Election 2008

Change Two Climates This November

This is the most important election in decades, and students are gearing up!  Our turnout in primaries has been unprecedented, and we’re just getting started!  This fall, hundreds of students will take the semester off and dedicate themselves to increasing young voter turnout.  Together with them, we will make climate the central issue for voters young and old alike.  This campaign is called Power Vote 2008 and is being run by the Energy Action Coalition.

In Texas the story is no different.  At ReEnergize Texas, we are less concerned with the presidential race than we are with state and local elections.  There is a highly contested race for the US Senate between John Cornyn and Rick Noriega, and there are 30 contested seats in the Texas State Legislature.

Campus organizers have incredible influence over state and local elections because in many cases these races come down to hundreds or even just dozens of votes.  And while many of our classmates know who they will support for president, with a little research and charisma, it is quite easy to convince your peers to support the local candidates you like because most people know very little about the local races.

You can take action starting today using the resources below.  Put some of our flyers up around campus, deputize your group to register voters, and use our guide to plan a simple and effective election campaign.

American College and Universities Presidents’ Climate Commitment

The Path to Campus Climate Neutrality

Want to see your campus create a climate policy?  Want your administration to support climate neutrality?  The ACUPCC is a great way to do it!

The ACUPCC sets out a framework for moving a campus to climate neutrality “as quickly as possible.”  It is an agreement that can be signed by your university president or university system chancellor.  According the ACUPCC website, by signing, the university commits to

• Complete a greenhouse gas emissions inventory
• Within two years, set a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral
• Take immediate steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by choosing from a list of short-term actions
• Integrate sustainability into the curriculum and make it part of the educational experience
• Make the action plan, inventory and progress reports publicly available

So far, the Commitment has been signed by 498 campus presidents and chancellors nationwide, including 10 campuses in Texas.  These numbers indicate the leading role our campuses are playing in the fight again climate change, and the opportunity for your particular campus to do the same.

On this site we have collected a number of resources related to the ACUPCC.  Many of these are available, along with other documents and resources, on the ACUPCC website.  We have also developed our own PowerPoint presentation and handouts to help you explain the ACUPCC to students, faculty, staff, and administrators on your own campus.

No New Coal

Texas is at the Heart of the Most Important Climate Fight in America

ReEnergize Texas is proud to partner with Coal Block – Public Citizen’s project to stop coal plants now!  Public Citizen and its allies successfully stopped 8 of 11 proposed coal plants in Texas last year, and now Coal Block is going after the other 3 and others across the country.Coal is the #1 climate change threat and there must be a moratorium on new coal development!  In addition to cleaning the carbon out of its emissions, the coal industry needs to reassess its methods and priorities.  They must cease destructive practices including strip mining, mountaintop removal mining, and lobbying against clean air standards.Students CAN fight coal.  As a key demographic for election coverage, we can lobby local and national media to ask candidates tough questions about coal.  And for students living near proposed coal plants, you can convince residents, city councils, mayors, and your university’s administration to oppose coal development and refuse to purchase energy from proposed coal plants.Our resources include a description of the coal situation in Texas, flyers for spreading the word about coal’s many problems, sample editorials you can tweak for your campus or local paper, and films you can check out from us to screen on campus (in some cases we may also be able to arrange a visit by persons interviewed in the films or involved with its production).We encourage students interested in fighting coal locally to contact us and to develop a plan for local action.  In most cases there will be anti-coal groups working in your community, and your efforts can be strategically aligned with theirs.

Fossil Fools Day

We know that fossil fuels can’t last as our primary source of energy.  So why doesn’t our state and federal policy reflect that reality?  And why are fossil fuel companies and other investors (including our government) so slow to put their money behind clean energy solutions?

This neglect is costing our state and country jobs and revenues.  If we don’t act fast, major manufacturing economies like China will develop the renewable energy technologies ahead of us and further dominate us in the global economy.

This April Fools Day we are setting all joking aside to show how foolish the blind support of fossil fuels really is.  Well, maybe not all joking.

Across the country and across Texas, students will rally on their campuses, at gas stations, in front of power plants, and anywhere else these fossil fools are burning our future using last century’s energy technologies.

Our downloadable flyer can be edited with the information for your own local event.  Our guide will help you push a coherent message to the fossil fools and the rest of the public about changing our priorities.  We can create jobs for the working class and wealth for the investing class, but first we have to point out the foolish behavior that’s kept us from doing it already.