Sierra Student Coalition

It takes a Giant Coal Plant to get President “Stallin'” Rawlins’ Attention

By Rebekah Hinojosa, UNT student and Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer

On April 3^rd, President V. Lane Rawlins of the University of North Texas (UNT) held a Q&A event called, “Really Let’s Talk.” The event allowed students to directly ask President Rawlins questions. Members of the UNT beyond coal campaign seized the opportunity to ask President “Stalling” Rawlins his reasoning for not committing to end UNT’s dependence on dirty fossil fuels.

One student asked, “President Rawlins, burning coal and natural gas pollutes our waterways. Why won’t you commit to move UNT beyond coal? Is it because UNT is in litigation with the electric company? Has the issue been resolved?”

President Rawlins replied, “The University is in litigation with the electric company. I’ve been advised by attorneys not talk about the status of the issue...”

Photo by Tyler Cleveland

As President Rawlins answered the student, I walked in with a 5ft by 4ft replica of the Gibbons Creek coal-fired power plant resembling the plant from which UNT receives 47% of its energy. The whole room turned and gawked at the three dimensional rendition as I carried it to the front of the room and sat in the sofa chair closest to Rawlins. No one could ignore me, not even the President. Rawlins turned towards me, “What do you have there?”

I stood up so that everyone could see me as I raised the coal plant high. “President Rawlins, World Water Day was on March 22^nd. Did you know that Gibbons Creek Coal plant releases about 275 lbs of mercury per year? It only takes 1g of mercury to pollute a 20 acre lake. Mercury pollution can damage or cause neurological problems to a fetus. This is where UNT gets its energy. UNT should do the right thing and move beyond coal.” I handed President Rawlins a letter from the Beyond Coal campaign demanding that the university move off of coal and other fossil fuels.

Coal-fired power plants are one of the top contributors to mercury pollution in our waterways. The Gibbons Creek coal plant from which UNT currently gets its power releases 275 lbs. of mercury per year. This mercury gets into Texas’ fresh water. In the U.S.; 300,000 infants are born at-risk every year for developmental defects because of their mother's exposure to toxic mercury pollution. In addition, the Gibbons Creek coal plant releases 11,931 tons of sulfur dioxide which turns into sulfuric acid and 31,681 lbs. of hydrochloric acid, further contaminating Texas’ fresh water.

If UNT wants to live-up to its motto, “We Mean Green,” they should abandon the dirty energy of the past and move towards a clean energy future. At UNT it would only cost $9 per student per year for clean energy. Clean energy = inexpensive, realistic energy. 

 

Michigan State Calls for Clean Energy on Campus

From Mary Anne Hitt, Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign

Nationwide, students are leading the way in pushing their universities and colleges to invest in innovative clean energy solutions.  There is a growing momentum on college campuses to move our nation off dirty, 19th century fuels that are making people sick.

Twenty colleges and universities have won fights to phase out coal plants on their campuses, thanks in large part to the hard hitting Campuses Beyond Coal campaigns of Sierra Student Coalition.  These plants are responsible for dangerous pollution including mercury, carbon dioxide, arsenic and lead and can lead to more severe asthma attacks, bronchial infections and cancer.

Students can help reinvent the American economy by pressuring school administrations to invest in clean, safe and reliable energy on campuses from California to Connecticut.

Here's the latest example of this amazing work by students - from Michigan State University and Sierra Student Coalition Organizer Anastasia Schemkes:

Michigan State operates the largest coal plant on a university campus in the nation, burning approximately 200,000 tons of coal per year. Fortunately for us, it also has one of the largest Campuses Beyond Coal campaigns in the nation with MSU Beyond Coal who has collected over 10,000 petition signatures to retire the dirty, aging plant over the course of their 2.5 year campaign. 

As a result of student pressure, the university released an "Energy Transition Plan" this semester that is meant be their road map toward cleaner energy for the campus. Unfortunately, the plan lacks, well, any real plan at all. In many ways the ETP is a smokescreen for furthering fossil fuel use at the school while talking a lot about clean energy in only vaguest terms. 

