Best 21st birthday present ever!

The view!

For months community members in Jenkinsville, SC have been meeting, organizing, and growing more vocal about their frustrations with the local utility that wants to build two more reactors in a community that already hosts one unit.  So when I spoke with community members who were itching to move beyond just organizing to Nuclear Regulatory Commission deadlines, we set a date two Tuesdays from that Sunday.  At the time, I didn’t realize that was the Tuesday of my 21st birthday.  When it hit me, I knew it was going to be perfect.

So last night, we met at the local park, proudly owned and operated by the same utility that owns and operates the nuclear facility in Jenkinsville.  It boasts a “scenic view,” and it sure is a view.  Down by the water’s edge are covered picnic tables, a bit of beach for the locals to enjoy, a fishing dock and right across the water sits VC Summer. Beautiful!  We gathered around one of the picnic tables, enjoyed the summer weather and a cooling breeze off of the lake.  And as we–community leaders, youth activists and other no nuke activists–plotted how to stop two more reactors from being built in this community, we pulled strength and determination from the vision of devastation that lay across the water.

A vision of economic and human health devastation.  SCE&G has stated in their own environmental report that less than 10% of new jobs will go to residents of the county let alone the surrounding community and that they do not expect any economic stimulation for the Jenkinsville area as a result of expansion.  Furthermore, cancer rates have increased since the introduction of the first reactor and many local residents live off of the land: home gardens, fish from the lake and rivers and local game, to feed their families.

So sharing that community and mutual passion, creating next steps and a plan we all worked on together, knowing that we were organizing to do something to humble that boastful and unsuspecting utility that built a park and thought their contributions to the community ended there, was the best 21st birthday gift I could have asked for.  Knowing that each one of us sitting around that picnic table was determined with our lives to stop this proposed expansion gave me goosebumps that I blamed on the water’s winds and that, in this southern heat today, I cannot excuse away.  To learn more about the community organizing efforts in Jenkinsville, email Sara Tansey at Sara@climateaction.net and stay tuned!

100s Rally, 44 arrested at Cliffside Coal Action

June Blotnick and other leaders about to get arrested. photo by Melanie Smith

44 activists young and old were arrested at Cliffside action in downtown Charlotte today.  Great action and rally through Charlotte stopping at Governor Purdue’s office, Bank of America and Duke Energy Headquarters.  Find out more about the event here and see more below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  April 20, 2009

44 Arrested for Protesting Duke’s Climate Hypocrisy
Energy Giant Talks “Green,” Then Builds More Coal Plants

CONTACTS: John Deans, Greenpeace, 919 829 5504 (c) 207 319 6850; Liz Veazey, Southern Energy Network, 919-619-5964

Charlotte, N.C.— Police arrested 44 people for participating in a protest of Duke Energy’s plans to add massive additional coal burning to the company’s Cliffside plant. Those arrested include: Jim Warren of NC Warn; Bo Webb Coal River Mountain and Mike Roselle from Climate Ground Zero in Appalachia; Larry Gibson with Mountainkeeper, and Mike McCoy-from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth; and several Rutherford County residents where the construction is underway. They will likely be charged with second-degree trespass.

Community members take back the dialogue!

If you just read the newspaper articles coming through The State paper in Columbia, you’d believe the rose colored pictures of a community opening it’s arms to welcome South Carolina Electric & Gas and their proposal to build two more (with one existing) nuclear reactors in the Jenkinsville, SC community.  You wouldn’t know that many living in the shadow of VC Summer Unit One have been organizing themselves to stop any dreamed of expansion.  But at a meeting hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, community leader and organizer Tangee Jacobs stole the show and had NRC and SCE&G representatives listening to her concerns and her questions.  And they weren’t the only ones.  The State paper finally reported the reality of a community frustrated by the patronization and appeasement tactics of regulatory bodies that aren’t listening.  But the frustrations are deeper.  The first nuclear reactor came into Jenkinsville 25 years ago, back when there was a grocery store and a handful of other local businesses.   Now Jenkinsville has nothing except higher than expected cancer mortality rates and a devastated environment, but they’re going to make sure that they don’t lose even more of their community to a greedy utility and an archaic energy technology.  To get more involved in supporting the community’s efforts to fight back, email Sara Tansey at sara@climateaction.net.  And check out the great article in The State featuring Miss Tangee Jacobs.

