The right wing mobs disrupting the town hall meetings on health care reform this August recess are becoming violent and ridiculous. These mobs just don’t get that they are opposing reform that will better our health care system.
Nuclear energy and “clean coal” have been proposed by some as solutions to our oil addiction and need to address climate change, yet they are not necessarily clean or safe for that matter.
Isn’t it clear? ‘Clean Coal’ is the process of taking the CO2 and making it disappear somewhere! As John Hodgman from the Daily Show would say: Climate change? Solved!
* Disclaimer, this post refers to ‘Clean Coal’ based on definition #345 – Carbon Capture and Sequestration. To read more about the thousands of different meanings that the term ‘Clean Coal’ can conveniently have depending on what’s convenient for the coal industry, check out this post.
*UPDATE* The second round of the Cash For Clunkers program ended this Monday at 8:00 PM. Once again, the program ran out of money ahead of schedule due to its extreme popularity. If you didn’t manage to trade in your gas-guzzler this time, don’t worry! You’ll probably get another chance next year since the Detroit 3 have been lagging behind international auto companies in commercializing electric vehicles. In the meantime, consider riding your bicycle and learning how to use your local public transit. It’ll be healthier for you, your community, and your planet.
Just before leaving for recess, the U.S. Senate approved additional funding for Cash for Clunkers - the government program to incentivize (pay) people to trade in their old cars for new slightly more efficient ones. This widely successful program dramatically improved car sales and was credited with reducing domestic CO2 emissions by 700,000 tons, saving consumers over $216 million a year in gasoline costs, and protecting American manufacturing jobs.
The biggest success of the program wasn’t the small reduction in carbon emissions and oil use, but that it proved that consumers demand more fuel efficient cars. Even though the minimum fuel efficiency gain needed to receive a rebate for trading in your old car was a meager 1 MPG increase for light trucks and 4 MPG for passenger cars, the average clunkers brought in were almost 10 MPG more than the cars they replaced. Now, because American auto companies have been in denial about the need for more efficient options, over half of sales were foreign cars, and all of the top 10 trade-in models are made by the Detroit Three.
Cash for Clunkers’ victory allowed for consumer’s voices to be heard and set the stage for Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Snowe (R-ME), Lugar (R-IN) and Kerry (D-MA) to introduce legislation to take the program to its next logical step. The Efficient Vehicle Leadership Act of 2009 (S. 1620) would use the current CAFE level as a baseline to establish a feebaterewarding consumers who purchase more efficient vehicles and charging more for gas guzzlers. This legislation will move us from Cash for Clunkers’ expensive, short-term, and environmentally negligible stimulus to a long-term strategy to modernize America’s auto fleet to meet our planetary challenges. The feebate is structured to give the Detroit 3 enough time to catch up with the rest of the world and put the decision in the consumer’s hands: it’s a win-win situation.
Due to its success in stimulating the economy, it is hard to find people openly critical of Cash for Clunkers, but there are some serious and structural short-comings that should be discussed more openly among the progressive community in order to take the next step towards a truly clean energy economy. As the Onion eloquently puts it:
Organized mobs of old right wing activists are disrupting town halls this first week of Congressional recess to bully other constituents and put their representatives on the defensive regarding health care reform.
ThinkProgress reported that “By delaying a vote until after the August recess, lobbyists are now seizing upon recess town halls as opportunities to ambush lawmakers and fool them into believing there is wide opposition to reform.”
But we know this is an illusion. Young progressives will not be intimidated and we will not lay low. This generation has already proved that we are organized, engaged, and immensely effective.
We are encouraging young activists and bold future leaders to get out there and make their voices heard; the time is now to ensure that the pending legislation for health care, climate, and college affordability are not weakened or threatened by conservative and right-wing obstructionists.
Many Representatives are already setting up town hall meetings in their districts. Town halls are meant to be civic meetings between representatives and their constituents to discuss the hot issues on the political front, however these industry-backed right-wing mobs are ambushing the meetings with heckling, loud chants of “Just Say NO” regarding health care reform, and are many times not even letting representatives or other constituents get one word out.
These ambush tactics are not unplanned. They are not just a one off coincidence. These activists are being organized by right-wing lobbyists and are even being fed talking points and instructions on exactly how to shut down the town halls. This video on The Rachel Maddow Show details the actions taking place and the shows the instructed memo that the activists are receiving before attending the meetings. It’s not surprising that the talking points focus on obstructing reform instead of offering alternative solutions.