Students have responded with action, especially as the plan is headed to the Board of Trustees for approval. Along with an 18-foot-tall (yes, close to two stories! - see the photo above) inflatable inhaler, students held a press conference today about the negative health impacts of burning coal.

"I know firsthand how awful it is to have an asthma attack so bad that I've been hospitalized and stuck in a bed with machines helping me breathe, rather than being in class or out with friends," said senior and leader of MSU Beyond Coal Talya Tavor (pictured at the left at one of today's events) who has been suffering from asthma since she was two-years-old.

"Coal pollution causes hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks every year, which is why MSU must be a leader by cutting their toxic air pollution and switching to healthier energy sources starting now."

In addition to the inhaler sitting just behind "The Rock" - an iconic campus landmark they had to camp out all night to paint and defend - the group created a field of 37 10-foot-tall sunflowers to represent the 37 deaths per year in Ingham County from coal-related illnesses and a banner representing the 10,547 student petitions the group has collected asking the administration to retire the dirty coal-burning plant on campus. 

Later tonight they're hosting a Clean Energy Forum with energy experts from across the state discussing how Michigan can create jobs and improve the economy by being a clean energy leader. They'll also be joined by Bill McKibben, renowned author and activist who you might know from 350.org or those massive protests against the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline, who is skyping in to cheer them on. (You can catch a livestream of the event starting at 7pm ET)

All of this is leading up to the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday where the administration will formally present their deeply flawed plan. It's so bad that the students who were initially invited to participate in the Steering Committee refused to sign-off on the final version. 

Michigan State has a long way to go to be a clean energy leader, but students are still hopeful. 

"We know MSU can be a clean energy leader. Our vision is not just for cleaner air on campus, but to put Spartans at the forefront of building a prosperous clean energy economy for Michigan and being a model for our peer institutions," said Tavor. 

And you can help - take action today by signing a petition to the university’s Board of Trustees urging them to take real steps to move MSU to 100% clean energy starting now.

Photos by Kim Teplitzky.

 

Colleges to Get Fracked Up?

Colleges to Get Fracked Up?

Is the next frontier for natural gas fracking college campuses? It’s very possible, according to a recent article from EnergyWire. Ohio is just one example of the latest college natural gas drilling attempts: 

This summer, public universities across Ohio will submit detailed land inventories to the state, letting the government know which of their properties are available for drilling.

The state-mandated inventory is an effort to open more Ohio lands to oil and gas development as drillers flock to the Buckeye State to mine gas from the Utica Shale.

But are the risks of water pollution worth it to maybe get help with tuition?

It is "not unreasonable" to think that income earned from leases could be used by the state for scholarships, for example, said Donna Goss, (Ohio University) director of engagement and real estate management.

But critics say now may not be the best time for schools to look into leasing. With natural gas prices at an all-time low, many individual landowners are holding out for better contracts and higher revenues, Sierra Club's Nardone said. As they wait for prices to rebound, potential leaseholders have time to study fracturing's impacts.

It might behoove schools to take a similar tack, (Deb) Nardone (Director of the Sierra Club Natural Gas Reform Campaign) said.

Ohio University and the Athens, Ohio, area are a definite ground zero right now in the fight over natural gas and fracking, with many in the community speaking out loudly against the development. 

Ohio's not alone in natural gas companies seeking out public university property for drilling – Pennsylvania and Texas are also popular places.

But as I said in the EnergyWire article - natural gas is still a dirty, dangerous fossil fuel. Instead of investing in renewable energy, these states are reverting back to an old 19th-century practice with minimal oversight.

-- Deb Nardone, Director of the Sierra Club Natural Gas Reform Campaign

 

We Can Be the First Oil Free Generation

By: Joseph Manning

Chair of the Sierra Student Coalition Executive Committee

 

Joseph Manning and Quentin James

Yesterday I had the honor of going to the White House with Sierra Student Coalition National Director Quentin James. Quentin and I had been invited to attend President Obama’s speech on rising oil prices. It was a last minute invitation and it sent me scrambling to find a way down from Boston in less than 48 hours. However, I arrived late Wednesday night, and by 9:45 the next morning Quentin and I were making our way through White House security.