Citizens Gather for Biggest NC Climate Action in 2 Decades!

On the eve of one of the largest climate actions in North Carolinas history  activists and organizer young and old gathered  from across the country  at a charlotte Unitarian church today to prepare for the monumental action against Duke Energy’s proposed Cliffside coal plant expansion. People have shown up from over 20 states, including Massachusetts, Ohio, New York, California, New Jeresey, and most surrounding southern States just to name a few.

We gathered to go over logistics, but more importantly to discuss the issue and learn Non-violent strategy and its importance in this movements actions.  “non-violence is  a necessary  part of this action because it doesn’t allow the focus to shift away from the key issue, coal. In addition to showing your dedication and commitment, this non-violent direct action serves as an a opportunity to educate your peers, family, and public about the power we have to stand up to dirty energy” -Graymon Ward – Croatian Earth First Raleigh

The new proposed coal plant would use conventional, pulverized coal technology. This facility would have NO ability to capture or control carbon, which means all of these emissions will pump freely into our already warming atmosphere for at least the next 50 years. The new 800 MW coal-fired facility that would emit over 6 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. We expect a facility of this size will live at least the average of a 50-year lifespan, which means a total of 312 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere throughout its life. This grand total is equal to adding one million cars to the road each year!

Over the past few years as we have seen the imminent need for solutions to climate change, poverty, failing economy, and joblessness. These things, among others, have brought about a surging interest by citizens young and old and solution supporting organizations that have continuously stood by their fellow citizens putting their efforts behind real solutions, bodies, and freedom in the way of injustice and debilitating ways of thinking.

For those of us who can’t be with us in Charlotte you can follow the Greenpeace twitter via stopcliffside.org or subscribe to the Southern Energy Network Twitter feed.

Further show your support by calling into Duke’s Headquarters(704) 382-8000 & Governor Perdue’s office (919) 733-7350

Also

Gather photos from your friends and your campus visit http://powershift09.org/wevotedfor for details

During the week of April 20th, the first hearing around the American Clean Energy & Security Act (ACES) will take place – we’ll deliver thousands of photos to the hearing to make sure that our voices are heard, and that the faces of our movement are in the room.

FL YOUTH DEMAND TO BE HEARD! “Give us the Green Fee!!”

Many of you know that students in the University System of Florida have been rocking the Green Fee campaign all over! In fact, 10 out of the 11 universities in the state system are actively planning and campaigning to get the Fee on their campus. 5 schools have already passed student referenda in support of the Fee. This year, they took it to the state, working with Senator Lee Constantine to present the Fee in the form of and amendment to Senate Bill 1996. Following the Bill to the floor, students from 5 universities attended the original committee meeting, where it passed 3 to 1 with one absent. They were again present at the next committee meeting where the bill passed unanimously.

Late last night, we got the word that the Renewable Energy Fund amendment, along with Florida Senate Bill 1996 was stalling at the Higher Education Appropriations Committee. This committee is chaired by Senator Evelyn Lynn, who opposes the fee, which would allow schools that have approved the fee to implement it. It is not mandatory. The students are asking for it. It is their money!

If it passed, it would allow University of Florida to implement a mere 50 cent per credit hour fee, which would generate nearly $800,000 to be used to increase efficiency and invest in renewable energy. New College of Florida would also be able to implement the $1 per credit hour fee that their students and administration approved, which is the maximum that would be allowed under the legislation.

Please take time to show your support of the Green Fee in Florida! Send the email below, or your version of it, ask your friends to do the same! Help us make it viral! Link this in your Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere!