Don’t let this August recess be dominated by the familiar tactics of fear, intimidation, and lack of actual solutions – Get Out and Make an Impact this August Recess- visit our August Action Recess center today to stand up against Conservative obstruction.
The time has come for Congress to return home from the bustling capital and enjoy a summer recess in their districts. They will be in their local offices for the month of August, while all of us are left waiting and fretting over pending health care, climate, and student aid legislation. Well, now is not the time to wait and wonder what the future will bring – we have to get out and take action!
Don’t let your Reps and Senators enjoy their vacation too much; call them, write them, but most importantly set up lobby meetings[pdf] with them in their local offices. Congress members will be hearing from plenty of lobbyists and conservative naysayers while they are home in their districts, we can’t let them be swayed from the progress they have made thus far. Get creative and make your voice heard.
In order to spice up your in-district action this August recess, Campus Progress is suggesting a few creative events that can accompany lobby meetings with your Reps and Senators and make your time a little more memorable:
Creative Event:Aerial Photo
We already took a bird’s eye view of things when we decided to fight for clean energy, college affordability and healthcare reform, now it’s time to share what we saw. Show your representatives and community members that there are tons of people (literally) spelling out our demands with an aerial photo. Aerial photos are a fun and engaging way to mobilize your volunteers and will certainly get you some good media. You can even turn your creative action into a flash mob by having people converge in a crowded room wearing similarly colored shirts and freezing in place in a formation spelling out your message of change. Just make sure you have a way of taking the picture from above!
Climate Crisis Example
Fact: The American Clean Energy and Security Act is the first piece of climate legislation to be passed in the House of Representatives, but its chances of being passed in the Senate are getting slim.
Scenario: You and your group of friends run an online/offline campaign to build the buzz about an upcoming flash mob happening in the atrium or in front of your legislator’s in-district office; the only instruction given is to wear green and to meet at a nearby park 30 minutes ahead of time. When they get there you hand them a piece of paper showing where they need to stand, then have them walk in at random intervals and freeze when they get to their spot. When all of the 100 participants freeze, your group’s photographer will take the shot of them all spelling out “Stop Climate Change” and yell out “Climate Action Now”. At that point everyone unfreezes and joins the chant that is then picked up by all of the participants.
Creative Event:Pranks
One idea is to conduct “pranks” at your Congress members’ local offices. Now we don’t mean wrap their toilet seats in plastic or super-glue their phone receiver down. We mean go in there and get your point across in a memorable and humorous way (well they may not think its funny) but they will certainly catch the irony of your actions and it may just open their eyes to how ridiculous they will be if they choose not to vote for the economic opportunities you are demanding as their constituent!
A “prank” would be an intentionally ironic or witty way of approaching your Congress members’ local office to demand health care for all, clean energy jobs, or college affordability. There are many opportunities for this creative event that could work for any of the issues you will be pushing for, please see below for one such example:
Health Care Example
Fact: Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently answered a constituent’s concern about not receiving good health care benefits by saying the constituent should come work for the federal government in order to receive the same great health coverage as he receives.
Irony: Senator Grassley sits on the Senate Finance Committee; responsible for drafting health care legislation right now, yet he has been opposed to real reform from day one. Despite the fact that he could help his constituents receive quality, affordable health coverage by voting for strong reform, he apparently thinks the solution is for everyone to work for Congress if they can’t receive health care otherwise.
Scenario: You dress up for an interview, prepare your resume, have a cover letter ready and call your Rep/Senator’s office to schedule a meeting. You show up at your meeting fully prepared to “apply for a job with Congress” in order to receive the health care benefits that they receive, especially since so many conservative and moderate members of both parties are blocking real reform by delaying the legislation and/or voting against the public option and other components of health care reform that will prevent you from receiving the same quality, affordable care that your Rep/Senators receive. It is important to ensure you have talking points about health care reform (included in the toolkit[pdf]) so that other than the obvious “prank” your Rep/Senator realizes your demand for reform.