As expected the event was awe inspiring; to be one of 70 people in the Rose Garden when the President gives a national address is an opportunity most people will never have. So, for that, I feel immensely grateful. However, what I took away from this event is how much work is still ahead of us if we want to break our nation’s addiction to oil, create a healthier, more prosperous nation and avoid the worst consequences of climate disruption.

Here’s what President Obama had to say: “That’s the choice facing Congress today: They can either vote to spend billions of dollars on oil subsidies that keep us trapped in the past. Or they can vote to end these taxpayer subsidies so that we can invest in the future. It’s that simple.” Who couldn’t agree with this statement? Who truly believes that a company like Exxon, which earns a profit of $4.7 million every hour, needs tax payers to give them billions of dollars in subsidies? And yet Obama felt pressured to qualify his speech by saying that he would also support substantial new drilling initiatives.

As a young person with a stake in this nation’s future, it’s frustrating to feel like we’re constantly taking one step forward and then one step back. I know President Obama knows that our rising oil prices cannot be solved with more drilling. And in fact, recent polling has showed that most Americans correctly understand that Wall Street and oil speculators are more to blame for rising gas prices than the President. Oil will always be sold to the highest bidder at the highest possible price. Therefore the only way for us to get lower gas prices is to use less. We can decrease our demand on a large-scale with money-saving initiatives that improve fuel efficiency for vehicles and invest in domestic renewable energy sources. And yet, the political climate in our country has been so hostile and the influence of the fossil fuel industry so pervasive that a future where oil, coal, and gas are obsolete seems impossible for most Americans to imagine.

So this is our challenge! We must redefine the political culture which stifles innovation in order to defend an archaic energy source. We must show the potential that exists for America to transform itself into a beacon of clean, safe, and sustainable economic production with renewable energy sources that can create good jobs for Americans and boost our economy. We must help show our nation that a clean, healthy and prosperous energy future is not only possible, but necessary to improve the lives of all Americans!

We can be the first oil free generation!

Learn more about the Sierra Student Coalition and us on your campus.

 

Young Americans Do Care About the Environment

By: Sarah Hodgdon, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club

© Javier Sierra / Sierra Student Coalition members met with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at Howard University in October 2011.

"We ask with great urgency that the University of Kentucky be a leader and move away from the combustion of coal on campus."

Those are the words of Elaine Alvey (watch her in this Lexington TV news clip), a University of Kentucky student, to the school’s board of trustees this week. She is one of many UK students taking a stand against burning coal on campus, and one of thousands of college students nationwide leading the charge against the dirty coal industry and for a clean energy future.

Every generation of college students has had the cause that rocked their college campuses: In the 60s and 70s it was Vietnam, in the 80s the fight to end apartheid and today young people are mobilizing for a clean energy revolution with savvy campaigns to move their campuses off coal and fossil fuels to cut pollution, protect public health and avert climate disruption.

© Sierra Club / Students rally against coal at Powershift 2011 in Washington, DC.

It is critical now to highlight the work of these amazing young people as news has spread recently of a questionable study claiming that young Americans aren't engaged with their communities and care less about the environment than their parents. Nothing could be farther from the truth when it comes to the hard-working young people of the Sierra Student Coalition.

These students are running sophisticated operations and using 21st century tools and creative ideas, from giant art installations on campus to flash mobs to university sports sponsorships - and they are just as likely to be found donning suits to meet with campus presidents or the head of the EPA in Washington, D.C. as they are to be collecting petitions between classes.

© Sierra Club / Michigan State University students chalk their clean energy messages on campus.

And they're winning. More than 60 college campuses in the US have a coal burning power plant on their campus. Outraged students who are sick of the stranglehold that Big Oil and King Coal have on our energy system and our politics are speaking out to move their campuses towards clean energy - and so far have won commitments to retire nearly one-third of those aging campus coal plants.

