Crossposted from WeArePowerShift.org
On April 5-7, the Virginia Alliance for a Cleaner Environment (VACE) and CCAN hosted a leadership summit in Richmond for students from around the state to gather and develop a long-term vision for what a unified climate movement across our campuses looks like in Virginia.
This post was written by Caroline Selle who will be a senior at St Mary’s College of Maryland. It was originally posted on wearepowershift.org
In between bites of pizza and homemade peach and blackberry pie, the members of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) spent the bulk of last Saturday planning our campaign for offshore wind. Clean, job-creating, renewable energy like offshore wind is exactly the kind of resource we want to use to power our homes and our schools.
As a resource, offshore wind is kind of incredible. The wind blows relatively constantly off the coast, including at times of peak power usage. Once the infrastructure is in place, it’s almost completely free to generate wind power. Best of all, wind power is clean and renewable. It reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 and will help public health by creating cleaner air and cleaner water.
Unfortunately, last year the Maryland General Assembly failed to pass a bill that obligated major Maryland utilities to purchase offshore wind power for the next twenty years. The bill would have helped Maryland reach it’s 20% by 2022 Renewable Portfolio Standard and given wind developers the incentive to build offshore wind projects that create thousands of manufacturing, operation, and maintenance jobs during their lifespan.
This fall, the MSCC is running a campaign to make sure that offshore wind is a part of Maryland’s future. We will petition our school and community leaders to support offshore wind, because it is a way to create jobs, harness clean and safe energy, and reach our renewable electricity goals.
Past MSCC campaigns changed the way Maryland leaders looked at youth. Once again, we are going to use our combined energy, skills, and resources to change the state’s landscape and bring offshore wind to our homes.
On Sunday, April 17, hundreds of climate activists from around the region were joined by hundreds of climate activists from around the country (who were attending the biannual Power Shift conference) for CCAN’s fifth-annual Artists for the Climate. Continue reading
Watch out Capitol Hill. A little over four months from now thousands of youth from across the country will once again descend on DC for POWER SHIFT! 
Power Shift 2007 and 2009 were huge successes and life changing for the attendees. Thousands of students left the conference empowered and inspired. We made headlines with the largest lobby day on a single issue in history. We showed that our generation cares about clean energy, healthy communities, and creating good green jobs. After the mid-term elections it is clear we still have work to do. We’re angry about corporate power, about climate deniers being in office, about our future being put at risk. Together we’ll create a Power Shift by coming together behind new campaigns, training one another, supporting community projects, and making our voices heard in Washington, DC at Power Shift 2011!
You heard it here first: the Mid-Atlantic region is bringing 2011 youth to Power Shift! Last night a dozen youth leaders converged over the phone for the first of many discussions on how to make that happen. Want to join the team? Sign up here.
Of the many amazing things I get to do as CCAN’s Virginia campus organizer, one extra bit of inspiration is how often I find myself driving along a beautiful back road and am struck by the incredible views all around me. To think that in areas of Virginia those mountains and the communities surrounding them are directly threatened only makes me more anxious to reach my destination because I know that the work we’re doing around this state is going to help make the switch and create a clean energy economy here in Virginia and beyond.
I just got back from Wise County where I joined the Rrnew Collective and others from around the Southeast for “Weekend in Wise” a weekend of discussion, brainstorming and planning (plus a little dancing) about creating sustainable economic development in Appalachia. While it was the first time I saw mountaintop removal and ‘reclamation,’ the sense of determination from everyone there left me energized. Together, we’re going to create a better future for all of us.
That’s why young people from around the state have set November 18th was set as a statewide No Coal Day. It’s a Day of Action for a clean energy future because young people know it’s time for Virginia to make the switch. Join in! Email me at katherine[at]chesapeakeclimate.org
cross posted from thinkaboutit.eu
This weekend, in conjunction with 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action, more than 100 students from across the Commonwealth of Virginia converged on the campus of George Mason University in order to plan the next phase in the fight for a clean and responsible future for Virginia the United States, and the globe.
Virginia Power Shift 2009 was marked by a wide array of workshops, panels and speakers, ranging from greening your daily living, political and direct action training (with help from the folks at AVAAZ), and new and diverse ways to spread and grow the youth environmental movement.
The phenomenal lot of keynote speakers included Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Jessy Tolkan, director of the Energy Action Coalition, and Gillian Caldwell from the 1Sky campaign, all key personalities in the struggle to end human-caused climate change. Representatives from Repower America and SustainUS offered valuable insight into the role of youth within America’s nonprofit and NGO culture. Continue reading
Over a hundred students gathered at the University of Maryland, College Park over the weekend for the first ever Maryland Power Shift. The participants, from over fifteen different Maryland and D.C. schools, gathered on Saturday to participate in the 350.org International Day of Action in D.C. and on Sunday for a conference on grassroots organizing around environmental issues.
On Saturday students stood out in the crowd with green Power Shift t-shirts and led the 350.org march in DC with enthusiastic cheering: keeping everyone’s energy high. Sunday was also a big success. Students had a chance to meet fellow activists from other schools to share ideas, tips, and excitement!
Check out this awesome speach by Ethan Nuss, CCAN Maryland Campus Organizer, at the Power Shift 09 Rally on the Capitol Lawn.
It’s no secret that Virginia’s General Assembly is overly influenced by coal interests. Northern Virginia’s Dick Saslaw has accepted $85,000 contributions from Dominion Power and their investment has paid off. Over the years he has blocked any action to regulate the coal industry, and this year he even stepped up to block an efficiency bill that could have saved Virginians approximately $15 billion on electricity bills by 2025. These efforts have earned him the title, “the poster boy for the Commonwealth’s culture of coal-fired corruption” by Huffington Post. But he’s small beans compared to the federal legislators who are backed by coal.
This video by American News Project connects Monday’s Capitol Climate Acton and Power Shift to the embedded coal interests in congress. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell has taken over a half a million from the coal industry, and has blocked efforts by some congress people, including Virginia’s Jim Moran to convert the coal plant that powers Capitol Hill to natural gas.
“For every member of congress, there are four lobbyists who are working on climate change, many who are opposed to sharp carbon reductions.”
The first person I saw when I walked into the Convention Center today was Tom Owens, CCAN’s former Virginia Student Organizer. Last year he was running around UMD wearing a headband with antennas, trying to get students to sign a petition against the Wise County Coal plant. This year, with another new coal plant being planned in Surry, VA, it seems like history repeating itself. Except this time, we’re in the Convention Center, and we’re not a few thousand, we’re over 10,000. And, we’re not fighting a backward administration, we have Obama, who just a few days ago called for a cap on carbon emissions.
The huge formal rooms that house the Auto Show and corporate big wigs are now hosting the largest gathering of students in the history of the climate movement. All these students share a passion for the environment Continue reading