The Montgomery County Council passed the nation’s first county-level carbon tax on Wednesday thanks in part to a little heckling from a group of rowdy Tea-Party protesters.
It would be hard to dream up a more delightful twist to cap off a campaign that was about as dramatic as they come in the world of county politics. Desperate to prevent what they rightly saw as a precedent that could unleash an avalanche of similar laws across the country, the Mirant Corporation
Prior to the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the average American had no idea of the scale and scope of offshore drilling operations.
Despite the Gulf disaster, no one from BP has been arrested and sent to jail. Despite safety violations at coal mines, no one from Massey Energy has been handcuffed. But today I write to inform you that one of America’s best global warming activists is probably facing several months of jail. He’s been convicted by a D.C. jury, and now he awaits sentencing on July 6th. Why? Because he peacefully dropped two banners on Capitol Hill that said: “GREEN JOBS NOW” and “GET TO WORK.”
I’m not joking. Ted Glick of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network was convicted by a jury May 13th of peacefully dropping the banners inside the U.S. Senate Hart Office Building last September. The D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office clearly has decided to make an “example” of Ted because of his previous two — count ’em, two — convictions related to peaceful acts of climate civil disobedience. Can you believe it? You can see a three-minute video of Ted’s September “crime” below. He’s the guy towards the end simply lowering the banners.
Now Ted is facing up to three years in jail. Based on the judge’s comments last week, it really does appear that he will be incarcerated for at least a month or two.
What can you do? Help spread the word about this fight to keep a morally innocent staff member out of jail during this time of great global crisis.
If Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell does it right, no one will need to fear his plan for big, offshore energy facilities along the state’s fragile coastline. If he does it right, we’ll never see a single oil spill, guaranteed. Even a major hurricane blowing through the region will result in zero pollution.
I have an urgent, important, and simple request. In short, CCAN needs your vote! As you know, CCAN and our coalition partners are working to stop a $6 billion coal-fired power plant proposal just miles from the Chesapeake Bay in the Hampton Roads area. This is a must-win campaign for our climate and our region. The mining disaster in West Virginia last month was a reminder that coal is DEADLY and NOT part of our clean energy future! We have a chance to raise $5,000 for a special project we are running this summer, but we need your vote to do it.Read about the project and vote for us- http://bit.ly/CCANfund
Instructions:
Voting closes May 15th so please take a minute to vote for us – again, you can vote up to 3 times!
Want to help out even more? Spread the word by joining our facebook event.
Questions? Contact Lauren Glickman at lauren@chesapeakeclimate.org
We have been shocked, outraged and deeply saddened by the events since the April 20th oil rig explosion in the Gulf.
Mike has been using every opportunity to spread the word that at this volume of operation, human error guarantees that BP-type spills will happen again. No new regulations will tame this beast. The only thing that will tame it is a reduction in the use of oil itself. If we don’t like massive, economy-wrecking spills, we must begin to transition rapidly to an economy where there’s just a lot less oil to spill.
In the past week, Mike’s been interviewed by Katie Couric, Diane Rehm, and syndicated columnist Clarence Page.
We’re also making sure Va. Governor Bob McDonnell knows that Virginians want Wind, Not Oil (Have you signed the “Wind Not Oil” petition yet?)!
Now we need to make sure the Obama administration hears our concerns and acts upon them.
On Saturday, 350.org supporters in New Orleans will attend a rally where they will call on President Obama to ban offshore drilling and invest in clean energy. They will sign a banner that reads PRESIDENT OBAMA: THIS IS YOUR CRUDE AWAKENING. That banner will be brought to Washington DC, where CCAN will join with 350.org to deliver it at a rally in front of the White House.
Can you join us on Tuesday from 12:30-1:30pm to march from the Interior Department to the White House and deliver the message to President Obama?
RSVP here or visit the Facebook Event Page for more details!
WHAT: Crude Awakening March to the White House
WHEN: Tuesday, May 11 12:30-1:30pm
WHERE: Meet in Triangle Park, across from the Interior Department at 18th & C St. NW
* We will depart Triangle Park at 12:45 sharp! *
This is a unique moment, and we have the opportunity to shape the national story around this terrible disaster. Do we want to just stop any new offshore drilling, or do we want to take one step farther and begin the wholesale transformation to clean, safe energy? How about some of the old “yes, we can,” spirit?
Please join us next Tuesday, and thank you for your commitment and your action.
As the Gulf Coast oil catastrophe quickly grows into one of the largest environmental disasters in United States history, Hampton Roads residents rallied in Virginia Beach today to call for a permanent moratorium on offshore drilling and a renewed focus on developing wind farms off Virginia’s coasts instead.
The Gulf Coast oil spill disaster is a tragic reminder that the price of offshore oil drilling is far too high. A similar spill off Virginia Beach could reach as far south as Cape May and reach into the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay.
Virginia is on track to become the first state on the East Coast to open its shores to offshore oil drilling following Bush-era roll back of moratoriums protecting Atlantic drilling. To demonstrate the risk posed by offshore oil drilling, we staged a mock “oil slick” at Virginia Beach’s oceanfront.
In light of the tremendous safety concerns raised by the Gulf Coast oil spill, the Obama Administration announced Thursday it was suspending hearings on a proposed oil lease sale off Virginia’s coastline. While we are encouraged by this announcement, we urge the Administration to replace the permanent moratorium on offshore oil drilling while re-doubling efforts to develop wind farms off Virginia’s coast instead.
Today’s gathering in Virginia Beach was part of a massive grassroots movement taking place around the country, of communities calling for an end to offshore drilling and the need to move towards a clean energy future. Over 50 protests nationwide are expected this week.
Of the many things lacking in the response to the BP spill, responsibility ranks pretty high on the list. From President Obama’s reluctance to reverse his decision to expand offshore drilling, to BP’s shameless attempts to play the innocent victim card, and the far right’s attempts to pin the blame on environmentalists, responsible words and actions have been in short supply. So it’s been refreshing to see at least some public figures attempting to reverse that trend.
In what could be the first inklings of a mounting wave of political push back against the reckless drill-baby-drill mentality, several political leaders from coastal states including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and six US Senators, have spoken out in defense of their states coastlines and common sense by calling on President Obama to reverse his offshore drilling decision.
Among the Senators were Maryland Senators Mikulski and Cardin, who as I noted in an earlier post, wrote a letter to Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman in March calling on the three to keep offshore drilling out of the climate bill they were working on.
That letter was unfortunately ignored, but now that the Senators have a more visible platform from which to trumpet their concerns it’s good to see that they are using it.
Even still, more is needed. Despite recognizing the unacceptable risks posed by a cavalier policy towards offshore drilling, the Senators stopped short of recognizing the unacceptable risks posed by our oil dependence as a whole. Instead they reiterated Obama’s claim “that domestic oil production is an important part of our overall strategy for energy security,” adding that “it must be done responsibly, for the safety of our workers and our environment.”
Responsibility, safety, and energy security are not terms that should be used in the same sentence as the phrase oil production, unless juxtaposed against it. Given the threats of climate change, peak oil, and the thousands of oil-related air pollution deaths that occur every year, it’s hard to see how any policy except a policy to aggressively shift us away from the use of oil, could possibly be considered responsible with respect to the safety of our workers, the general public, our environment or our energy security.
As Grist’s Jonathan Hiskes pointed out last week, there may never be a better opportunity for our political leaders to make this case to the public. We have to demand that they do so. It’s the only responsible thing to do.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency issued draft rules on the federal regulation of coal combustion waste.