POWERSHIFT

Thousands of committed young people and anti-coal activists will make history in Washington, D.C., today when a long-percolating grassroots anti-coal movement comes to full boil in front of the Capitol Power Plant (CPP). Though the CPP is a merely symbolic stand-in for the real opposition, the U.S. coal industry, it will be the backdrop for a very real protest, the first in the U.S. to demand that national leaders get busy fighting global climate change. To demonstrate their profound seriousness, the mostly youthful protesters' demonstration will culminate with a peaceful mass act of civil disobedience.

Thanks to the responsiveness of the current Democratic Congressional leadership, this movement has already begun to win its fight.

PowerShift 2009. From climateed via YouTube.

Bill McKibben, Middlebury College scholar in residence and 350.org co-founder: “Washington has seen its share of big protests over the years, and most of them center on the White House, the Mall or the Capitol. That will change tomorrow, when the first big protest of the Obama era -- and the first mass civil disobedience against global warming in this country -- will take place against the not-very-scenic backdrop of the Capitol Hill Power Plant, a dirty symbol of the dirtiest business on Earth, the combustion of coal.”

To kick off PowerShift 2009, a weekend gathering of anti-coal and New Energy advocates that will culminate in the mass action of civil disobedience on Monday, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) acknowledged the rightness, courage and commitment of the movement by releasing a letter instructing the Architect of the Capitol to transition the plant from a coal-burning to natural gas-burning facility by the end of this year.

From the Pelosi-Reid letter to Acting Architect of the Capitol Stephen T. Ayers: “Taking this major step toward cleaning up the Capitol Power Plant’s emissions would be an important demonstration of Congress’ willingness to deal with the enormous challenges of global warming, energy independence and our inefficient use of finite fossil fuels. We strongly encourage you to move forward aggressively with us on a comprehensive set of policies for the entire Capitol complex and the entire Legislative Branch to quickly reduce emissions and petroleum consumption through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean alternative fuels.”

PowerShift 2009 gathers the most committed of the youthful and nationwide movement against the use of coal to generate electricity - and for the building of a New Energy economy - for presentations, workshops and speakers ranging from Ms. Pelosi, Obama EPA head Lisa Jackson, Congresswoman Donaa Edwards, Congressman Ed Markey, South Bronx environemental activist Majora Carter, Oakland community organizer Van Jones, Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo and former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta.

From energyaction via YouTube

Scheduled to be arrested along with some of the best of this nation’s youth in the peaceful mass act of civil disobedience against coal and for New Energy, are climate change guru and NASA scientist James Hansen, former U.N. Development Programme head Gus Speth and farmer/author/anti-coal activist Wendell Berry.

Ringo, Apollo Alliance: “The Apollo Alliance has been working for years to frame the issue of green jobs and how they can help both the economy and our environment…Investment in green is a win-win-win-win for America and for our communities, and we are fortunate to have a president that gets that.”

PowerShift is directed largely at the young people who have been integral to the grassroots movement that has already begun turning the development of U.S. energy infrastructure around.

Ringo: “The Apollo Alliance is about building a coalition around clean energy. The most important part of any coalition that wants to change the status quo is how you prepare the next generation to deal with those issues…Unfortunately, because of the practices of my generation, we are leaving these young people with one heck of a mess … global warming, the economy is floundering, and we’re being held over an oil barrel by foreign governments. We’ve got to prepare a generation to not only receive the problems my generation created, but to fix them.”

Last year's "New Apollo" study demonstrated the potency of New Energy investment to propel the economy. (click to enlarge)

The current dire circumstances do not discourage Ringo but only convince him the need for action is more urgent and the opportunity greater.

Ringo: “…The election of Barack Obama sent a powerful signal about the power of the voice of young people in this country. Young people have successfully reactivated activism in this country…Whether they are speaking through organized events or through email, the power of young people in moving the presidency forward and bringing a new face to America can be replicated in moving the green movement forward and responding to the many economic and national security challenges we face today.”

