Three Months, Three Years

July 20th will be the three month anniversary of the BP oil blowout disaster.

To call attention to this fact–to demand strong climate legislation that reduces carbon emissions and promotes clean energy–to call for getting dirty energy money out of politics, a broad coalition of 19 national, regional and state organizations (see list below) issued a call a couple of days ago for local “Congress: You’ve Got Oil on Your Hands” events around the country on July 20th. The coalition urges that actions be held in front of the offices of members of the Senate or the House who have taken a large amount of money from Big Oil or who have refused to support strong action on climate. More info on Big Oil campaign contributions can be found at http://www.followtheoilmoney.org. MoveOn.org is setting up a website operation where local organizers can register their events and get more information.

Given the continuing ecological and economic disaster unfolding in the gulf, and because the U.S. Senate will be debating and voting on offshore drilling/energy/climate legislation this month or early in August, it is right-on-time that these actions are happening. This is the time to really step up grassroots pressure on the U.S. Senate!! Continue reading

LTE: One step forward, two steps back for Bay project

The following letter to the editor, written by CCAN fellow Justin Klecha, was printed in the Culpeper Star-Exponent on June 30th. Read more about CCAN’s summer fellows in our June-July newsletter (written right before Justin began). Congrats, Justin!

One step forward, two steps back for Bay project
Justin Klecha, Fredericksburg
June 30, 2010

Culpeper, along with other municipalities across our state, has or is implementing cleaner wastewater technologies in an effort to reduce pollution. The June 25 article, “Cleaner Wastewater,” laid out the details of the improved treatment facilities in Culpeper, stating that the town has “modernized and sanitized its wastewater treatment process for the sake of the health of the Chesapeake Bay.”

One step forward!

While at the same time REC’s parent electric cooperative is proposing a $6 billion dollar coal plant just 35 miles from the Chesapeake Bay.

If built it would be the largest coal plant in Virginia producing massive amounts of pollutants, such as mercury, lead and carbon-dioxide, which would undermine projects like the one in Culpeper.

Two steps back Continue reading

Judge Refuses to Jail Climate Activist

In a victory for both the climate and basic decency, a federal judge today refused to put a global warming organizer in jail for simply hanging activist banners in a U.S. Senate office building.

Judge Frederick H. Weisberg rejected a request from U.S. attorneys to sentence Ted Glick to 40 days in jail for two misdemeanors related to peaceful civil disobedience. Last September, Glick, Policy Director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, unfurled two large banners in the Hart Senate Office Building saying, “Green Jobs Now” and “Get to Work.”

After receiving hundreds of letters from concerned citizens ranging from NASA’s Dr. James Hansen to actor Danny Glover, Weisberg told an overflowing courtroom audience in D.C. Superior Court that he saw “no useful purpose served by incarceration.” He sentenced Glick instead to a week of community service and a year of probation, plus a $1,000 fine.

The audience cheered and applauded when Weisberg announced his decision.

At the start of the hearing, Glick read a brief statement explaining why he unfurled the banners last September 8th. “Faced with a planetary emergency,” he said, “and as citizens of a democracy, we must nonviolently urge, in the best ways we know how, our elected representatives to do the right thing. That is what I did on September 8th of last year.”

Glick has only two previous convictions related to peaceful acts of civil disobedience.

Weisberg acknowledged the great tradition of nonviolent struggle in America from Thoreau to King. He finally made clear, however, that — by law — it wasn’t the message of global warming that was being sentenced, it was the delivery of that message.

“But on the great scale of things, I don’t think a meaningful punishment would include incarceration here,” Weisberg said.

CCAN director Mike Tidwell said he was very pleased with the decision.

“We’re still not sure why the U.S. Attorney’s office wanted to

Sentencing of CCAN's Ted Glick for Peaceful Banner Hang

CCAN Policy Director and tireless climate activist Ted Glick, who faces up to three years in prison for peacefully hanging a banner in a Senate office building, will be sentenced Tuesday, July 6th at noon.

Glick was convicted of two misdemeanors for hanging a banner in a Senate Office Building calling on Congress to take action to stop climate change. The prosecution has publicly stated that Glick is subject to up to three years in prison.

Supporters have sent hundreds of letters to Judge Frederick Weisberg urging leniency including Susan Sarandon, Edward Asner, NASA’s Dr. James Hansen, Danny Glover, Wendell Berry, Van Jones, Rocky Anderson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Peter Barnes, Bill McKibben, Gus Speth and Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. News outlets including the Newark Star Ledger and the DC Fox TV station.

WHEN:Tuesday, July 6th at 11:00 AM; Sentencing at 12:00 PM

WHERE: DC Superior Court, 500 Indiana Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001 — Room 318

Sign up be there at Ted’s sentencing>>

Hands Across the Sand DC Video

Check out this video put together by the Energy Action Coalition! It was taken at the Hands Across the Sand event in front of the White House- one of hundreds of events throughout the world.

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Inspiring Va. Awards Celebration last night

Last night CCAN held its first annual Virginia Climate Champions Ceremony at the beautiful St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Old Town Alexandria. We were honored to present “Virginia Climate Leadership Awards” to Congressman Jim Moran; State Senator Patsy Ticer; Supervisor Andrea McGimsey, Loudoun County; Heidi Binko, Associate Director of Special Climate Initiatives at the Rockefeller Family Fund; and Burke resident Edward Jaffee.


From left to right: Supervisor Andrea McGimsey, Grassroots
Leader Ed Jaffee, Congressman Jim Moran, Senator Patsy Ticer.

The speeches were inspiring, the music (by EcoVoce) was great, and the food (courtesy of Restaurant Eve) was delicious. Unfortunately, Heidi Binko fell ill at the last minute and was unable to come. We’ve mailed her her richly deserved award.

Here’s what Congressman Moran had to say:

“Sadly, in the wake of the BP oil spill, the mantra

Windmills NOT Oil Spills!

On Saturday, the nation joined hands to show our leaders that we choose clean energy over dirty, dangerous and outdated energy sources. The gathering in Virginia Beach was especially important because Virginia is poised to become one of the first

Lady Gaga and Mike Tidwell make CNN's list of intriguing people

Joining Mike and Lady Gaga on CNN’s “Friday’s Intriguing People” list is Robert Gilmer, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. Gilmer is teaching a course next semester on the Gulf Coast oil disaster dubbed “Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010.” According to the Minnesota Daily, the course will address the current crisis in the Gulf of Mexico by educating students on the history and ecology of the Gulf, the makeup of the Louisiana economy and the impact of past oil spills on humans and the environment.

The class will not have textbooks but Gilmer tells CNN that “Mike Tidwell’s Bayou Farewell: The Race to Save America’s Coastal Cities will definitely be on the [reading] list.”

And that’s why CNN called Mike. Mike’s book, Bayou Farewell, which predicted in detail the Katrina hurricane disaster in 2003, will be reissued in August with a new introduction on the BP blowout tragedy. Mike told CNN that the BP disaster likely will have a bigger impact on coastal people than even Katrina did in terms of its economic and cultural disruptions.

You can read the final chapter of Bayou Farewell, which discusses the size and scope of the drilling operation in Louisiana, on our blog.

And, in case you were wondering, Lady Gaga made the list because she and President Obama are neck in neck in a race to become the first living person with more than 10 million fans on facebook.