Charlottesville-Right Now: Kathy Selvage
Kathy Selvage of the Southern Appalchian Mountain Stewards joined Coy to discuss the devastating impact of mountaintop removal mining which has already destroyed more than 500 mountains across Appalachia, the oldest mountains in the world.
The following is an article written by CCAN supporter and Boucher constituent Theresa Burriss. The piece first appeared in the New River Voice.
I headed out to Rep. Rick Boucher’s town hall meeting on health care Tuesday morning with a particular purpose. I left the event with a revised one. Although I’m writing this editorial now, as I intended to do all along, the message has changed somewhat as a result of what I witnessed in the forum at New River Community College in Dublin.
I had hoped to query Boucher that morning about comments he made recently in Bristol, Va., to the Eastern Coal Council, and how they seem inconsistent with his stance on health care. So let me provide the context for these inconsistencies before I comment on the evolution of my writing.
Reporting for the Bristol Herald Courier, Debra McCown cites Boucher in her Aug. 13 article, “Boucher: Coal Profits Supersede Environmental Concerns.” After Boucher dismissed the surface mining fight as being “new [and] led by the more extreme environmental organizations [who] clearly have targeted the Appalachian states [ Continue reading
A few years back climate activists in the US organized hundreds of simultaneous events in cities all across the country for the Step it Up days of action. In so doing they took the US political dialogue about climate change the next level.
Now the same minds behind the Step it Up actions
If a 10-year-old can understand the implications of climate change, when will congress?? MELTING ICE 2009 from Lil Peppi, the self-declared “King of ECO Rap,” a 10-year-old musician and performer from Tampa and Miami, Florida. From dealing with sea level rise to battling more intense hurricanes, communities along the Gulf are at ground zero for the effects of climate change in our country. It’s great to see Lil Peppi is taking our message to the next generation and maybe someday onto a recording contract! Until then PEACE OUT! Continue reading
What will it take to clean up the Chesapeake Bay? As CCAN Director Mike Tidwell explains in this interview with NBC Nightly News, we have all the technology we need, now all we have to do is start using it.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Cross-posted from: here
Some columns and rantings out there are so bad, there aren’t enough hours in the day to address all their crazy “facts” and the conclusions they draw from them. It’s probably important to say SOMETHING about Robert Samuelson’s Washington Post column, and let others pick up other pieces. After all, with the Transportation Reauthorization funding bill coming up soon, along with Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood’s vision for a high-speed rail system, it’s important the funds are there. Continue reading
If you’re reading this post, and you’re not a right wing-nut blogger looking for something to froth at the mouth about, chances are you’re a progressive activist type who takes the democratic process seriously enough to stay informed on the issues and occasionally respectfully push and prod your elected officials on them. If that’s the case, odds are you’re also pretty appalled, disgusted, and downright frustrated with the hysterical, anti-democratic mobs and their corporate ringleaders who have attempted to hijack the debate over health care over the last few weeks.
If you’re reading this post, it’s also a big no brainer that you’re here to read about climate policy not the health care debate. Maybe you revile the tea-bagger maniacs that are turning town halls into town hells but as a climate activist you’re not going to get too worried or worked out about them until they start coming for climate policy as well. Well if that’s the case then my advice to you would be to start getting worried and start taking action.
Emboldened by the well-publicized scenes of ignorant, disruptive fury that have stifled rational dialogue over real policy at town halls over the past few weeks, opponents of federal climate change action including the American Petroleum Institute and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity have already initiated campaigns to employ the same types of anti-democratic tactics to derail Congressional efforts to pass a climate bill this fall. Last week, API launched its’ “Energy Citizens” initiative Continue reading
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Typically when I hear someone I like is going to be on Jon Stewart, I get excited. When I hear someone I like is going to be on the Colbert Report, I just get nervous. So I’m sure that Monday was a long day for Bill McKibben, who anxiously tweeted, “waiting to go on colbert–i’m sweating, and not because it’s 97 in nyc today.” Well, [SPOILER ALERT] on air to promote 350.org’s October 24 International Day of Action, I’m proud to report that Bill did just fine! He managed to get out his talking points in an uninterrupted 33 seconds, which I believe may set a record for any guest on the show.
