Last week, the CCAN staff traveled to a retreat center in the Blue Ridge mountains of West Virginia, where we took some time to reflect on the past year and look forward to what’s ahead. As the newest member of the staff, I was inspired by the passion and commitment of my team members and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know everyone. We all returned to the office this week with a renewed sense of purpose and energy to throw into our work. After the jump, see some photo highlights of the trip.
Remember Sasha and Malia!
Some Thoughts on the Democratic Party’s Failure to Fight on Climate
“I am firmly convinced that the passionate will for justice and truth has done more to improve (the human condition) than calculating political shrewdness which in the long run only breeds general mistrust.”
Albert Einstein, “Moral Decay,” 1937
1)—Harry Reid’s statement yesterday about why he would not be putting forward legislation on the climate crisis blamed the Congressional Republicans. It’s true that, with a few exceptions, Senator Susan Collins of Maine being at the top of the list, the Republican Party deserves withering criticism for their joined-at-the-hip allegiance to Big Oil and Dirty Coal.
Congress: You Have Oil on Your Hands!
On the 3 month anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, an explosion that ended the lives of 11 workers and irreparably damaged the livelihoods of countless others, I was at a rally held across the street from the U.S. Capitol building.
The ever-greening Google
In an ever apparent effort to prove that there is nothing the company can’t do, Google has officially become a utility. Yes, you read that right: Google can now add “green utility” to its laundry list of bold and ingenious ventures. 
In 2007, Google made headlines when it announced the company intended to voluntarily become carbon neutral. To achieve this goal, they’ve vastly minimized their energy consumption (no small feat considering the magnitude of their data centers), begun powering their facilities with renewable energy, and purchasing offsets for the carbon emissions they cannot eliminate directly.
So when the opportunity arose for Google to directly purchase wind power from the source, it seemed to be a natural growth of this commitment to sustainability. Yesterday, the company announced that it will begin a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement to buy 114 megawatts of wind energy generated at NextEra Energy Resources’ Story County II facility in Iowa. This comes after announcing in May that the company had invested $38.8 million in two North Dakota wind farms.
With its track record of successful innovation, Google could give the wind power industry a much-needed boost. The company has plans to seek more long-term wind power purchase agreements. Welcome to the clean energy revolution, Google Energy LLC. We’re happy to have you.
P.S. Google- We could really use some help over here on the east coast, if you aren’t too busy. Have you heard of the Mid-Atlantic bight?
Your climate art judged by Philippe Cousteau and Van Jones?
CCAN has partnered with groups like Energy Action, 350.org, the Hip Hop Caucus and many more in the first online art contest exploring climate change in its many forms – how it is impacting our lives and what can be done to ensure a sustainable future for all of Earth’s inhabitants.
Participate in the CoolClimate Art Contest and get the chance to have your submission judged by Philippe Cousteau, Van Jones and the comedian Chevy Chase!
Here are the details:
Submit a work of art that explores our relationship with the climate
"What Better Place than Here, What Better Time than Now"
Why would a guy from Maine with a degree in sociology pack up his car and move 739 miles to Fredericksburg, Virginia? Social justice
REC New Members Meeting
As some of you may know, Allegheny Power no longer exists in Virginia. The customers that were with Allegheny have been divided between Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) and their affiliate, Shenandoah Cooperative, as of June 1, 2010. In another perfect example of just how bad the transparency problem in REC is, almost none of the former Allegheny customers had any idea that they had been switched until they got their first (considerably higher) bill from REC.
The better part of Clarke County was transferred from Allegheny to REC. Almost every person I have spoken to in this area has complained about power outages ranging from a few minutes to several hours. Most people who did know about the switch were first informed when they called Allegheny to complain about these outages. Ex-Alleghany co-op members have been grateful when I’ve told them about the coal plant, the upcoming co-op election, and our clean energy candidate, Rob Marmet. It’s frustrating that the only information some of these co-op members have received has been from CCAN, rather than their new co-op.
Last Tuesday, July 13th, REC held an informational meeting for new members. Justin, Leslie, Carrie and I piled into the car and traveled from our Fredericksburg office to the Clarke County government center, where the meeting was held. We arrived just in time to find REC executives setting up refreshments and brochures and to see huge rain clouds roll in.
Incredibly, almost as if REC could control the weather, the downpour lasted almost exactly the length of our stay before, after, and during the meeting. Unfortunately, the inclement weather seemed to affect the meeting’s turnout. Luckily, one person who wasn’t deterred by the weather was our candidate for the REC Board of Directors, Rob Marmet! Rob and his wife made it just in time to talk with us for a few minutes and head into the meeting.