The response of Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid indicates something very very important about this pivotal moment in history: There are now leaders in power ready to respond to committed action.

The anti-coal, pro-New Energy movement is deeply committed to its cause. Years of letter-writing, lobbying and community organizing preceded this weekend in the spotlight. Participants say they fully intend to keep the pressure up to force the U.S. to phase out the use of coal entirely.

McKibben: “The power plant is only a symbol…It's time to start figuring out how to shut down every coal-fired plant on the planet…”

This movement does not, however, intend to long settle for the Pelosi/Reid solution of natural gas, which is a bridging energy at best. As adamant as these deeply serious people are about stopping coal, they are just as adamant about the development of New Energies and Energy Efficiencies, the real solutions to economic desperation, global climate change, dependency on enviromentally-devastating fossil fuels and national security compromises.

There can be a fruitful strategic relationship between leaders of the political establishment and an activist grassroots movement. It is, to be sure, a volatile dynamic and it can get out of control in a lot of different ways. Right now, though, an effective marriage of policy and action can remake the energy infrastructure of the U.S. and the world. And right now is when it is urgently needed.

Christopher Field, researcher, Stanford: "We are basically looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations. Our foremost climatologist, NASA's James Hansen, has given that future a number -- any level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere beyond 350 parts per million, his team has demonstrated, is ‘incompatible with the planet on which civilization developed.’"

click through to 350.org

McKibben was a co-founder of 350.org because he understands so clearly Field’s point.

McKibben: “Since we're already past that number -- the carbon dioxide level is at 387 parts per million -- the fight is on. Indeed, by Hansen's calculation, the world will need to be out of the coal-burning business by 2030, and the West much sooner than that, if we're ever going to get back to 350.”

Calling for passionate participation in the action, McKibben nevertheless acknowledged it will take more than one demonstration to transition from the entrenched power of Old Energy to the New Energy economy.

McKibben, on Sunday, March 1: “Success won't come right away because we're up against some of the world's richest corporations, but we have to start turning this tanker around someday, and tomorrow is that day.”

Monday is the day and these are people. Their motto is "We Are The Change." Indicative of their commitment was their quick response that the Pelosi-Reid natural gas solution is only temporarily good enough. Natural gas, though much cleaner than coal, is still a fossil fuel. It requires destruction of the earth to obtain and it releases greenhouse gases when it is burned.

click to enlarge

Some natural gas plants can be made more efficient by designing them to capture the heat from power generation and re-using it to heat adjacent buildings but the CPP is used only for heating. It has been suggested that Ayers look into the newest concept in natural gas power plant design, the incorporation of solar power plant technology so as to reduce the burning of natural gas by all the power the sun can generate.

It remains to be seen whether there is adequate space to build a solar power plant adjacent to the CPP. If the space is inadequate, one thing will always be more than adequate: The resiliency and commitment of these activists in their stewardship of this good earth and their ceaseless search for a better way.

From energyaction via YouTube.

Powershift 2009 is Ractivating Activism, Says Jerome Ringo
Jesse Jenkins, March 1, 2009 (Energy Collective/WattHead via It’s Getting Hot In Here)
and
The Carbon Addicts on Capitol Hill
Bill McKibben, March 1, 2009 (Washington Post)
and
Pelosi/Reid call to switch Capitol Power Plant off of coal
Matt Leonard, February 27, 2009 (It’s Getting Hot in Here)
and
Capitol Power Plant Should Switch to 100 Percent Natural Gas
Karina, February 26, 2009 (The Gavel)

WHO
Jerome Ringo, President, Apollo Alliance & keynote speaker, PowerShift 2009; Bill McKibben, scholar in residence, Middlebury College & co-founder, 350.org; Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) & Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev); Stephen T. Ayers, Acting Architect of the Capitol; Capitol Climate Action Coalition (100+ organizations from across the U.S.); Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and Robert Byrd (D-W.V.); ~12,000 young people

WHAT
Power Shift 2009, a gathering of 12,000+ activists for the biggest climate change and New Energy action in U.S. history, will culminate in the largest act of civil disobedience in US history for the climate at the Capitol Power Plant (CPP), the focus and symbol of the action.

