The Clean Energy Now! Bus Tour stopped in Indiana on Monday, and over the course of the day the bus connected with people who covered almost every demographic of the clean energy movement. The diversity in background and reasons for supporting a transition to a clean energy economy certainly stood out on this trip. As Kevin Patrick, a second-generation sheet metal worker in Indianapolis put it bluntly, “being environmentally conscious isn’t just for hippies anymore.”
He’s not wrong. The need to transition to a clean energy economy is so strong that during a tour of the Sheet Metal Workers Local #20 Training Facility, we saw something rare: management and workers agreeing with each other. Both workers and management badly want jobs for Indianapolis that will stay in Indianapolis, and both see transitioning to a clean energy economy as the best way to create those jobs.
Later, at a radio interview for Radio One, host Amos Brown challenged both the Hip Hop Caucus and Repower America together to further amplify the voices of communities of color emphasizing the need to put clean energy jobs in the very neighborhoods where dirty energy polluted these neighborhoods.
In the afternoon, Biz Markie rejoined the Clean Energy Now! Bus at Bloomington, Indiana where we stopped for a student forum at Indiana University. The panel included Rev. Yearwood, Biz Markie, and Indiana University professors and students who responded to audience questions about how they could get involved in the movement, do their part to save money on energy bills and how to protect their environment. Here, it was Rev. Yearwood who issued the challenge, asking students gathered in the auditorium to organize and fight for their future.
Labor, management, communities of color, students and young people, all calling for America to transition to a clean energy economy? That is what we call a movement.
Today, we land in Columbus, Ohio before we embark on the home stretch of our trip. Look out DC, we’re coming your way!