Creative Props
It’s what Yorick’s skull, Bond’s stylish gadgets, and Holmes’ pipe have in common. Bringing something really big to your meeting—like a giant version of a student loan statement—or even something really small—like a grain of rice carved with a message, like “maxPellin2020w/oSAFRA”—can help you get across your message in a memorable way. It can also help you show broad support. For example, getting people to sign a costume arm cast in support of health care, borrowing a friend’s old crutches, and hobbling into the office.
Today the Navajo Nation Council voted in favor of enacting the Navajo Green Economy Commission, bringing members of the Navajo Green Economy Coalition to tears after working for months to pass this historic piece of legislation. Today’s victory will lay the groundwork to the creation of plenty of good jobs aimed at increasing access to clean energy within Navajo lands and previously impoverished communities.
As you can see in the picture, young people were front and center in pressuring Navajo leaders to support this legislation. Multi-generational supporters wearing green t-shirts with clean energy messages marched a quarter of a mile to the Navajo Nation Council Chambers where they encouraged and ensured that their community representatives would vote in favor of a clean energy future. Chelsea Chee, the Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator at Black Mesa Water Coalition had this to say:
“Youth played a tremendous role in the enactment of this legislation from it’s beginning to this victory. We helped to create the language for the legislation, helped to get community support resolutions, helped to build awareness on and off the reservation via new communication methods (texting, Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook), and were present at the actual voting of the legislation. More importantly, the youth exercised their voices throughout the entire process.”
After years of campaigning against strip mining, coal power plant development and other destructive practices on and around their lands, Navajo citizens concerned with the impact of dirty forms of energy have finally been able to celebrate a victory that lays out a different, healthier path.
In a stunning victory for our friends over at Green for All, last minute equity provisions were added to the American Clean Energy Act to ensure that disadvantaged and low-income communities will get access to trainings and resources and be at the forefront of the clean energy economy.
1. $860 million allocated to the Green Jobs Act. The Green Jobs Act, a major legislative victory for Green For All last year, creates training opportunities for workers who need new skills for clean energy jobs. Such programs promise to be the first step out of poverty for many who are in desperate need of work.
2. Local access to quality jobs, through the creation of a green-construction, careers-demonstration program. Rep.Bobby Rush authored this demonstration program, which will promote middle-class careers and quality employment practices in the green construction sector. The language in the bill empowers the Secretaries of Labor and Energy to ensure job quality standards for these green construction jobs. It also ensures that a portion of the jobs will be accessible to low-income and local workers.
These new provisions will guarantee that this highly touted Clean Energy Jobs bill will prioritize those people who have been left behind by the old dirty economy and their importance is critical considering the shortage of trained clean energy professionals in the United States. Low-income and disadvantaged communities will be able to take advantage of these programs and become the workers who will save us from the worst effects of the climate crisis. Money invested in building retrofits create many times more jobs than in dirty fuels while also producing (saving) much more energy. Programs like these deserve funding in a climate bill, not earmarks to Carbon Capture and Sequestration and handouts to polluters.
Congratulations to Green for All, their partners and every one of you who took action to make this deeply flawed bill a more equitable one.
Yesterday I sent off a Tweet saying: “Tired of Waxman compromising. Admiring Peterson for standing up for his constituents (ag). Wish Markey would too. #ACES” just to receive a bunch of responses along the lines of: “I don’t understand what you’re talking about” and realized maybe it’s time for a non-wonky update on why our future (might) not be as rosy as it could be.
The Waxman Markey bill (aka American Clean Energy and Security Act, Clean Energy Jobs bill, Lightswitch Tax,Clean Coal Billetc) started out as an ambitious proposal in President Obama’s budget which called for the United States to once again find its greatness and power through an overhaul of the way we use electricity. It called for us to generate large amounts of renewable energy (i.e. energy that doesn’t run out and doesn’t harm the health of surrounding communities), to stop wasting electricity by modernizing our distribution networks and a plan to put a price on carbon and redirect revenue to help low-income Americans cope with increasing energy prices and help mitigate effects of the climate crisis throughout the world among others.
Rendered image approximation of completed FutureGen facility
News broke today that the Obama administration restored funding to the controversial government research project FutureGen. Funding had been cut by President Bush in an unusual (though inadvertent) act of environmental sanity.