During the question and answer session, Rob asked why new members who may have lost or thrown away their ballot must travel all the way to a REC office to request another ballot in person. There are REC offices in Fredericksburg, Culpeper, Bowling Green, and Front Royal. The co-op area spans about 15 counties, many of which are hours from an office, and it is unclear if they will even be distributed ballots at every location or only in Fredericksburg. He also brought up the proposed coal plant near the Chesapeake Bay, but the Board of Directors managed to sidestep the issue entirely. Rob is quoted in an article about this meeting in the Clarke Daily News.
Here is an excerpt:
“Marmet said that he is running for the REC Board of Directors because he believes in the cooperative system and thinks that direct public ownership is the best approach for running a good utility. Marmet also expressed reservations about plans by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, REC’s primary electric power provider, to build a coal-fired power plant in Surry County, Virginia.”
“Why does a Virginia utility want to invest in antiquated coal technology?” he rhetorically asked.”
CCAN's coolest
With sadness and best wishes, the CCAN staff will say goodbye this month to an extraordinary member of our family: Anne Havemann. Barely out of college, Anne began working for CCAN five years ago as an executive assistant and quickly rose to become our communications director for the past three years. During her tenure, Anne has given as much heart and soul and sweat to the climate movement as anyone on the planet. For five straight winters she jumped into the Chesapeake Bay as part of our annual “Polar Bear Plunge.” She was such a fierce opponent of dirty coal in Maryland that former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich directed the state police to illegally spy on her (true story). She melted away with the rest of us during summertime rallies on Capitol Hill and she had her eyelashes turn white during a snowstorm rally for clean energy in Annapolis. But mostly we at CCAN will remember Anne for accidentally setting on fire a small bouquet of flowers during a CCAN fundraiser in Silver Spring, MD. The carbon emissions!
In late August Anne will become a student at the University of Maryland Law School in Baltimore with the goal of becoming an environmental lawyer of great global renown one day.
Anne: We already miss you so much it hurts. You made CCAN a great place to work and be happy despite the great storminess of climate change.
With great love and respect, we say so long for now.
The CCAN Staff
Governor McDonnell Buys Bottled Water At School Kids' Expense
Cross post:
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R.) is in hot water. Make that hot bottled water. It seems the man loves bottled water so much that he’s willing to sacrifice a state low-income school breakfast program to drink it.
Here’s what happened: This week, McDonnell reversed an existing directive to phase-out state spending on bottled water. The goal was put in place by his predecessor and was set to save Virginia about $34,000 this year and also further the state’s “greening” goals. But then the state’s bottled water industry stepped in and, luckily, they had McDonnell’s ear, as the group Corporate Accountability International notes.
Chris Saxman, board member of the International Bottled Water Association and employee of a major water bottler in Virginia, supported McDonnell’s move. His company, the Shenandoah Valley Water Company, was, “far and away the single largest recipient of government spending on bottled water.” Last fiscal year, the company were paid more than $100,000 from Virginia government agencies for their water fix.
What’s more, the spending increase on bottled water comes during a tight budget squeeze. In these tough times, the governor has proposed a budget that would cut millions in education funding and eliminate a school breakfast program for low-income children, Corporate Accountability International says.
So let’s get this straight: the Governor wants to end a program that would this year save $34,000 on bottled water — money that could buy, I don’t know, let’s say hundreds of low-income children some breakfast? Ironically, but maybe not coincidentally, bottled water company executive Saxman also served as an education adviser to McDonnell in the past, according to The Washington Post. Sounds like good education advice to me.
“His actions today seem to suggest he is more interested in protecting cushy state contracts for the bottled water industry than protecting the environment or prioritizing state funding for vital public services,” said Leslie Samuelrich with Corporate Accountability International, in a press release.
Virginia’s governor is swimming against a turning tide. Many states, cities and businesses, including Illinois, New York, Colorado and San Francisco, are trying to save money and save the environment by reducing bottled water use. In 2007, San Francisco’s government found that it was spending almost a half-million dollars a year on bottled water. In addition, plastic water bottles are terrible for the environment — most end up incinerated, buried in landfills or discarded as litter. And despite what water companies may claim, the supposedly “pure” water is usually no better for public health than tap water.
Sign Corporate Accountability International’s petition here to tell Gov. McDonnell what you think of his decision to pour his state’s tax dollars down the drain at the expense of the environment.
Climate Polluter Wants Equal Rights for Coal Plants
According to the Mirant Corporation