply on the interest of their holdings decide to take a field trip to one of the most potentially profitable regions on earth and meet with companies considered to be blue-chip long-term investments hellip;then they are thinking of investment.

Though the stocks of the oil sands companies were hit hard earlier this summer with the brief drop in oil prices, the visit of Buffett and Gates brought the prices surging back up again.

And as the value of the companies increases we all know the parallel increasing difficulty in limiting or ceasing their operations.

That said, there are groups, organizations like Green Peace, and lawsuits out there which have made the last few months particularly tumultuous for the oil sands industry.  The industry has also been under siege by foreign governments, including U.S. mayors, who voiced concerns about the industryrsquo;s impact on air and water quality due to its level of emissions.

Whether or not the efforts of these organizations and political leaders is enough, however, remains to be seen. Certainly their efforts need support.

The ongoing development of tar sands - an energy source as dirty as coal - will greatly hinder our ability to secure a clean, just energy future.

All of us should keep this issue on our radars, and particularly for those in areas with tar/oil sands, work against this environmentally detrimental development through Pover Vote and other campaigns.

In Las Vega$ yesterday, Citibank Mucky Muck and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin showed up at the National Clean Energy Summit to give a keynote speech on our floundering economy and how a good energy policy can help alleviate the problems.

The only problem was that Citi is not the best representative of a true clean energy economy. They fund twice the amount of coal as their next closest competitor. The biggest funder of coal from the cradle to the grave etc etc. you hear me say it all the time.

But after his greenwash friendly speech, Mr. Rubin opted to take few questions.

Bad move. In the audience, Rainforest Action Networkrsquo;s Global Finance Campaign Director, Rebecca Tarbotton asked the first question.

ldquo;How do you reconcile that Citi is the largest funder of coal plants around the world?ldquo;

And Rubin, the very solid one-time master of the universe, stuttered and looked completely exposed.

ldquo;Itrsquo;s a commercial institution. We have to have energy.rdquo; He then spun on about Citirsquo;s efforts to raise standards and create a new regime and blah blah. According to David Roberts at Grist, it did not look good.

She then followed up with- ldquo;Can we expect to see a quick drop-off in Citi’s investments in coal?ldquo;

Rubin replied ldquo;No.ldquo;

More questions pressed Rubin on similar issues.

I guess the corporations think if they talk green they will be in safe spaces. Obviously not.

You have the amazing opportunity to be part of a totally radical, but just plain practical new project: Getting wind farms on potential Mountaintop Removal sites. After a mountain has been blown to hell, well, itrsquo;s not so good for wind. But if we can prevent the destruction of the mountain, we can fuel our country while stopping dirty coal.  This wind farm would power 150,000 homes, provide 200 construction and more than 50 permanent jobs, and prevent 6,600 acres of mountaintop removal coal mining destruction.

The only thing cooler would be to find a way to harvest the hot air put out by coal companies trying to convince us that coal is chock full of ldquo;Clean.rdquo;Go to www.coalriverwind.org to sign the petition and learn how you can help more, and then email all your friends.

I am totally inspired by this truly grassroots effort to get some economic and energy alternatives in their community mdash; Sign the petition, volunteer, donate, join our mailing list, conserve energy in your own home and learn how you can support this landmark alternative to mountaintop removal mining at www.coalriverwind.org.

This would save Coal River Mountain for wind development, protect more than 10 miles of streams, and help to reduce global warming by preventing the release of over 80 million tons of CO2 over the next twenty years. Unfortunately, a major Appalachian coal company, Massey Energy, has already applied for 4 permits to mine this land for coal using the dirtiest and destructive form of coal mining known - Mountaintop Removal.

This is our chance to be part of a landmark decision mdash; a decision against global warming, for clean water, for a new and healthy energy economy and against the destruction of an entire mountain. Community members are working together to inform local and state government about how wind power stands as a better option. They are meeting with local leaders, union leaders, churches, and in the near future, the state and even national government in order to ask them to support Wind Energy and deny the mountaintop removal mining permits on Coal River Mountain.