For those of you not in the loop, FutureGen was supposed to be the Government’s demonstration project to research and prove the viability of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CSS). CCS is a magical and mystical technique (is it a spell? a potion? no-one really knows) to capture carbon dioxide spewed by coal burning power plants, liquify it, and then bury it underground. Proponents of this fantastic technology claim that it would solve a whole slew of problems by dealing with the climate crisis while protecting the coal industry’s profits, ensuring the continuation of their ability to buy coal state politicians and maintaining King Coal’s feudal-like grip on Appalachia and other coal-mining regions.
This was the whole premise of Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Unfortunately, things aren’t as rosey as its proponents claim. Cost estimates for FutureGen are steadily on the rise and most studies doubt the technology’s ability to produce electricity at a competitive price. In what should have been a final nail on the CCS coffin, the country of Norway which is well known for pioneering the technology, is increasingly worried that sequestered gasses just aren’t staying underground. All evidence suggests that taking greenhouse gasses, liquifing them and sticking them underground hoping that they won’t leak is like dealing with an approaching asteroid by having every human being on the planet blow air at it.
Unfortunately, coal industry astroturfing and copious lobbying expenses managed to convince most politicians that a magical world powered by ‘clean coal’ is possible and right around the corner, prompting the Obama administration to restore copious amounts of funding to FutureGen. This is what Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois had to say:
“In my time in Congress, I can’t recall a project that has greater scientific and practical significance than FutureGen, not to mention the enormous economic benefit it will have in Illinois”
Not one? Possibly that’s because there just haven’t been any programs of similar proportions for the real solutions to the climate crisis. All that money would go very far in helping to develop breakthroughs in cheaper and more realistic technologies such as enhanced geothermal (which could be deployed anywhere, uses similar technology to oil drilling and would help transition workers from fossil industries), hydrokinetic (using waves, currents and tides), and advanced efficiency measures (which provide the cheapest, cleanest form of energy).
This is what is most disconcerning about the American Clean Energy and Security Act. This bill is supposed to lay the strategy for our epic fight against the climate crisis, but what it mostly ends up doing is bailing out fossil intensive industries propping them up to fight for continued handouts while drawning out efforts from emergin firms to innovate the way we produce, distribute and use energy.
There will most likely be a floor vote in the house about the American Clean Energy and Security Act in about two weeks. Now is the time to get active in your community. Call your representative, visit his or her district office and tell them you will not stand for a warming world, that the future of our planet is worth more than the FutureGen gamble tell them you want them to introduce amendments to:
Axe the $500 energy tax earmarked for ”clean coal” development and divert the giveaways for coal plants and oil refiners to clean energy research, development and deployment.
Strengthen the Renewable and Energy Efficiency Standards to 30% by 2020 with a at least a >2% carveout for solar.
Strengthen emission reduction targets to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 as science demands.
There will be another congressional hearing about the climate bill tomorrow, and guess who is on the stand? Five people representing fossil industries, one faith leader, and an economist from the most corporatist ‘environmental’ organization around.
There are no young people on the panel and our only ally, Maria Castellanos from the United Church of Christ, is also the only witness who isn’t white, a man, and whose pockets aren’t lined with bloody fossil fuel cash.
Wouldn’t it be nice to let these people know what we think they should be saying? I looked around for their e-mail addresses for you. Pick one person, and send them a quick note. I chose Mr. Keohane from the Environmental Defense Fund and this is what I’m writing him:
Funding our Future is a campaign to pass a progressive federal budget for 2010 and ensure that our nation.s key economic choices invest in our education, spark reform of our health care system, and address climate change through cap and trade and clean energy investments. Click here for more info.
Organized mobs of old right wing activists are 
The time has come for Congress to return home from the bustling capital and enjoy a summer recess in their districts. They will be in their local offices for the month of August, while all of us are left waiting and fretting over pending health care, climate, and 
broad support. For example, getting people to sign a costume arm cast in support of health care, borrowing a friend’s old crutches, and hobbling into the office.
Today the Navajo Nation Council voted in favor of enacting the Navajo Green Economy Commission, bringing members of the Navajo Green Economy Coalition to tears after working for months to pass this historic piece of legislation. 
In a stunning victory for our friends over at Green for All, last minute equity provisions were added to the American Clean Energy Act to ensure that disadvantaged and low-income communities will get access to trainings and resources and be at the forefront of the clean energy economy.
There will be another