High School Students Ahead of their State Senator

A junior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Andrew Swoboda, recently won a $10,000 scholarship for his research in reducing the amount of platinum needed to make hydrogen fuel cells, reducing the overall cost of production. He is making an effort to cut the cost of alternative energy that could help reduce the demand for mountaintop removal coal mining and other dirty sources. Meanwhile, his elected official, VA state Senator Richard Saslaw, has been an obstacle to investing in energy efficiency measures that would also reduce the demand for coal. Last year he was the decisive vote to block efficiency legislation in committee.

There’s no doubt that energy efficiency is the quickest, cheapest, cleanest way to meet Virginia’s energy needs and create jobs, which is why it’s one of our top priorities this year in Virginia. Do you think hydrogen fuel cells have a place in making the switch to a clean energy future?

From the Vienna Connection:

Contributing to Clean Energy
Local high schooler improves fuel cell, wins scholarship.

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Upping the Ante on Climate

One year ago, Barack Obama was inaugurated as President. Hopes were high among progressive-minded people, including climate activists. Finally, we had a President who got it on the need for action to address the deepening climate crisis.

But here we are a year later and things look very different. The United States, including Obama, played a generally problematic role up to and at the Copenhagen climate conference, dismissing the widespread call by a big majority of the world’s countries for emissions reductions consistent with the climate science. The Obama administration played this role despite the bad-weather impacts and sea level rise already being seen and felt in Africa, small island nations and elsewhere.

As far as the U.S. Congress, Obama has certainly not made it a priority so far to advance efforts to enact climate legislation in this session. It’s looking very possible, even likely, that no comprehensive climate legislation will be passed in 2010. Continue reading

Media and Messaging: The Multiplier Effect

Who said anything about qualifications?

I never thought I’d be writing a piece on media and messaging. I’m a government major at the University of Maryland going into my final semester as an undergraduate. I’m looking to further my education with a masters in public policy with a specialization in environmental policy. In the student activist group UMD for Clean Energy that I’ve been involved in since the spring semester of 2007, I’ve been the boots on the ground guy getting petition signatures and power vote pledges, the Political Liaison who handled the policy aspects of the campaign like organizing lobby meetings, and last fall I had my first stint as the Campaign Director for the group. Despite my responsibility never being media and messaging, it’s in this area that I feel I’ve learned some of the most valuable organizing lessons.

When applied to our group’s efforts last semester, our new approach to media became one of the most powerful engines for our local campaign on making green issues front and center in our College Park City Council elections, and complimented all of the other aspects of our campaign beautifully. At the end of the semester, core members of UMD for Clean Energy tried to put our finger on how and why media had been invaluable to our campaign, but usually our guesses didn’t go beyond “wow”. This is my imperfect yet necessary attempt to explain what happened, with the hope that other groups can gain from it, and at least so I can convey how important this aspect of the youth climate movement is. By the way, I’ve committed the cardinal sin of making this a longggg post, but it’s worth it so please read.

“This was a lot more efficient than knocking on 20,000 doors” Continue reading

How about some serious financing

Today, the Washington Post broke news of an announcement by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu that the United States was contributing $85 million to The Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative.

“The initiative — which includes $85 million from the United States and donations from industrialized nations such as Italy and Australia — aims to make energy-saving technology that already exists cheap enough to penetrate markets in India, parts of Africa and elsewhere. It is distinct from the major financing package the United States is expected to unveil this week as part of a broader climate deal.”

While it’s good to see initiatives such as these, the total amount and the contribution by the US fall of what international talks in Copenhagen need in order for a successful agreement. The broader deal the US is expected to unveil later this week will lay out around $1.2 billion in its 2010 budget for international climate aid and mitigation, and Senator John Kerry recently wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton pushing for $3 billion to be included in the 2011. Both figures depend on the Senate passing climate legislation. At the same time, the EU is trying to scrape together $10 billion in funding from the 2010-2012 period, although there is concern right now over whether it’s new money, or international assistance dollars being redirected. Continue reading

Plan B: The Ark

Maryland students gather at the candlelight vigil in DC next to the the ark (Plan B if Plan A- a binding, fair, and ambitious deal in Copenhagen- doesn’t happen)

Cash for Caulkers should use Energy Efficiency Loan Fund Model

Back in September, I wrote about the the power of energy efficiency loan funds, and how they could be utilized by local and state governments to eliminate the barrier of upfront financing for energy efficiency improvements which often prevents them from happening. When my student group UMD for Clean Energy was involved in our local city council elections this past fall, the priority policy of our platform was a low-interest energy efficiency loan fund. We managed to elevate this to being an important issue in the elections, and our city council has made it a priority to push for tweaking a state law that would allow municipalities in Maryland to undertake this kind of a program.

Last week, President Obama announced that as part of his new jobs bill, a cash for caulkers program that puts people back to work by weatherizing houses, will be a key part of the legislation. However, as Dave Roberts notes a Grist, right now “public statements from the administration have focused almost entirely on cash rebates, which would pay back homeowners up to half the cost of various retrofit investments. There’s a way to get far more bang for federal bucks, though, and it has to do with financing” Continue reading

Responding Rapidly to Copenhagen

Students are getting involved with climate negotiations in Copenhagen from here in the States! Hundreds have joined the nation-wide Rapid Response Team organized by the Energy Action Coalition: providing a way for the youth delegation in Copenhagen to keep in contact with state-side youth activists.

The latest action was in response to a request by Tuvalu, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean, for an open conversation about a legally binding deal and a return to 350ppm carbon in the atmosphere. Despite the request only being for the start of a conversation, several larger countries blocked the idea. So the youth delegation in Copenhagen is calling for us to stand with Tuvalu!

Thalia Patrinos from Walter Johnson High School received a call and responded! A group of Walter Johnson students ate cookies, recruited friends, and called President Obama during lunch. They asked him to protect the future of small island nations and the future of all generations by playing a lead role in a legally binding, scientific based deal that limits carbon pollution to 350 ppm! Go Walter Johnson! Want to join the team? Go to powershift09.org/rapidresponse

The Scientists Strike Back

There has been quite an assault on the climate science in the past few weeks. Far more so than ever before, which is saying something given the Climate Cover-Up that’s gone on for so long. First, e-mails were hacked from a British university, showing some cherry-picked conversations between climate scientists, which global warming deniers have stretched and chalked up to data misrepresentation, and a massive global scientific conspiracy to trick people into reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading

MD Students…at the White House!

This post was written by Caroline Selle, a student at St Mary’s College of Maryland and an active member of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition.

Hey everyone! I was lucky enough yesterday to be one of the youth invited to the White House for the Clean Energy Economy Forum. It was a great opportunity for those of us involved in the environmental movement to hear from the Obama administration and also to make ourselves heard. The 100 plus members of the audience included youth from all over the country, representing small and large environmental organizations and non-profits. We came from a variety of backgrounds, but we were all together to ask Obama and his administration to take charge on environmental issues.

The forum was broken up into two parts. First, a panel made up of three Cabinet members (Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu) and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson answered questions from the audience. There were some great, encouraging answers from the panel and some very political ones, but overall we ended with a lot of clear answers on a wide range of issues. Topics ranged from mountaintop removal (the EPA is looking at Clean Water Act violations, a good sign) to creating green jobs that won’t just provide a temporary salary but a true career path so that a stable clean, green economy will eventually be created.
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