Please help us save one of West Virginiarsquo;s finest mountains.

Burying a ldquo;take actionrdquo; link at the very bottom of a blog post is a horrible way to generate Internet activism.  So instead of having you read this whole post before you finally find out how to email the Oregon DEQ and tell them to shut down the Boardman coal plant, Irsquo;ll give you the email address now: bartcomments@deq.state.or.us Details on the issue are, of course, below.

Irsquo;m sitting in a non-air conditioned building in a Portland suburb, on the third day of the Portland arearsquo;s worst heat wave since 1994; in other words, global warming is sounding even less attractive than usual.  More importantly, though, on the desk beside me is an Oregonian editorial about the Boardman Coal Plant - the only major coal plant in Oregon, and our statersquo;s largest stationary source of greenhouse emissions.

I have to admit, Irsquo;m disappointed.  The editorial, ldquo;Finally, a plan to clean up the coal plant,rdquo; applauds an Oregon Department of Environmental Quality proposal to ldquo;clean uprdquo; certain pollutants from the Boardman plant over the course of ten years.  The Oregonian editors seem to feel the DEQ is standing up to big polluters and doing what it should to reduce pollution from coal; what they fail to grasp is that the DEQ plan calls for a reduction in mercury, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxides from Boardman, but seems to do nothing to address the most important greenhouse gas of all: carbon dioxide itself.  If you believe, as I do, that ldquo;carbon sequestrationrdquo; at coal plants is an expensive farce, then wersquo;re left with only one alternative: itrsquo;s not enough to ldquo;clean uprdquo; Boardman - the coal plant must be completely shut down.

Is the idea of shutting down - rather than cleaning up - the Boardman plant by 2018 simply unrealistic and naive?  A few months ago, most people would probably have said it was.  But now Al Gore, a politically respectable figure, is calling for a complete nation-wide phase-out of fossil fuel energy in ten years; and since itrsquo;s Al Gore, rather than you or I, who said it, people are beginning to listen.  I find it ironic that phasing out fossil fuels in ten years would mean the elimination of coal by 2018 - precisely the year that the DEQ plans to have Boardman ldquo;cleaned uprdquo; in a minor way, but still spewing greenhouse gases.  If wersquo;re really going to make our nation more secure and our environment safe and stable, a ten-year time frame is what we should be looking at; it makes no sense to talk about ldquo;cleaning uprdquo; coal in ten years, when we need to eliminate it entirely.

Therersquo;s more.  At first glance, shutting down Boardman sound unrealistic.  But by the Oregonianrsquo;s own admission, installing technology for the already-proposed cleanup will require the plant to be temporarily taken off the energy grid anyway, until installation is complete.  This of course will raise energy rates for a while; but since the DEQ would let Boardman back on the grid once controls for nitrous oxides and other chemicals were in place, the jump in prices would do nothing to actually reduce emissions of the main greenhouse gas - carbon dioxide - in the long term.  Why not do this instead: plan to have Boardman permanently off the grid by 2018; put Portland General Electric and other utilities on notice, so they will begin investing heavily in renewable energy now in preparation for Boardmanrsquo;s closure; rather than putting ratepayers through a temporary hike in energy prices and then depositing them back on the unstable fossil fuel bandwagon, follow initial rate increases with a transition to purely renewable energy, helping to stabilize Oregon energy prices in the long term.  And permanently eliminate the planet-warming behemoth that is the Boardman plant.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is currently accepting comments on its proposal for the Boardman plant.  Email the DEQ at bartcomments@deq.state.or.us to tell them we need to shut down, not ldquo;clean uprdquo; the Boardman plant by 2018!

I just got back from seven days that reminded me why youth are gonna save the world. I had the privilege of helping train and learn from 200 brilliant young organizers in Minneapolis Minnesota at the Energy Action Coalition Power Vote camp.

It was the most fluid and well organized training I had ever been a part of. More striking than the hard organizing skills, the web2.0 tech saavy, the smart message, strategic approach or visionary ideas, was the overwhelming sense of being called to duty.