Elaine and the work of the UK Beyond Coal student coalition made news this week, and that’s just one of many news-making activities on the environment that we're seeing from young Americans.

Another example: Iowa State University students have been working tirelessly for the past five years to retire the second largest campus power plant in the country and get it replaced with clean energy. Last month dozens of students, faculty, staff, and community members descended on the front steps of their new university president’s office building to welcome him with a human billboard asking him to move the campus beyond coal.

© Sierra Club / University of Virginia Beyond Coal students before a university board meeting on campus energy issues.

Other inspiring campaigns include students at UNC and the University of Illinois pushing for their schools to go beyond just retiring their campus coal plants, but to divest university endowment funds from the dirtiest coal companies.

From Missouri State to Michigan State and beyond (look how busy young Americans were at this year's United Nations climate meetings in South Africa), these young Americans are getting it done. Their successes are making universities top leaders in clean energy nationally and are developing a new generation of clean energy entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators.

This work by young Americans is also getting noticed: leaders are listening. In just one example, this past October Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson met with 30 young college leaders to talk clean energy and other public health and environmental issues, and later that day the same students were invited to a meeting with top White House staffers.

These innovative and very active young Americans are not just changing the way universities operate, but proving that young people are some of the most passionate drivers building the 21st century clean energy economy.

Learn more about the Sierra Student Coalition and join them on your campus.

 

Divestment at UNC: A History of Social Justice

by Katie Orndahl, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

As student activists we all know that fighting for your cause is never easy: there will always be those who disagree, those who push back or those who are simply apathetic.  We would do well to remember, however, that we are never alone, we are not the first and we will not be the last to pursue change.  Activism has a long and storied history of hard fought battles, fierce opposition, and triumphant successes.  Tuesday night at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the theme of perseverance rang loud and clear as four student groups, including Beyond Coal, co-sponsored a divestment teach-in to examine UNC’s history of social justice success stories. 

The teach-in sought to analyze past divestment victories and bring attention to the power vested in endowments: universities can fund destructive companies and violate their institutional values, or they can make bold statements and choose to invest with social responsibility in mind.

Rudi Colloredo, UNC professor and Campus Y co-president during the 1980s South Africa divestment, started off the evening describing the long path taken to divest UNC from companies involved with apartheid in South Africa.  Students fought hard for the campaign and through the process made tangible linkages between themselves and an issue across the ocean in South Africa, thus becoming more engaged global citizens.  “The university is materially connected in ways we don’t even think about,” said Mr. Colloredo, and it is therefore crucial that we “connect internationally and act here.”  Coal is destructive on this same national and international scope, and UNC Beyond Coal is working to connect the dots between these global consequences and our own university’s investment practices.

Ellie Kinnaird, North Carolina senator and former Mayor of Carrboro, broadened our view as she reminded us that as students like ourselves fight for change, we are never fighting alone.  Ms. Kinnaird went on to describe the countless actions—from opposing Nike sweatshops to fighting Massey coal—that the state has taken to supplement student efforts.  Lamenting the current state of politics, Ms. Kinnaird urged students to take their campaigning to the next level and put pressure on the state to act as a steward of environmental and social justice.  When it comes down to, she said, the students are “the boots on the ground” that make change happen.

Even Mr. Robert Eubanks, head of the Board of Trustees during the South Africa divestment agreed that you “can’t ignore the students.”  Mr. Eubanks is a finance expert, yet he dismissed the idea of putting returns first in favor of making student concerns his main priority.  When students campaigning for South Africa divestment screamed loud enough that they could no longer be ignored, Mr. Eubanks gladly convinced his peers to divest and applauded the perseverance of the students.  The dedication seen in students in the 1980s has resurfaced with UNC’s Beyond Coal campaign and Mr. Eubanks expressed his gratitude that groups like Beyond Coal are breaking the student silence that he says has allowed problems to go unchallenged for too long.