For more info on the history of this campaign, check out the Florida Green Fee Coalition.

Questions? mandy@climateaction.net

Dear Senator Lynn,

I, _______________________________, am a student strongly in support of the Green Fee currently being proposed for public universities across the state of Florida. Myself, as well as students at five other public universities within Florida, voted in support of referendums on our campuses dealing with funding for the Green Fee. Along with student backing from the remaining Florida institutions, the campaign has grown to all the public universities in the state over the past 2 years. The Florida Student Association has also endorsed the passage of this legislation. Students are not only willing, but eager to contribute financially to sustainability efforts on their own respective campuses.

With Earth Day quickly approaching, supporting SB 1996 would be an incredible effort in the fight against global climate change. With your support and this groundbreaking legislation, Florida will have the opportunity to be a leader in sustainability efforts on campuses across the country. Please support the concerns of university students in Florida by making every effort to see that the Green Fee becomes a reality.

Sincerely,
[name]

Owning Our Movement: Turning “Junk” into Action

Now more than ever grassroots fundraising is critical to keeping our organizations and campaigns strong. It’s also a great opportunity for us to both literally and figuratively “own” our movement. Ellie Johnston, SEN Steering Committee member, and other incredible activists in Asheville did just that and raised over $1,000 to support our work.

Students at UNC Asheville clean house and raise money to support climate action

Check out what Ellie had to say about their event:

So as people who want to work towards a just and sustainable future we often face a dilemma in how to get the money to accomplish our goals. Grassroots fundraising should compliment the grassroots organizing that we are doing, right? But how do you sustain and support an organization with grassroots fundraising?

The students at UNC Asheville have renewed an age old method of raising funds–the yard sale. Selling your stuff is a great way to get some dough. If your a college student though, who just wants to support an organization and doesn’t own a bunch of stuff that you can give up, what do you do? Sell other peoples stuff.

At UNCA we had planned to have a yardsale as part of our Greenfest week for months, but 10 days out we still hadn’t gotten any donations in response to the flyers we had put up. So, we took a more proactive approach to getting stuff to sell. We realized that people who have yard sales have stuff they want to get rid of and by the end of the yard sale they still are left with stuff they want to get rid of. So we offered to pick up people’s yard sale leftovers in order to get it out of their hands and more importantly away from the landfill. A day and a half spent picking up yard sale leftovers around town resulted in a ton of really great items that we could then sell at our own yard sale the following week.

Early on we had decided on two things about this yard sale. First this was going to be a yardsale for the Southern Energy Network who has supported our organization on a lot things throughout the year and is going through a financial pinch like the rest of the world. And second, that we weren’t going to dictate to anyone what they would pay for items.

On the day of the yard sale we had it all setup out on UNC Asheville’s Quad and waited for people to come. People came trickling on to the Quad in hopes of seeing the huge yard sale that we had advertised. At the register people would come up with their rollerblades, coffee makers, and flannel shirts while we explained that the proceeds from this yard sale were going to the Southern Energy Network and asked them to make an offer on what they were buying. No offer was ever turned down and many were really quite generous. In all we got just over $1000 from selling people’s leftovers, not bad eh?

People everywhere love a good deal. Now that the weather has warmed the bargain hunters are on the prowl and would love to support your favorite organization (especially when they find that Mt. Rushmore tea cup to complete their collection).

A huge thanks to Ellie and team! Also to Reagan Richmond and students in Tennessee for the $250 they raised for SEN through an art opening and raffle.

Feel inspired, support SEN and our work to promote a youth-led movement for a clean, just and sustainable energy future!

Raleigh Rally leaves Jim Rogers that much more of a hypocrite

*Content Provided by Pete MacDowell of NCWARN, Russ Anderson of Southern Energy Network, and John Dean of Greenpeace.

