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My First Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference

Eriqah Foreman-Williams — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:04:32 +0000

Every year, students from across the Southeast wait with bated breath to find out the details of one of the most anticipated conferences in the region. The Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference (SSREC) is an event organized by the Southern Energy Network (SEN) , an organization geared toward building grassroots campaigns to engage southeastern young people committed to renewable energy. Each year youth come and participate in trainings on valuable organizing skills, hear presentations on examples and best practices from their peers and call on their government, both local and national, to make clean energy a priority. And this year was just as powerful.

Students in Lee Hall at FAMU awaiting the beginning of the opening plenary

My name is Eriqah Foreman-Williams and I am the new Campus Field Coordinator for NWF’s Campus Ecology program. This is my first time attending SSREC, despite my past experience as a student organizer, and I must say it was an extremely rewarding experience. Reagan Richmond, the Executive Director of SEN, invited me and offered me multiple avenues to connect with students in the Southeast. I hosted a workshop on “Fostering Campus and Community Partnerships.” In my presentation, I aimed to inspire environmental campus leaders to reach beyond the gates of their campuses and reach out to community and engage them in sustainability projects and brainstorm strategies to implement projects in the community. I highlighted examples from my experience working in the conservation field for the last four years.

I also tabled at the conference sharing Campus Ecology materials on how students can get plugged into the program. Additionally, I had some students commit to asking their school newspaper’s to write an article about NWF’s new report A Student’s Guide to How Corporate Oil, Gas and Coal Money Influences U.S. Energy Policy. The students were excited to connect this information to the actions they are taking on their campuses and to shed light on this important issue.

For me, the highlight of the weekend was my invitation to give a keynote speech during the Saturday Night Plenary, my first time ever doing something like that. I was asked to speak about my journey and the importance of Historically Black College and University (HBCU) students in the environmental movement—especially because environmental justice is a growing hot topic.

I see my work in the environmental movement as the homage I pay to Dorothy Height and Fannie Lou Hammer and Ella Baker. Especially when I see figures and statistics about the environmental injustices my communities back home face and the black communities in Georgia. It is, as Senator John Lewis said, the new civil rights movement.

Twenty four schools and eight states were represented at this year’s SSREC, which was held at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical

participants making signs for Sunday’s protest

University (FAMU), an HBCU—it was a beautiful experience. The more than 300 attendees finished the conference on Sunday with a march to the Supreme Court of Florida, where a nuclear energy tax law is up for deliberation. The conference participants then marched on to the Florida State Capitol building and filmed a video posing a question to our presidential candidates: “What is the future for clean energy in this country?” This video will be submitted to CNN with the hope that the question will be asked during the next presidential debate. Overall, the weekend was inspirational and reminded me why I do what I do. I am excited about organizing in this region with these amazing student activists. Their enthusiasm is what will change this region and this country.

Students protest the Nuclear tax, currently up for deliberation in Florida’s Supreme Court

Universities as Models for Sustainability: Georgia Campus Sustainability Network’s Annual Conference

Eriqah Foreman-Williams — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:14:56 +0000

On Friday, September 14, 2012, 108 members of Georgia higher education institutions (faculty, staff, administrators, and students), as well as interested organizations, came together for the “Universities as Models for Sustainability: Georgia Campus Sustainability Network’s Annual Conference.” The conference was held at Georgia State University in the heart of downtown Atlanta.

Quint Newcomer talks to participants about University of Georgia’s Costa Rica projects

Started in June of 2010, GCSN is a catalyst for sharing best practices amongst Georgia’s leaders in Campus Sustainability. The network consists of a host of people: from students, to faculty, sustainability coordinators to facilities directors, and even some government agencies and outside businesses. Networking amongst these organizations makes for a growing culture of Campus Sustainabilityin the capital city and in the state as a whole.

The Conference was geared towards kicking off GCSN’s new year and new momentum. The session topics included energy usage amongst campus facilities, curriculum, funding and green fees, and student engagement. In each of these sessions, presentations were made by participants with significant success and experience in these areas. They were able to highlight how they went about executing their projects and how others could do the same. Additionally, there was a presentation from executive board members of the student network, Georgia Youth for Environmental Solutions (GA YES!)

Dennis Kreech, Co-Founder of Southface gives the keynote address at this year’s GCSN conference

Among the attendees, there were 53 students and 14 faculty members, and 29 other administrators and staff members.Additionally, we had a host of people from other organizations wanting to work with schools in order to help them attain their campus sustainability goals. Each of the participants has a passion for improving the environmental efforts on their campuses; whether that is through the physical infrastructure of their buildings, curriculum and education, or student organizing. Additionally, there is obvious interest in finding diverse ways to fund these projects such as small “green fees” implanted in the activity fees paid by each student.

Everyone left the conference with new ideas and contacts on how to drive their sustainable agenda on campus such as GA Yes’s invite to students to be part of their action teams promoting sustainable change across GA’s public institutions and resources to do internal campus energy assessments. The steering committee was especially pleased with the great turn-out of students that attended. That has been a struggle of GCSN; to engage students to the point they are not only inspired to change the carbon footprint of their campus, but also impact public campaigns regarding environmental matters state and nationwide.

This Coal-Train is no Jazz Saxophonist

Patricia Tillmann — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 01:55:00 +0000

Coal is a dirty business.

This was made abundantly clear to me just last week as I was enjoying the view from my living room window. I was startled to see a very long coal train winding its way north along the Puget Sound shoreline. This is, unfortunately, not a new sighting, but remains a startling image three months after I first noticed it. Since then, I have kept my ears open for coal stories in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s a smattering of what I’ve found.

Increasing amounts of U.S. coal are bound for export to Asian markets.

In 2011, the largest coal company in the world and the second largest company in the United States – Peabody Energy and Arch Coal – reached agreements with coal export facilities in Bellingham (WA), Longview (WA), and Prince Rupert (BC) to increase significantly the amount of coal exported to fast-growing Asian markets. The source of the coal will be Montana and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, one of the largest coal reserves in the world. On their way to coastal export sites, train after train of coal will wind its way from the Powder River Basin, through the rural interior West, and finally, through rural and urban communities in the Pacific Northwest.

The Westshore terminal is burning coal just over the border in Canada. (Paul K. Anderson)

Increased coal export in the Pacific Northwest would disrupt our clean energy future, health, and environment.

Investment of scarce resources in coal export contributes to the carbon emissions associated with global warming and makes regional efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions more challenging. Coal dust from the open-air railcars that would pass through our communities would increase exposure to toxic heavy metals. Climate Solutions, a regional non-profit actively involved in the Power Past Coal campaign, states:

The proposed terminal site at Cherry Point would span 1200 acres, fill 141 acres of wetlands and sit directly on herring grounds, which are a primary food source for Chinook salmon. Salmon in turn are the main food source for imperiled Puget Sound Orcas.

You can do something about it!

Join Power Past Coal this Saturday at Moving Planet’s Day of Action in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. Turn your energy into action at the Take Action Workshops from 10 AM to 12 PM. Rally with Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and other Seattle leaders to advertise your enthusiasm at 2 PM. And don’t forget the Tar Sands Flashmob at 11:30!

For more information on what the Pacific Regional Center is up to, check out our Facebook page.

I am contemplating making this blog the first in a short series exploring key issues around coal export. A discussion of wildlife impacts or economic impacts could follow. What would you like to see next?