Today the MSU Board of Trustees and President Simon have failed students and community members.
We will not accept an energy plan without a retirement date for the coal plant or a time line to switch to 100% clean energy.
Over 12,000 of us have voiced our concerns which have fallen upon deaf ears.
We need leaders who want progress for our school.
Until we have a healthy and safe learning environment,
We will not stop.
These words rang out from students who filled the board room this morning hoping that the MSU Board of Trustees would listen to the thousands of calls and e-mails they've received over the past two weeks. They did not. Instead they commended our efforts and passions with the same pat on the head that we've been receiving for the past two years. They seem to say: "Look how cute they are trying to save the people and our planet," and then they say we just don't understand. But it's not cute, and they are the ones who don't seem to understand. In every city near a coal plant, people are suffering from asthma, lung disease, and many other serious health issues that could all be ameliorated by cleaning up the air they breathe.
by Whit Jones, Campaign Director, Energy Action Coalition
“Being bold is not about baby steps. It requires imagination, unconventional thought and courage.” - Michigan State University Energy Transition Plan, Page 1
Hours ago, Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees voted to approve an “Energy Transition Plan,” touting it as a major step forward for powering MSU with clean energy. However what the university is less vocal about is that Michigan State is home to the largest campus coal plant in the country, and this plan does not set a timeline to shut it down.
Declaring your goal is 100% renewable energy while continuing to burn coal indefinitely is not being bold. It’s greenwashing, and we expect better from our colleges and universities.
Right now, students are rallying on campus to demand MSU stop greenwashing and make a real commitment to shut down their coal plant. Click here to stand with them in support.
Michigan State University students live in the shadow of the largest on-campus coal plant in the country. Students pay tuition for an education, not to be made sick by dirty energy that pollutes the air and contributes to climate change.
Michigan State University claims to “Be Spartan Green,” a reputation that is soiled by it’s burning over 200,000 tons of coal a year and putting over 47,000 students at risk from coal pollution every day?
On April 13th, the MSU Board of Trustees will vote on a new plan for how the campus will be powered for decades to come. Unfortunately, the plan is flawed, unambitious, and incomplete. It fails to set a retirement date for MSU’s monstrous coal plant, and worse, it fails to map out a transition to 100% clean energy.
Students and young people seem to have spring fever, and it couldn’t be coming at a more important time. This week a massive coalition of economic and environmental justice groups are kicking off the 99% Spring trainings to train over 100,000 leaders in nonviolent direct action. Young people are at the center of it, hosting over 75 trainings, and already springing into action.
Check out some highlights from across the country (and click through to read first-person accounts from WeArePowerShift.org), and get ready to plug in, because the 99% Spring is here!
April 6, 2012 -- Today Swarthmore's Mountain Justice sent a student delegation with an elaborate formal invitation to President Chopp to join them in their fight to divest Swarthmore College's money from the "Sordid Sixteen," the 16 dirtiest domestic fossil fuel companies. About 20 people, including members of Mountain Justice and the wider campus community, visited her office at 12:30PM to deliver the invitation, which requests the president's support at an upcoming Board of Managers meeting at which Mountain Justice will be presenting their divestment proposal.
Members from the Earlham Environmental Action Coalition (EEAC) met with the Socially Responsible Investment Advisory Committee (SRIAC) on Wednesday to discuss EEAC’s Responsible Energy Investment Campaign.
In the early morning hours on Thursday morning, students at Ohio State University gathered outside the south edge of campus. The Board of Trustees were arriving for a meeting, and as they trickled in, students peacefully and silently held up signs asking for one thing: Don’t Frack With OSU. The protest attracted the attention of the local television news and the Lantern (the OSU newspaper), taking place as the Board members arrived for breakfast and then for lunch.
by Mary Schellentrager, Divestment Campaign Coordinator, Energy Action Coalition
Want to learn organizing strategies to challenge corporate power on your campus? Stay up late talking about revolutionary possibilities with student activists from all over the country? Learn about your endowment in order to shift the power at your school?
by Mary Schellentrager, Divestment Campaign Coordinator, Energy Action Coalition
Rachael and Emma of Earlham's Environmental Action Coalition table in their student center, mobilizing students to think about the true cost of Earlham's coal investments and gaining support for their coal divestment campaign. Instead of investing for quarterly returns, EEAC is urging their school to invest in the future of Earlham and the world through investments in the clean energy economy and other socially responsible investments.