Power Vote at the Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear

I went to the rally to restore sanity on Saturday. As pointed out by many who attended- the rally was somewhat ironically- insane. I went with Energy Action Coalition all-star Anjali Helferty to bring a little Power Vote magic to the proceedings! The crowds were overwhelming- it was difficult to make our way anywhere near the stage or jumbo screens. Instead we walked around the outskirts of the huge crowd in our Power Vote capes urging young people to get out and vote on Tuesday! Turns out this was a message missing from the rest of the rally- no mention of voting was made. So here it is- be sane on Tuesday and VOTE! And tell everyone you know to do the same!

Power Vote Kicks Off in Maryland!

Youth across Maryland are ready to make their voices heard this election season: letting elected officials know that they are voting for clean energy and healthy communities. Schools are starting kick off events in style- with BBQ’s, open mic nights and socials! Check out the Power Vote crew at Morgan St. To start the year they blanketed the campus in green Power Vote shirts to collect pledges and hand out flyers for the open mic night. The event was a big success- over 50 people came out to perform and learn more about the campaign.

CCAN Youth and Power Vote Stand with Little Village

Last night I arrived home from an action-packed training for Power Vote 2010. Over 100 students and young people joined with the coalition and partner staff of the Energy Action Coalition and our trainers from Wellstone Action.

On Thursday we joined the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in their protest of the Crawfod Coal Plant. The Crawford plant is one of the oldest and dirtiest in operation,
causing 41 premature deaths per year. At the rally, speakers spoke against the dangers their community faces daily- several nearby coal plants, other manufacturing centers- as they lit candles in remembrance of those whose lives are cut short by pollution. They also connected the devastation in their neighborhood back to recent mine collapse in West Virginia, to communities threatened by mountaintop removal, and to the entire dirty death-cycle of coal. It was a powerful moment that connected each of us there, young people from across the country with the residents of Little Village. In closing, we were reminded that an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere. And right now there are far too many coal plants and mines in our backyards.

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CCAN's First Rap Video

It’s on! The national Power Vote Challenge Week has arrived and young people across the country are taking their Power Vote pledge campaigns to the next level. The Maryland Student Climate Coalition, set a state wide goal of getting 4,400 pledges in one week! Michigan shot back with a challenge of 4,401. Or course, Maryland won’t allow ourselves to be upstaged by Michigan. I think this ridiculous rap video speaks for itself:

Bring it on Michigan! And let’s make it rain PVs across this Nation! Take the challenge today. I would love to see some other states/schools go head-to-head.

The Power Vote energizer bunny!

Our own dear Ethan Nuss, doing his Power Vote magic:

powervoteNow “Power Vote,” a national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition, seeks to elevate the issue of climate change in the 2008 election by mobilizing one million young “climate voters.” To do this, the Energy Action Coalition and its more than forty partner organizations are organizing young people across the United States to pledge their vote “for clean and just energy.”

Watch the real training video here:

It's 2008. Do you know where your US Congressperson is?

Students at Morgan State University know exactly where to find theirs. Along with community members they successfully got their US Congressional Representative, Elijah Cumming to sign onto the 1Sky platform. Then the following week they heard Rep. Cumming was coming to a rally on campus. They sprung into action, slapped on their Power Vote stickers, summoned some courage, and asked if they could “adopt” him.

Check it out:

The “Adopt a Congressperson” campaign is a program advanced in part by the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative. Its time that we all “adopt” our elected officials and tell them to give us the clean and just energy future our generation demands. Continue reading

Hands in the Middle for Maryland

by Ethan Nuss

Oh yea, Power Vote‘n in MD, baby! This past weekend members of the Maryland Student Climate Coalition (MSCC) gathered to launch Power Vote in style, and set a stellar state goal of 40,000 total pledges! (Two Maryland High School students gathered 400 pledges in the 5 days after returning from the Mega Camp training in MN. Booyah!) The MSCC is also planning multiple coordinated Green Jobs Day of Action events across the state and looking to garnish some high profile media like the Washington Post. But wait it doesn’t stop there…. the MD students heard that the Governor and several of their US congresspeople will be doing a campus speaking tour the first week of September. Expect to see Maryland students there in Power Vote T-shirts, green hard hats, and waving signs, because I smell some sweet bird-dogging.

But before we get ahead of ourselves with the excitement of the Sunday gathering (see silly video). Let’s rewind to Friday when they got their first campaign victory. Maryland students and community members went to an in district meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings. What was the result of that meeting, you ask? They got Rep. Cummings to become the second member of congress to sign onto the 1Sky platform and commit to Green Jobs, Science based carbon reductions, and a moratorium on new coal plants. Yay! Look out Maryland elected officials because the MSCC is here to Kick this country into action!