As the evening wrapped up Anastasia Schemkes, campaign representative for the Beyond Coal campaign, tied the endowment issue back to coal.  Delivering an impassioned speech about the destruction caused by coal, she firmly rooted the Beyond Coal campaign to its rightful place on par with the severity of other human rights issues such as South Africa and Sudan.

Having prominent local leaders describe their experiences with student activism and the power of divestment was an inspiring and grounding experience for those students in attendance.  The death of coal is a cause worth fighting for and divestment is a strategy worth implementing.  UNC Beyond Coal wants to bring student attention to the importance of UNC’s investment practices, and our efforts are already paying off.  Speaker Rudi Colloredo commented on how, during his time at UNC “if you had divestment on a flyer, you couldn’t get three people to come.”  The lounge of UNC’s Campus Y was filled with significantly more than three people Tuesday night, all of them eager to kick coal and invest responsibly.

 

Geothermal Study Provides Promise for Your Campus

By Suhail Barot and Emily Cross, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champagne

 

In October, Google released the results of a nearly half a million dollar grant to the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Geothermal Lab, creating the most detailed geothermal maps to date. Not only did the researchers add tens of thousands of new thermal data points, but it also painted a very different picture of the potential for this clean energy that colleges nationwide can access.

The maps developed by SMU depict the heat flow of the geology in North America. When heat flows through the ground, like in water and rocks, it is possible to tap into that energy. Geothermal power plants work like normal power plants – except without burning any fuels. After piping down into the earth to capture hot water and steam, plants use this energy to push a turbine that is connected to a generator.

So what’s so special about the maps that Google commissioned? Using previously unattainable data and looking at the energy flow in a more detailed manner, researchers at SMU developed a heat flow map that shows potential in areas that were once considered inaccessible. It looked at energy that could be accessed with new technologies, like tapping into heat deep below ground, even those with relatively low temperatures.

According to the SMU laboratory, only .3% of the energy we currently produce comes from geothermal energy, which barely makes a dent in getting our country off of fossil fuels. But the results of this study show that geothermal could provide three times the total energy production in the United States.

That offers huge possibilities for more projects to be developed on campuses nationwide. According to a report on campus geothermal projects by the National Wildlife Federation, two and four-year colleges collectively could not only dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but also save a whopping $2-7 billion dollars using geothermal.

Ohio State University is one of these campuses pursuing lower energy costs by installing geothermal. Their five new high-rises will be heated and cooled partially by geothermal energy – cutting costs by one-third. Ball State University is also installing a geothermal system of its own, and is expecting a $2 million savings and a 50% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.

Trying to find a way to make your campus less fossil fuel dependent? Take a look at the results of this study. Chances are that the answer is hiding underneath your feet. 

 

Sierra Club Gives College Basketball Clean Energy Boost

In a unique move this month the Sierra Club and Sierra Student Coalition are making moves into college basketbal fandom by sponsoring games with two of the top teams in the nation. The Sierra Club Clean Energy Match-Ups Jan 12 at Indiana University (vs. Minnesota) and Jan 17 at the University of Kentucky (vs. Arkansas) will featuer Sierra Club giveaways, signs, logos, radios spots and presentations.

“We hope to get more Hoosier basketball fans involved in making Indiana a leader off the court by retiring the coal plant on campus and replacing it with clean energy solutions. Moving off coal will mean cleaner air and a healthier campus that Hoosier fans can be really proud of,” said Megan Anderson a senior at Indiana University and President of Coal-Free IU which has been campaigning to move IU beyond coal for nearly three years.

The idea behind the games is to connect fans with the idea that athletes and all students will perform better if they have cleaner air to breathe. Both Indiana and Kentucky operate dirty coal plants right on campus. At IU the campus plant is the largest single source of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide pollution in the county.

