Dear Virginian,

I’m getting arrested this Saturday morning at the White House – and I won’t be alone. I’ll be joined by dozens of activists from across the country, including Nebraska farmers and Virginia doctors and the great nature writer Bill McKibben. We’re going to peacefully sit outside the White House until the police arrest us because we want President Obama to make a simple decision: Stop the proposed $7 billion tar sands pipeline from Canada to Texas.

This pipeline, if built, would lock America into decades of addiction to the dirtiest petroleum fuel known to man. If the tar sands fields of northern Alberta are fully exploited, it would be mean “game over” for the climate, according to NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen.  

That’s why ten prominent leaders from the VA/DC/MD region – ranging from restaurateur Nora Pouillon to poet E. Ethelbert Miller – have called for Obama to exercise his power to stop the pipeline. Protesters will be gathered outside the White House every day from August 20th - September 3rd. Join other CCANers as we protest on Aug. 22nd or sign up for another day and help dramatize the point.

Our message is clear: No to tar sands! Yes to wind power! Instead of fueling American cars for decades with planet-warming, landscape-wrecking tar sands oil, we should power a new fleet of electric cars in our region -- forever -- with clean, renewable wind power from the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. Indeed, Virginia has enough harness-able offshore wind energy to power over three million electric cars at a cost of just over $1 per gallon. The choice should be a no-brainer for Obama. But we need your help to get him to listenon Aug. 22 or another day during our two-week protest.

And if you need proof that citizen involvement makes change happen, consider what occurred last weekend in Bealeton, Virginia. Over a dozen clean energy activists attended the annual meeting of the Rappannock Electric Coop in Northern Virginia. The results were truly historic. Never before had a coal-dependent electric cooperative in the state been forced to alter its public stance, admitting that plans to build a $6 billion new coal plant were uncertain at best and that alternatives like energy efficiency must be seriously examined. This altered approach on the part of the REC leadership only happened because dozens of activists gathered thousands of petition signatures over the past year and generally made their voices heard in the fight to end mountaintop removal, clean our air, and fight climate change.

Now I ask that you help us keep up the pressure for clean energy in Virginia. Get out your calendar and mark some exciting upcoming events you won’t want to miss. The first is CCAN’s Moving Planet action in Virginia on Saturday September 24th. On that day, Virginians from all walks of life will be creatively riding wheeled objects that don’t pollute – bikes, skateboards, baby strollers, unicycles, roller skates – in parades across the state. Our goal is to demonstrate that we all live on a “moving planet” that can and must move toward clean energy. Sign up here.

Also, click here to tell the U.S. Forest Service that you oppose drilling for natural gas beneath the pristine George Washington National Forest. The forest belongs to the public, not to corporate energy companies.

Finally, on October 13th, let CCAN pour you a drink and feed you some good food at our annual Toast to Climate Heroes night. We’ll be handing out awards to heroes like climate blogger Joe Romm and Virginia Delegate Adam Ebbin. Please come and have fun. To join the host committee of this event, please click here.

Onward,
Mike Tidwell