Over and over again I heard college students telling stories about how something deep inside of them is telling us that our planet - our ecosystems, our economic, and social systems - is on the brink of collapse, and that itrsquo;s our generational challenge to steer our society and world back to sanity.

One of the most enduring metaphors of the week was shared by a young organizer: when a caterpillar is about to encase itself in a cocoon it becomes over-consumptive. It eats more than its share of leaves on the tree and grows fat and sluggish. At the moment of its developmental excess, a group of specialized cells called “imaginal cells” gravitate toward one another and find each other. Even though they are in the minority, they flow through the “nutritive soup” that has become of the rest of the caterpillar, and then they steer the caterpillar’s development until it eventually breaks through its cocoon as a butterfly.

I had heard activists of various kinds share this metaphor before. But never had I seen it catch with such resonance as this week. It struck a deep chord with participants, who were grounded in their knowledge that this is our moment and our movement. These young folks are helping usher in a new era of civic engagement with revolutionary ideas like climate justice, clean energy, sustainable communities, economies, and self determination.

The current call-to-action is called Power Vote. The idea is to build a youth voice to hold our leaders accountable by getting 1 million young people to pledge making climate a priority in the presidential election AND afterwards…

That in itself would be a remarkable feat. But we’re not stopping there. With our ‘organizer hats’ on, we see these elections as an opportunity: right now everyone in our country is talking politics. We view the elections not as an end in of themselves, but as a chance to build connections between young progressives across the country to join the youth climate movement and engage in work long after the elections. We’re leveraging our political moment to build lasting power from the ground up, strengthening local organizing across the country where it matters: in our communities.

Many students told me that for the first time, they genuinely feel a part of a movement. The energy was infectious and boundless. Trainers from Wellstone Action!, Energy Action Coalition, EAC Partners (like me!), and the Georgetown Day School Diversity Coordinators, helped set the stage for something beautiful. Folks left with hard skills in campaign and movement strategy, organizing, campaigning, electoral work, media exposure, new media, anti-oppression, and much more. In particular if you ever get the chance to experience Wellstone Action!, it may just change your life. I know it did for so many young visionaries this week

Joshua Kahn Russell is a trainer and organizer with Rainforest Action Network who currently directs RANrsquo;s Action Tank.

A guest post by Amalie Malochée for Swing Semester.

Derrick Ashong is a social media entrepreneur, musician, and voice for a generation of young people who achieved YouTube fame during this interview. He’s back with a call to action because he understands we have an opportunity to define not just this moment, but our generation.

If you’re reading this, you’re part of the wave of young people expected to make 2008 the largest youth turnout in decades. As you know, the election season itself provides an opportunity far beyond showing up at the polls. Swing Semester is not just mobilizing the Millennial generation to lead up to one November day—we harness that energy and give it direction for a lifetime. You can read more about the program here: check it out.

[Editor's Note: You can request placement at progressive and environmental organizations working to build a clean energy economy or tackle global warming. Hopefully soon, including Power Vote, working to engage a million young people to demand clean and just energy.]

ldquo;James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness, the report of my death was an exaggeration.rdquo; - Mark Twain, May 1897

Some of you may have been confused by rumors and emails lately about developments at Focus the Nation. We want to assure you, like Mark Twain, that the report of our death was an exaggeration.

Focus the Nation is very much alive, going forward as a project of the Green House Network, its nonprofit sponsor. We have a great new office in downtown Portland, Oregon - if yoursquo;re in the neighborhood, come visit!

Following the success of Focus the Nation on more than 1,900 campuses and other locations around the country last January 31, we sought feedback from campus organizers and leaders of the youth climate movement, and based on what we heard from you, we are building a program of sustained engagement with the young leaders, on campus and off, who are shaping our generationrsquo;s response to the climate crisis and the opportunities to build a clean energy future.

Here are a few of the things that Focus the Nation is up to:

• Climate Ride 2008 - Focus is participating in a climate conference on wheels September 20-24 beginning in New York City and ending with a day of action on Capitol Hill.