“I grew up in rural Kentucky as a Wildcats basketball fan and now as a student I’m working to make sure UK is a real leader by investing in clean energy that will create good jobs here in Kentucky, boost our economy and mean healthier air and water for everyone,” said Patrick Johnson a senior at the University of Kentucky and leader of Greenthumb, the campus group working to move UK off coal on campus. “I couldn’t be more excited to see two things so important to me come together with the Sierra Club Clean Energy Match-Up here in Kentucky.”

In addition to the games the Sierra Club is running full-page newspaper ads and local students are hosting campaign actions incluuding a major petition delivery at IU where leaders will present the more than 5,000 petitions collected since the campaign launched in 2009 to IU President Michael McRobbie.

The games have already earned significant coverage in both Kentucky and Bloomington, IN. Here's just a few of the clips so far:

Lexington Herald-Leader (front page!): Sierra Club sponsoring Kentucky basketball game

Indiana Daily Student: Coal Free IU Launches Week of Action

Kentucky Kernel: Sierra Club sponosoring UK-Arkansas Game

See the full press release here: http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=224123.0

Update: Plenary Likely Closed for Evening in Durban

By Angela Wiley

 

After an intense day of action, chanting, singing, and running the halls of the ICC in search of power/internet, the closing plenary has likely been postponed until 10am local time, tomorrow. It is currently 11:20pm on Friday, December 9.

 

All decisions are speculative, as they have been for the past two weeks. Does this postponement mean negotiators are making more ambitious decisions, or are they simply in a gridlock? We'll find out in the morning. We will keep you updated although continued access to the ICC after tonite is questionable. Stay alert! These decisions may be painfully slow, but they are incredibly important to our future and the well being of affected countries throughout the world.

 

Solidarity from Durban,

SSC Delegates

BREAKING: Civil Society Demands Climate Justice at COP17

Story by Angela Wiley

Photos by Lauren Ressler and Holly Jones

S

DEVELOPING: At 3:00pm on December 9, members of civil society entered the negotiating halls of COP17, led by party delegates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Maldives, Senegal, and Egypt. The peaceful assembly demanded climate justice and leadership in a meeting with low ambition and uncertain outcome as negotiations enter their final day.

The human microphone ensured that everyone could hear messages dispersed throughout the crowd; and the assembly demanded climate justice from negotiators that are working through a complex and extremely slow paced negotiation process in Durban. Currently, the assembly is negotiating with UN security, who have separated the protest from traffic within the hall.

Wireless internet within the hall is very slow, perhaps owing to the volume of people accessing it. I have managed to snag an ethernet cable further from the action to offer some photos and update you! Follow HollyMJones on twitter for updates, and back here, of course! If you have time to take action, please follow the rapid response request below. With so much at stake, I hope you can find a few spare moments to help battle climate change:

Background: The US has made it very clear that they are not interested in developing a treaty to cut global emissions until 2020. This is unacceptable, the science is very clear and demands we PEAK our emissions around 2020 to avoid temperature increases over 1.5-2 degrees Celsius. Our generation's future is in the balance, and the United States is compromising the fragile trust that has returned to the UNFCCC process since the devastating outcomes of COP15 in Copenhagen. When they Delay We Pay.

It is time for us to take action. We want to let the State Department know that we will not sit idly by while they risk our future to please large corporations and backwards politicians.

Step 1: Call the State Department: You will call the switchboard and ask for the Office of the Special Envoy for Climate Change, and leave a message with them. The switchboard is: 202-647-4000 

Script: Hi I'm _______ from ________ and I am calling to let your office know that as a young person in the United States my future depends on the action you are taking at the COP17 negotiations and we must move forward with a treaty to cut global carbon emissions this year. Postponing this action until 2020 is endangering my future. 

Step 2: Make Some Noise Online: please post comments on the state department's facebook page and twitter feeds. 

Sample Tweet: @StateDept Youth at #cop17 need you to commit to future generations and move forward on a treaty before 2020. #2late2wait #IYCM

They're also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usdos

Step 3: Get 5 friends to take action. I know this is hard, but this is our future we are talking about here and 5 minutes now will make a lifetime of difference. Real friends help friends save the planet. 

In Solidarity,

SSC COP17 Delegation