Members of NCWARN, Interfaith Power & Light, Croatan Earth First!, Mountain Justice, Southern Energy Network, students from Duke U. and Greenpeace protested Jim Rogers’s speech at the Sustainable Energy Conference yesterday. Some may wonder why we held a rally at a Sustainability conference. We’ll the answer to that is easy, because they asked one of the biggest hypocrites and greenwashers in the country to speak at it!!! This was one of multiple acitons that have been and are being coordinated across the state in opposition to Duke Energy’s expansion of the Cliffside plant, Jim Rogers incessant green washing, and student/youth/community outcry at the false solutions to real problems!

The action worked very well indeed to steal the show from Rogers. Many thanks to our great crew of folks from Southern Energy Network, Greenpeace, Croatan Earth First, Interfaith Power and Light, and NC WARN – and thanks to SACE for the power plant and Mark Marcoplos for the generator.

Rogers had the temerity to give essentially his same “cathedral thinking” speech (we have lots of time) that he gave in the same place a year ago. We have to keep bird dogging him and exposing the phony greenscamming. Many people understand “phony” and hypocrisy at a gut level and then try to understand the specifics about coal and climate change.

Check out and send viral this youtube clip supporitng the Charlotte, NC stop Cliffside action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8JuWYDJA7Y

If you are interested in attending the massive demonstration in Charlotte please read more and RSVP at: www.Stopcliffside.org

NEWS FLASH: Duke’s Stockholders’ Meeting will be May 7th (a Thursday) at
their HQ in Charlotte. That presents a great opportunity for a follow up
action after April 20th. Let’s start planning.

UNCA Students say NO to Coal!!!!

“UNCA celebrated Fossil Fools Day as the first day of our week of sustainable and environmentally focused events, Greenfest 2009. We borrowed a gigantic inflatable coal plant from Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, took over the quad for the day, and irritated the heck out of the poor secretaries of Gov. Bev Perdue and Duke Energy’s Jim Rogers. They received calls from close to 30 people. Within four calls, Pedue’s secretary asked us to drop the script and just say that we are against the Cliffside Coal Plant. One caller asked if he could speak with Jimmy (Jim Rogers), and, after being denied, asked if Jimmy would call him back after lunch. We didn’t get a callback but the call-in was fun. We won’t know what kind of response we got for a while but we introduced a lot of students on our campus to the idea of communicating with local politicians and business people, and we got onto the local TV news station. Hopefully we will see more people at our next ASHE meeting because of it.” By: Rhys Baker from UNC Asheville’s environmental group, Active Students for a Healthy Environment (A.S.H.E.).

The lobbying of students against the Cliffside expansion comes at a time when member groups of the stop cliffside coalition have completed reports that not only has Duke tried to buy our state government ( see Duke political contributions report) but has successfully gotten Gov. Perdue’s office on their side. All this in the face of another report recently released that proves with basic efficiency measures not only can we prevent Cliffside from being expanded, but we can shut down 6-8 existing coal plants in NC!!!!!!

Students at UNCA are being joined in these efforts by persons from across NC in their anti-coal & anti-cliffside efforts by not buying the lies of a corrupted corporate/political relationship and by hosting events on more than 6 campuses in NC to demand real solutions! Find out more about recent reports listed at ncwarn.org including the NC SAVE$ Energy bill recently introduced<- a real solution to Dukes “Save a Watt” fiasco of an efficiency plan.

Clean Energy NOW!!!

Enviro Week at Meredith College a hit

One example of the dozen or so great enviro events/weeks that have happened/will happen in around the environment and clean energy this month here in North Carolina.

Environmental Week 2009, March 16-21, Meredith College

Angels for the Environment, a Meredith College-based environmental group, threw its annual Environmental Week. With the college’s yearly theme focusing on sustainability, it helped reaffirm the message that Meredith College is working towards a better future.

