renewable energy

There’s one vote on climate and clean energy this election that’s pretty clear and simple: Michigan’s renewable energy ballot initiative, Proposition 3. And right now, it needs our help.

Prop 3 is being called “the most important clean-energy vote this year” because it would substantially boost the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES) and help further develop Michigan’s clean energy economy, bringing much needed jobs to the state.

Not surprisingly (but still outrageously), dirty energy utilities and fossil fuel-funded front groups are spending million of dollars to defeat Prop 3, running misleading Ads, producing faulty reports and spreading disinformation about the initiative. And it’s not just from in-state utilities, Canadian pipeline company Enbridge, which dumped nearly 1 million gallons into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River in 2010 and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (a coal industry front group) also contributed to the campaign to defeat Proposition 3.

Today, I attended my first public hearing and I was not alone.  Casey Odom, a graduate student at Mississippi State University said, “I was really excited to get a first hand glimpse of an environmental law case.  This opportunity was invaluable to me as an environmentalist.”

The topic of this hearing was the potential of drilling for oil and natural gas within 12 miles of the Mississippi gulf coast.  The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) and the Mississippi Sierra Club have filed an appeal against the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) in order to block the potential for drilling off the shore of Mississippi.

As a born and raised Mississippian, this issue disturbed me.  When I first heard about the hearing I thought, “What the hell?! We already drill off the gulf coast, and we all saw how great of an idea that is in April two years ago!” The BP Oil Spill disaster was atrocious and now we want to use similar technology to drill for resources in areas potentially less than 8 miles from the coast?!  And just two days, a Chevron refinery exploded off the coast of Richmond, CA.  Fossil Fuels clearly aren’t working for us.  The logic baffles me. 

On Monday, administrators from campuses across North Carolina are arriving at Appalachian State University for the Appalachia Energy Summit.  The summit is to “aid The University of North Carolina in creating a strategic sustainable energy path for the mutual benefit of our students, the environment, and the world.”

As you may recall, The North Carolina Student Energy Network (NCSEN) met earlier this summer. Overall, we are very excited the energy summit is taking place and look forward to see what comes out of it. But in an effort to ensure that NCSEN's goals are heard we have written a letter requesting a personal meeting with UNC President Thomas W. Ross with a facts and suggestions sheet.

Couldn’t get enough of National Powershift? Want to reconnect with the environmental movement from Virginia? Don’t worry, Virginia Powershift is here!

Virginia Powershift aims to unite students across the Commonwealth to form a state environmental coalition and to celebrate our progress so far.

The event will take place September 30 - October 2, 2011 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA (check out the photos!).