Md police spied on Tidwell

UPDATE: Andrew Revkin weighs in: “Climate Campaigners Were on Terrorist List“
Pictures from the rally posted here>>

no spyingLetter from Mike:

Since 2001, I have devoted my life entirely to the peaceful promotion of windmills and solar panels to solve global warming. Apparently not everyone liked my work, however. Believe it or not, the Maryland State Police – your state police – put my name in their criminal intelligence database as a “suspected terrorist” as part of their larger program of collecting information about political activists in 2005-2006. I was on this outrageous “watch” list apparently because of a single act of peaceful civil disobedience I participated in outside a coal-fired power plant in 2004. CCAN’s former deputy director Josh Tulkin was also put in the database as was another former CCAN staffer who has chosen to remain anonymous. Neither of these people has ever been arrested for anything in their entire lives. (See background below) Continue reading

Live Stream of MD District 8 Debate

If you missed our very first live streaming event of the candidate forum held between the candidates for Maryland’s 8th congressional district you can now see the full recording here.

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Green Jobs Triumph on the Eastern Shore!

If the success of Saturday’s Green Jobs event in Cambridge was any indication, the future of climate and green energy action on the Eastern Shore is looking very bright, and we should all be very proud of what we accomplished. We got a mayor (Victoria Jackson-Stanley) and a congressional candidate (Frank Kratovil) talking earnestly about the building the green economy; we’ve developed a network of local businesses and activists, and spread our message to the broader Dorchester and Talbot communities with a big write up in the local papers.

But it’s important to remember that Saturday was just the beginning. On September 27th we proved that we can capture the attention of both the media and our local leaders

Hands in the Middle for Maryland

by Ethan Nuss

Oh yea, Power Vote‘n in MD, baby! This past weekend members of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) gathered to launch Power Vote in style, and set a stellar state goal of 40,000 total pledges! (Two Maryland High School students gathered 400 pledges in the 5 days after returning from the Mega Camp training in MN. Booyah!) The MSCC is also planning multiple coordinated Green Jobs Day of Action events across the state and looking to garnish some high profile media like the Washington Post. But wait it doesn’t stop there…. the MD students heard that the Governor and several of their US congresspeople will be doing a campus speaking tour the first week of September. Expect to see Maryland students there in Power Vote T-shirts, green hard hats, and waving signs, because I smell some sweet bird-dogging.

But before we get ahead of ourselves with the excitement of the Sunday gathering (see silly video). Let’s rewind to Friday when they got their first campaign victory. Maryland students and community members went to an in district meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings. What was the result of that meeting, you ask? They got Rep. Cummings to become the second member of congress to sign onto the 1Sky platform and commit to Green Jobs, Science based carbon reductions, and a moratorium on new coal plants. Yay! Look out Maryland elected officials because the MSCC is here to Kick this country into action!

Maryland Students Hot on the Hill

Many of us in the climate movement feel that we have the answers to the climate crisis. And why shouldn’t we? We have been doing brilliant work modeling solutions in our daily lives, on our campuses, and in our communities across the country. We know we need this localized action but also know that if we are to avoid the most devastating effects of climate chaos we need bold federal legislation to drastically bring down the dangerous levels of carbon in our atmosphere.

The real question then becomes: How many of us know exactly where our congressional elected officials stand on the issue? Do we trust them to make the right decision and vote correctly when the time comes? I know that after a decade of inaction on climate change I’m not making any assumptions. They need to hear our voices loud and clear in one unified and powerful demand for clean energy! Enter Power Vote.

To get the bold solutions we need we must engage in a new dialogue with our elected officials. For too long the conversation in congress has been dominated by the stench of the fossil fuel industry’s dirty money. It’s time to reclaim our democracy! This summer students from the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) have begun to do just that.

Maryland students have had three constituent lobby meetings with their congressional elected officials on Capitol Hill to push for the bright vision outlined in the Power Vote platform.

The first meeting was about a month ago when several student representatives of the MSCC met with a member of US Representative Steny Hoyer’s,(D-MD) staff. Rep. Hoyer will be key player in our bid for federal climate legislation because of his influential position as House Majority leader. The main message coming out of that meeting was that Rep. Hoyer is supportive of science-based carbon reductions but isn’t hearing enough of a demand to act from his constituents. His staffer also mentioned that the other US House members’ staffs are behind on their understanding of climate legislation and what the citizenry wants them to do with the cap and trade revenue. It is clear to me that the bold demands of young people will be critical to getting us there. Continue reading