• 100 Days of Engagement - Green democracy everywhere! Wersquo;re working with people like you all around the country to engage every member of congress with young people to discuss clean energy priorities during the first 100 days.


• Supporting youth leaders - building on Project Slingshot, wersquo;re working to expand our support of young people making climate solutions into reality.


• Check out our Get Involved page for more ways to take action.

A teach-in was a wonderful way to engage students, professors, and staff at thousands of institutions around the country in a day of mutual learning dedicated to solutions to the climate crisis. Wersquo;ve learned from thousands of you who made last yearrsquo;s events such a success that you are ready to take the next steps mdash; on your campuses, in your communities, and in your own lives mdash; to show the world what a just and prosperous clean energy future will look like.

We plan to help our generation meet this unprecedented challenge, and to help you succeed in your efforts. Please send us an update about what you are doing, and how we can amplify your success. And, if you can do so, support us as we join forces with the youth movement that is going to shape our future.

By the way, Mark Twain hasnrsquo;t actually joined Focus the Nation. But you knew that, right?

- The Focus the Nation Team

Minna Brown, Director of Outreach

Alex Tinker, Director of Civic Engagement

Laura Westwood, Director of Development

Bill Barnes, Board Chair

Tony Dennis, Board Member

Jonas Kron, Board Member

Terryl Ross, Board Member

Indigo Teiwes, Board Member

Lisa Weasel, Board Member

Ted Wolf, Board Member

Hello,  I want to update you all on what Irsquo;ve been doing this summer.  I created my own green job and got hired by a community non-profit in North Adams, MA, to create a campaign based on the ideas of a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty, and re-thinking energy as an opportunity to improve our quality of life.  My town is predominantly working class, with high unemployment.  We had no town-level group working on any sort of environmental issue and lsquo;greenrsquo; is regarded by some as a dirty word.

Our common concern si the price of energy, especially home heating oil.  People are worried about the home heating crisis.  Many people on fixed incomes need to choose between paying for food or medication, but this winter heat has been added to the list.  I talked with many people to develop energy saving points that were most effective, most understandable, least intrusive and not tied to any income bracket (i.e. solar panels).  Then we looked at how information spreads - how do we reach thousands of people (as high as 50% or more of the population) instead of the social circles connected to environmentalists?

The result is Take Charge: The North Adams Campaign to Save Energy:

The results have been good.  After two months of work, we have a strong presence in the community, a strong core group, excellent media, and strong partners at the library, bank, fuel assistance office and elsewhere.  We were on the front page of two local papers, our internet publication and our local NBC affiliate (coverage not posted).

As a result of this hard work, I follewed up our press conference with an op-ed in the paper

One of the most iconic images of the strength of America is the World War II poster of Rosie the Riveter with the bold words, ldquo;We Can Do It!rdquo; When our nation rose to the greatest challenge it had known, mobilizing to protect democracy and the free world, our efforts brought out the best in us.

As I look at the scale of the climate crisis, I have the same feeling that the poster embodies. I am ready to roll up my sleeves and say, ldquo;we can.rdquo;

I borrowed liberally from Van Jones:

If you look at our economy, it seems like we have throw-away people to go along with our policy of throwing away energy and resources.

hellip;and I got in my lobbying point:

Whether yoursquo;re a homeowner who can Take Charge and cut your energy use 50 percent or more, or a legislator like John Olver who can work to fully fund the Green Jobs act, we applaud your efforts just as we need everyone to mobilize for the challenge ahead of us.

Building the just and sustainable future we need is going to take a lot of work.  Its going to take an army.  Efforts like this one, and better, in every town in America.  But we learn from each other, and we do it better every time.  Skills I learned at SPROG impressed the hell out of my boss.  Talks with the Summer of Solutions helped with my sense of community energy efficiency possibilities.  And the excitement of running Power Vote this fall kept me motivated through the tough parts.

If anyone would like to learn more about Take Charge and how to run a BIG and STRATEGIC energy efficiency campaign in your town, please contact me: morgan.goodwin [at] gmail and Irsquo;d be more than happy to talk.  Thatrsquo;s enough for this post though.

Happy organizing!