What really caught my attention was when McKibben told Colbert, “We’re past the point where you can make the math work one lightbulb at a time.” He’s right- we need serious international commitments to cut carbon emissions and plan to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere to a scientifically safe level (350 ppm.) Our job, according to McKibben, is to “get our leaders to take the steps we need.” Luckily, 350.org is hosting a day of action on September 24 and CCAN is excited to be planning an DC action that day with some amazing other groups (mark your calendar.) Even before that, we’re gearing up for the Senate to come back from recess and get back to work. This fall we’re holding our leaders accountable. So thanks Bill for putting them, as Colbert would say, they are Continue reading
Cross-posted from: here
The University of Maryland student activist group I am currently campaign director of is called UMD for Clean Energy. In the past year we’ve worked on getting thousands of Powervote pledges, collaborated with state environmental groups to pass a state global warming bill with the strongest short term greenhouse emissions target in the country, and our most recent accomplishments were organizing(with other groups) a 300 person clean energy Town Hall meeting for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer(whose floor debate remarks are incredible), and bringing together students statewide to help turn Maryland Congressman Frank Kratovil’s swing vote on ACES into a yes vote. Our close proximity to DC gives us plenty of opportunities to lobby and have a strong presence on Federal legislation.
This past Tuesday, we delivered a letter to our Senator Ben Cardin’s office in a visit a couple of our members made to DC to meet with Cardin’s office as well as Senator Barbara Mikulski’s. The letter outlined what our group feels should be prioritized regarding improvements in the drafting of Senate legislation over the House climate bill . Although we know we have Ben Cardin’s vote, he is playing a important role on the Environment and Public Works Committee in drafting the Senate bill, and in marking it up. We would like to see the part of the bill that comes out of the EPW committee be as strong as possible, and feel that there can be improvements since the make up of the committee is fairly progressive and full of East and West coast Democrats who states are not particularly coal dependent. Letter is below, and was signed by our elected officers. Continue reading
A recent Zogby International poll reported that 67% of likely voters “believe Congress is either doing the right amount (22%) or should be doing more (45%) to address global warming. Just 28% believe that Congress is doing too much.”
That helps to explain why the American Petroleum Institute (API), along with groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Conservative Union and Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks are holding “Energy Citizen” rallies all over the country starting today in Houston, Texas. Their purpose? To “call on the Senate to oppose unsound energy policy and ‘get it right.'”
In other words, maintain our addiction to and dependence on polluting and dangerous fossil fuels.
It is critical that supporters of energy reform show up to these API-organized rallies and the ongoing town hall meetings Congress members are holding across the nation. We need to speak the truth about the necessity of strong federal legislation to address the climate crisis and jumpstart a clean energy economy!
Who will be at these rallies? A lot of them will be employees of API member groups. In a memo written by API President and CEO Jack Gerard obtained and released by Greenpeace a few days ago, Gerard urges member groups to provide “strong support for employee participation in the rallies.”
Talk about an Astroturf group!
These rallies are coming as health insurance companies, “clean coal” proponents and right-wing groups are mobilizing to try to intimidate elected officials at town hall meetings in support of their conservative agenda.
We don’t know where all the town meetings over the next few weeks are being held, but we do know where the API rallies are being held (more here):
8/18, Houston, Texas, Verizon Wireless Center, 11:30 am
8/20, Roswell, NM, Eastern New Mexico Fairgrounds, Arts and Crafts Building, 11:30 am
8/20, Greensboro, NC, Greensboro Coliseum, 5:30 pm
8/21, Lima, Oh, Veterans’ Memorial and Civic Center, 11:30 am
8/21, Farmington, NM, Convention Center at McGee Park, 11:30 am
8/22, Atlanta, Ga., Marriott Century Center, 11:30 am
8/25, Elkhart, In., RV Hall of Fame, 11:00 am
8/25, Greeley, Co., Island Grove Regional Park, TBD
8/25, Nashville, Tn., Wild Horse Saloon, 11:30 am
8/27, Bismarck, ND, National Center of Energy Excellence at Bismarck State College, TBD
8/27, Tampa, Fl., Tampa Convention Center, 5 pm
8/27, St. Louis, Mo., Hilton at the Ballpark, 11:30 am
8/31, Greenville, SC, Carolina First Center, 5 pm
8/31, Minneapolis/St. Paul, South St. Paul Hotel and Convention Center, PM TBD
8/31, Anchorage, Ak., Anchorage Convention Center, TBD
9/1, Springfield, Il., TBD
9/3, Detroit, Mi., Burton Manor Banquet and Conference Center, TBD
9/3, Richmond, Va., TBD
9/3, Philadelphia, Pa., TBD, 4:30 pm
9/5, Lincoln, Nb., Embassy Suites Lincoln, 2:30 pm
9/7, Huron, SD, Freedom Stage, South Dakota State Fair, 1:15 pm
If you live in or are close to one of these locations and would like contact information for the primary local organizer, write to me at ted@chesapeakeclimate.org. I can also suggest some creative possibilities for what you could do.
If you go to one of these rallies, leave a comment here letting us know what you are able to pull together.
Let’s stand up for clean energy and strong action on the climate crisis now!
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