Whichever party takes control of the White House and Congress in November, citizens who seek a more just, fair and peaceful world will need to challenge an inside-the-beltway establishment consensus that puts profits over people.
That means building sufficient grassroots pressure to force government to legislate in ways that the corporate sector spends lots of money trying to avoid. On the environmental front, pressure is slowly building with many young people in particular investing an increasing amount of time and energy in finding alternatives to the fossil fuel-based economy that is rendering the planet less and less habitable. In fact, as my friend Ben Adler reports in Politico, even after expanding summer lobbying and intern programs, Greenpeace and other environmental groups say hundreds of applicants from students for environmental advocacy programs are being turned away.
That's where Power Vote comes in. A new national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition, PV is trying to tap this groundswell of support for a greener economy by bringing millions of young voters together in demanding political leadership that will develop solutions like efficiency, wind and solar power and sustainable transportation. The group's platform is a concise and sensible primer for the fundamental break we need to make from our dependence on highly-polluting fossil fuels.
Peter Rothberg
Whichever party takes control of the White House and Congress in November, citizens who seek a more just, fair and peaceful world will need to challenge an inside-the-beltway establishment consensus that puts profits over people.
That means building sufficient grassroots pressure to force government to legislate in ways that the corporate sector spends lots of money trying to avoid. On the environmental front, pressure is slowly building with many young people in particular investing an increasing amount of time and energy in finding alternatives to the fossil fuel-based economy that is rendering the planet less and less habitable. In fact, as my friend Ben Adler reports in Politico, even after expanding summer lobbying and intern programs, Greenpeace and other environmental groups say hundreds of applicants from students for environmental advocacy programs are being turned away.
That’s where Power Vote comes in. A new national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition, PV is trying to tap this groundswell of support for a greener economy by bringing millions of young voters together in demanding political leadership that will develop solutions like efficiency, wind and solar power and sustainable transportation. The group’s platform is a concise and sensible primer for the fundamental break we need to make from our dependence on highly-polluting fossil fuels.
To hear more about PV’s goals and how it plans to meet them, join other activists tomorrow, Wednesday, September 3rd at 9:00pm EST for a national conference call to introduce a new campaign — One Million Young Voters for a Clean, Just Energy Future. RSVP for the call here.
You can also check out this video to see why so many young people are demanding a brand new vision for their world.
In November 2007, the Energy Action Coalition brought thousands of young people together in Washington, DC to demand a Power Shift within our government. Thousands of youth met with representatives from nearly every district to demand bold solutions on climate change. But, this coalition has big plans and is aiming to build a youth voter bloc of one million strong to demand bold federal climate legislation, a moratorium on coal and other dirty energy, and to create millions of good, green jobs.
Please help their efforts by signing the PowerVote Pledge to make clean, just energy a top priority in your voting this election.
Peter RothbergTwitterPeter Rothberg is the The Nation’s associate publisher.