VA Power Shifters,

It has been about three weeks, and I don’t know about you all, but I am still reeling from VAPS. After months of planning, what was experienced at Virginia Power Shift was so much more than we as a steering committee had first dreamed and hoped. Thank you all for your enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. You made Power Shift all it could be.

But where are we now? The VACE core has been continuing to speak weekly about VACE and its projected path. We are starting campaign planning, and met this weekend to solidify our vision, mission statement, and start to put our campaign on paper. However we cannot run a solid, comprehensive campaign without people and support. DO YOU HAVE A CAMPUS REP YET?????? Send your campus reps ASAP to Emily Sherman so that we can all stay in constant contact. We want to keep this alliance strong and representative. Campus Reps are crucial to that process.

100 Actions for Clean Energy have continued throughout the state. Eastern Mennonite University, University of Richmond, Virginia Tech, and JMU all held stellar actions this month. Take a look at the awesome actions going on around the country http://www.wearepowershift.org/100actions.

Lastly, Midwest Power Shift occurred Oct. 21st -23rd. Hundreds of awesome Power Shifters not only rallied against the Keystone XL Pipeline, but stood in solidarity with Occupy Cleveland and demanded the MSU move off coal by sending in nume¬¬¬¬rous calls to President Simon’s office. Please show your support by calling President Simon at 517-355-6560 and tell her you stand in solidarity with the students at MSU and believe that MSU should move beyond coal. Then log your call here http://bit.ly/qvvssw so that the MSU organizers can keep track.
So Shifters, let’s keep rolling. Our state is one of the most dependent coal states in the nation. We have five campus coal plants, an electricity company based in coal, and the threat of fracking and Uranium mining on our borders. Let’s make our offshore wind potential a reality and start creating some green jobs.

Join us in representing VACE this weekend on Nov. 6th as we join hands with thousands across the country to surround the White House in solidarity against the Keystone XL Pipeline. This has never been attempted before and we do not know how many people it will take, therefore it is crucial we get as many people there as we can. It is going to be an amazing action to be a part of. For more information visit tarsandsaction.org. We look forward to seeing you there!

Keep it green.

Check out the newest post about VA Power Shift!! Thanks UVA’ers for coming to Power Shift…. let’s get to work shutting down that dirty coal plant!  http://wuvaonline.com/students-seek-to-move-%E2%80%9Cbeyond-coal%E2%80%9D/

The Collegiate Times reported on our Rally for Clean Energy today : http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/18408/students-rally-for-cleaner-energy

AND we got an awesome report on the rally from the Roanoke Times!!! http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/299200

This coverage is crucial to educating and recruiting people from the New River Valley area to stand for clean energy and move the VT  power plant OFF of coal by 2020! We couldn’t have gotten such great media coverage with the attendance of 200 students at VA Power Shift, without the support of the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Energy Action Coalition or without the dedication of the rally planners, marchers, and speakers!

Thank you all so much for an empowering, invigorating, successful weekend!

Virginia has the lowest average asthma rates! Let’s keep it that way by increasing our renewable energy portfolio and reducing our reliance on coal fired power plants!

credit: http://www.thegreenregister.com/news/259-united-states-of-the-environment

Check out this great blogpost highlighting clean energy jobs opportunities in Appalachia.

A representative from the JOBS Project (read below) will be at VA Power Shift to discuss the renewable energy possibilities in VA and Appalachia. Another great reason to register for VAPS: learn how you can support green jobs in the coalfields by talking with Mountain Justice, SAMS, and Keeper of the Mtns members!

Searching for green jobs for the coalfields

September 8, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr.

Yesterday, the National Mining Association took its shot at imposing the view that the only way out of the nation’s economic mess is more coal and more coal-fired power plants. Of course, the NMA’s views ignore the reality of global warming and — for folks here in Central Appalachia — the very real declines in coal production expected by the end of this decade.

So I thought Coal Tattoo readers might be interested in checking out this guest post on Joe Romm’s Climate Progress blog, which outlines some very interesting points about the green economy, including:

– There are already 2.7 million jobs across the clean economy. Clean energy is already proving to be larger job creation engine than the heavily subsidized fossil-fuels sector, putting Americans back to work in a lackluster economy.

– Across a range of clean energy projects, including renewable energy, transit, and energy efficiency, for every million dollars spent, 16.7 green jobs are created. That is over three times the 5.3 jobs per million dollars that are created from the same spending on fossil-fuel industries.

– The clean energy sector is growing at a rate of 8.3 percent. Solar thermal energy expanded by 18.4 percent annually from 2003 to 2010, along with solar photovoltaic power by 10.7 percent, and biofuels by 8.9 percent over the same period. Meanwhile, the U.S. wind energy industry saw 35 percent average annual growth over the past five years, accounting for 35 percent of new U.S. power capacity in that period, according to the 2010 U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report. As a whole, the clean energy sector’s average growth rate of 8.3 percent annually during this period was nearly double the growth rate of the overall economy during that time.

– Median wages are 13 percent higher in green energy careers than the economy average. Median salaries for green jobs are $46,343, or about $7,727 more than the median wages across the broader economy. As an added benefit, nearly half of these jobs employ workers with a less than a four-year college degree, which accounts for a full 70 percent of our workforce.

Now, you don’t hear many political leaders or business boosters in West Virginia talking about these things. They’re too busy smokestack chasing for a natural gas “cracker” plant, despite the continuing questions about whether the boom-and-bust of that sort of economy is the right way to go.

But groups like The Jobs Project, working with companies like Mountain View Solar, can make a difference, as we’ve reported here on Coal Tattoo before.

And energy efficiency efforts alone could create 60,000 new jobs in Appalachia over the next five years, according to a report prepared for the Appalachian Regional Commission (subscription required). We’ve also talked many times about the prospects for wind power in places like the Coal River Valley.

And what if we really started spending big money from the Abandoned Mine Lands program to clean up the coal industry’s old messes across the region? Think of the jobs that could create.

Not for nothing, but one report also projected that carbon capture and storage, or CCS, could create 74,000 U.S. jobs by 2030. But CCS isn’t going to happen as long as industry groups like the National Mining Association oppose efforts in Congress or by EPA to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Last week ended one of the biggest accomplishments in the environmental movement: part one of the Tar Sands Action. With 1,253 arrests over two weeks, it was officially the largest Civil Disobedience since 1977 and the most sustained since the Civil Rights Movement. The voices of the action, many of which were youth, were heard not only in DC but around the country and the world. Solidarity actions were done as far away as New Zealand and Minneapolis, while politicians, actors, scientists, indigenous leaders, authors, and nobel peace laureates raised their voices against the Pipeline.

However, the battle is not over. Obama stated himself in his 2008 campaign “Let’s be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil.” It is our duty to hold him to this, and we as Virginians have a unique oppurtunity to do that.

It was announced today that President Obama will be speaking at the University of Richmond this Friday, September 9th. This a rare oppurtunity to address him directly. Join University of Richmond students in protesting the injustice of developing the Tar Sands and building the XL Pipeline. Organizers will be meeting Thursday night to prepare, and then will be meeting outside the Robins Center at 10:15 am on Friday morning to march in. The President himself will start speaking at 11:35 am. For more information, please view the facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/TarSandsAction#!/event.php?eid=231832573531784 

This oppurtunity is rare and does not come often. The more of us that stand in solidarity on Friday, the stronger the voice we can give those directly affected by the Tar Sands and the Pipeline that cannot be there on Friday. Virginia, this is our chance to take a stance.

See you on Friday.