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WHEN
- The peaceful civil disobeidence action will be March 2.
- The Pelosi/Reid announcement came 4 days before the action.
- The Capitol Power Plant has been controversial for years.
- Since 1910, the CPP has continuously provided steam and chilled water for heating and cooling purposes in the Capitol, House and Senate office buildings and associated facilities.
- Pelosi and Reid instructed Ayers to retrofit at least one of the CPP coal boilers by Summer 2009 the other by the end of the year.

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WHERE
- PowerShift is being held in Washington, D.C.
- The Anti-coal rally and demonstration and peaceful mass protest action of civil disobedience will be at the Capitol Power Plant, in sight of Capitol Hill.
- The Apollo Alliance is a national organization based in San Francisco, CA.
- Participants in PowerShift and the Monday demonstration come from every region in the nation.

WHY
- The Pelosi/Reid decision to shift the CPP’s source of fuel demonstrates the sympathy of current leaders with the grassroots movement to turn back U.S. use of coal in service to reversing global climate change.
- Numerous efforts have been made to cleanm or shift the CPP plant’s fuel source but they have been blocked by coal state represetnatives, especially Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and Robert Byrd (D-W.V.)
- Speaker Pelosi introduced the Greening the Capitol Initiative to move Congress to a carbon neutral status.
- To event organizers and anti-coal activists, the CPP symbolizes the stranglehold coal has on the global climate, the environment and U.S. politics.
- Years of letter writing, lobbying, and grassroots organizing over the CPP’s use of coal but says this year’s mass mobilization is what finally pushed political leaders to act and calls on activists to keep the pressure on.
- In preparation for the March 2 mass act of peaceful civil disobedience, demonstrators were given non-violence trainings all weekend.
- The CPP is an important component of the Capitol Hill facilities master plan and the future of the Capitol complex.
- Jerome Ringo’s Apollo Alliance has for years been developing a vision of a New Energy economy that provides abundant opportunity for prospering multicultural communities.

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QUOTES
- Mike Tidwell, spokesman, Chesapeake Climate Action Network: “Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid today showed the power of grassroots action. That grassroots action is going to continue until Congress passes legislation that solves the climate crisis.”
- Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a letter to Stephen T. Ayers, Acting Architect of the Capitol: “…there is a shadow that hangs over the success of your and our efforts to improve the environmental performance of the Capitol and the entire Legislative Branch. The Capitol Power Plant (CPP) continues to be the number one source of air pollution and carbon emissions in the District of Columbia and the focal point for criticism from local community and national environmental and public health groups…We are also interested in identifying and supporting funding to retrofit CPP if necessary so that it can operate on 100 percent natural gas…While the costs associated with purchasing additional natural gas will certainly be higher, the investment will far outweigh its cost. The switch to natural gas will allow the CPP to dramatically reduce carbon and criteria pollutant emissions, eliminating more than 95 percent of sulfur oxides and at least 50 percent of carbon monoxide. The conversion will also reduce the cost of storing and transporting coal as well as the costs associated with cleaning up the fly ash and waste. Eliminating coal from the fuel mixture should also assist the City of Washington, D.C., in meeting and complying with national air quality standards, and demonstrate that Congress can be a good and conscientious neighbor by mitigating health concerns for residents and workers around Capitol Hill…”
- McKibben: “In that one plant -- owned and operated by our senators and representatives -- you can see all the filth that comes with coal. There are the particulates it spews into the air...There are the profits it hands to the coal industry, which is literally willing to level mountains across West Virginia and Kentucky to increase its fat margins. And most of all there is the invisible carbon dioxide it spews each day into the atmosphere, drying our forests, melting our glaciers and acidifying our oceans…”