Environmental Week was six days long, each day with a different event and theme. Monday’s theme was A Night of Research. That night, students presented their research on such topics as deforestation, recycling, and sustainable housing. Tuesday’s theme was Animal Rights Day, a day co-hosted with Meredith’s Wild at Heart club. That night’s event involved the Piedmont Wildlife Center. Two representatives from Piedmont Wildlife Center came and spoke to the students about their responsibility to local wildlife. They also brought a few rescued animals.

Wednesday’s theme was The Business of Energy, focusing on energy businesses, such as coal, nuclear, wind, etc. The focus was to educate the students about the pros and cons of current available sources of energy. A teach-in was hosted by two students that night to present this information. Thursday’s theme was Local Foods. A speaker representing organic farming spoke during the lunch hour on the importance of thinking before eating. Spectrum also hosted a bake sale of fresh treats, including gluten-free cookies and made-from-scratch blueberry muffins.

Friday’s theme was Social Responsibility Day, co-hosted by Meredith’s Habitat for Humanity. This day was to connect the students to their responsibilities to their neighbors. Meredith’s Habitat for Humanity hosted a trip off-campus to the Habitat House for the final work day. Saturday’s theme was again Local Foods, and IMPACT hosted a trip to the near-by Farmer’s Market to acquaint the students with local produce. They were encouraged to bring reusable bags!

Throughout the week, also, a petition was held to ask Duke Energy Corporation to stop using coal from mountaintop removal. Although some were reluctant to sign, most students and faculty were supportive. Many did not know at first what mountaintop removal was, so it was definitely a learning time for them!

-Great job Meredith and Angels 4 the Environment( and all the schools working towards stronger awareness and education)!!

Florida Green Fee Goes to Senate!

Hi, all! Things have been moving and shaking down in Florida these last two weeks, and while we may not be overjoyed at nuclear being included in the Clean Energy Standard that the House passed yesterday (more on that coming soon!), let us temper that with some good news about the Green Fee!

As many of you know, the Green Fee is a campaign that SEN has been involved with on campuses all over the Southeast for over 2 years. In FL, we have stepped those campus campaigns up a notch and taken it to the state level with the Renewable Energy Fee Bill that is being presented during this legislative session.

And, we have good news!!

Monday, it was confirmed that the bill was going to make it to the floor on Wednesday, so Zak Keith, Florida Green Fee Coordinator extraordinaire, worked quickly to organize a lobby day. Tuesday evening (March 24), several students, representing University of FL, University of Central FL, University of South FL, and Florida State University, went to Tally to lobby for the bill on Wednesday. Also, to our advantage, this coincided with University of Central’s student government lobby day. So, a contingent of that delegation of students lobbied on the Green Fee, as well as other issues that concerning their student population.

On March 25, 2009, the FL Senate’s Higher Education Committee unanimously approved the Bill with the “Green Fee” Amendment! Lee Constantine is a champion of the Bill (now amendment) and has worked closely with students to refine it and find an appropriate Bill to attach the amendment to. Of course, the Bill still has Committees to travel through and the Senate to contend with, but we are off to a good start. Unfortunately, the House Bill that the Fee was supposed to be amended to did not get introduced. I will update as soon as I know more on that front.

Also, there has been quite a bit of media attention to this. There has been some unfortunate messaging from some reporters, with emphasis being placed on statements like “could cost full time students up to $150 per year” when no school has even come close to passing anything more than $1 per credit hour (which would be closer to $30 per year for full time students). Of course, this is an unfortunate spin, so we’ll have to make sure that folks understand that $150 per year is unlikely, and that the fee will be nominal for many students. Also, that for those that cannot afford to pay increased fees, they will be able to “opt out” just as they do their other student fees. Certainly, no one is interested in this fee becoming prohibitive to those that are not financially privileged!

I know many of you have worked on this campaign for a long time and are excited to hear this news. I look forward to hearing more of your experiences!

Here is a link to the Bill:
Bill

You can check out some of the media here:

Blog Media

AASHE Interview with Zak Keith

TV Media

Happy campaigning and, as always, hit me up if you have ideas, questions, or news!
mandy@climateaction.net