Watch the recording of a local grassroots meeting that took place in Northern Virginia. The meeting featured Amy Salzman, a member of the Obama administration involved in outreach on environmental issues.
Weigh in on Police Spying
Remember that time, last fall, when we found out that the police were spying on Mike Tidwell and other CCAN staffers? Well, it has now come to my attention that Governor O’Malley is being obstructionist about passing a law that protects against future violations of First Amendment rights. Take action now! 
The time is now to urge Governor O
Police Arrest Climate Protesters in Brussels
by David Sassoon, from Solve Climate 
Photographers Phillipe Reynaers and Eric de Mildt shot these pictures today of a protest in Belgium which was organized by Greenpeace to pressure EU finance Ministers to help developing nations tackle climate change. It was yet another example of the growing frequency of civil disobedience in support of climate action.
Last week in the Washington, D.C., thousands of protesters risked arrest to surround the coal-burning power plant that supplies Congress with electricity in the largest act of civil disobedience in support of climate action on US soil. The capital’s police force declined to make any arrests.
Creating a Green American Dream
Watch the video that Van Jones showed Joe Biden at last week’s meeting of the White House Task Force for Middle Class Working Families.
EPA & Clean Cars
Right now, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering reversing a Bush administration decision that has prevented California and other states from taking action to reduce global warming pollution from cars – they’re holding a hearing on this very issue today, March 5th. In addition, the EPA is taking public comment before making a ruling.
What does this mean? It means that MD, DC and the 11 other states that passed the California standard for stricter vehicle emissions can actually start implementing this law, something that was blocked by the EPA under our friend George W.
So what can you do? The We Campaign has a petition going to the EPA, showing people’s support for the California clean cars waiver. Check it out. By which I mean: take a moment to sign it – it’s another small step in the right direction.
Ethan Nuss at the Power Shift Rally
Check out this awesome speach by Ethan Nuss, CCAN Maryland Campus Organizer, at the Power Shift 09 Rally on the Capitol Lawn.
Clean Water: A blow against mountain top removal mining
In what could be a major victory for Virginia’s mountains, the Clean Water Protection Act was introduced in the Senate today with a record 115 co-sponsors. The act would outlaw the act of dumping mining waste into streams, a crucial and destructive step in mountain top removal mining.
607 Virginia students attended Power Shift this weekend, and lobbied their representatives to end the destructive practice of MTR. Many of these students are from areas in Virginia that have been devastated by this practice, which blows the tops off mountains and dumps the waste in the valleys and streams below, just to get at a seam of coal that could be only 4 inches thick. Wise County, where Dominion is planning to build a new coal plant, has already seen
Kicking Congress' Ash
By Bill McKibben, crossposted from Gristmill
Snow doesn’t dampen turnout for anti-coal rally in D.C.
The day’s scorecard:
1) Largest anti-coal action yet in the United States: Thousands and thousands of people flooding the streets around the Capitol Hill power plant.
2) Largest demonstration in many years where everyone was wearing dress clothes: The point was to stress that there’s nothing radical about shutting down coal-fired power. In fact, there’s everything radical about continuing to pour carbon into the air just to see what happens.
3) Smallest counter-protest in world’s history: By my count, the Competitive Enterprise Institute managed to muster four demonstrators for its “celebration of coal” rally, which is about the right size. (But they were kind of sweet; they had signs that said: “Al Gore, Not Evil, Just Wrong.”)
4) Number of arrests: None, zip, zilch, nada. The police said so many demonstrators showed up that they had no hope of jailing them all. So we merrily violated the law all afternoon, blocking roads and incommoding sidewalks and other desperate stuff, all without a permit or a say so. We shut down the power plant for the day. And we’d pre-won our main victory anyhow, when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid preemptively cried uncle last week and announced they weren’t going to burn coal in their plant any more.
5) Quantity of broad smiles afterwards: Almost unlimited. And in the air, there was the strong sense that we can do this. Really. What fun.
Bill McKibben, a Grist board member, is co-founder of 350.org, and author most recently of Deep Economy.
MD Senate Passes Global Warming Bill
While I was busy protesting coal in Washington DC, the MD state senate passed GGERA, a with a whopping vote of 36-9. Check out the vote count after the jump.
And last week, while I was at PowerShift 09, two committees in the House of Delegates held a hearing on the bill, which also went well.
What’s next? The House committees will hold a vote (hopefully sometime in the next few weeks), and then it’s on to the Senate floor. Overall, things are looking good, but of course, I will let you know the minute anything changes.
I also want to take a moment to send a giant THANK YOU shout-out to all of you, the grassroots activists who worked on this bill so tirelessly for the past few years. You are the ones responsible for making MD’s leadership on global warming a reality!
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Mike Tidwell, Lise Van Susteren, Gina Angiola, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Bill McKibben and James Hansen
Great photo from yesterday’s event by Chris Eichler.
