Youth activists fill Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s office, opposing the Dirty Air Act

Tuesday afternoon they came in a wave. The “Michigan Delegation”, as I called them, rolled in to the CEW office, having been awake since 3:30 am, but ready to get after it. We didn’t hold back.

After lunch these winners of the Consequence Organize to be Heard Challenge headed over to Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office. The Senator from Alaska is of course the author of the Dirty Air Act (the sponsor anyway, the bill itself was shown to be written by lobbyists).

The group filled Murkowski’s office, wearing surgical masks symbolizing the dangerous air Murkowski’s “Disapproval Resolution” will create. However, when a staffer said the Senator wasn’t available, then screamed at a participant not to shoot video with a Flip Video Cam, the group was directed to the Energy and Natural Resources committee room, a committee on which Murkowski serves. Other notable members include Maria Cantwell, author of the Cap-and-Dividend bill and former climate change legislation supporter John McCain.

That made it all the more beneficial that McKie Campbell, Republican Staff Director of the ENR committee, agreed to sit down with us to talk clean energy and climate legislation, as well as the Murkowski amendment.

One thing Campbell agreed with is that the Dirty Air Act is in fact slowing down the process, at least for the ENR committee, of achieving the comprehensive legislation we need. He made a special point to note how many businesses emit some level of carbon, creating worry about the effect of EPA regulation on the economy without investment in clean energy.

That is what we are asking for. It is time not only to cap carbon, but also to invest in our clean energy future. Campbell is right in his assessment that most businesses emit carbon, but do so on anywhere near the scale of our energy production, specifically coal-fired power plants.

Rev. Yearwood, Challenge winners and Flava of 93.9 WKYS bring bus tour to Black Eyed Peas concert.

It was a highly technical conversation that we had with Campbell, but a learning experience to talk with one of the integral parts of writing the policy we are working to see passed.

Which led to us heading out to do that work. A couple of hours later we were stationed outside of the Black Eyed Peas concert at the Verizon Center, along with Reverend Lennox Yearwood, of the Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Bus Tour, telling people about our big event at the Capitol Reflecting Pool tomorrow at 11:30.

The Challenge winners also got together with Flava of 93.9 WKYS and Rev. Yearwood to push the message outside the show. “We can do this together,” the Reverend said.

Tomorrow, along with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and all of the people with the Clean Energy Now! Bus Tour, our youth activists will stand in the shadow of our nation’s capitol, calling for comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

We know what is at stake. It’s our future.

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!

Excitement is building here in Washington, as the Clean Energy Now! Bus Tour winds its way through Indiana and Ohio, before arriving in town tomorrow night.

The arrival of the bus tour coincides with the Organize to be Heard fly-in, with great events on tap for the week that includes several trips to Capitol Hill, as well as a press conference with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Featuring DJ Biz Markie, Jackson, Alliance for Climate Protection CEO Maggie Fox, youth activists and performers, we will be taking over outside the capitol reflecting pool on Wednesday at 11:30.

Before that big event, many of the same people will be rallying for clean energy outside of the Verizon Center, where Will.I.Am and the Black Eyed Peas will be performing on Tuesday night. The Clean Energy Now! Tour Bus will be outside the building, just blocks from the Capitol. Check back for more information on the blog and Twitter.

The tour has been through Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri so far, while spending today in Indianapolis.

The Organize to be Heard challenge wrapped up earlier this month and now has the winning youth in town for events the like of meetings with John Kerry and other activities on Capitol Hill, as well as the two events above.

The voice’s of this nation’s youth need to be heard as we fight for clean energy and climate legislation that is long overdue. Our future is at stake. And we are organizing to win.

Hip Hop Clean Energy Now! Tour – Day 4, St. Louis, MO

Our bus tour continued through the rain to St. Louis, Missouri on Sunday morning for the Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Bus Tour. Spirits were high at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church where Reverend Lennox Yearwood and the rest of the team attended services with thousands of congregational members.

Pastor Michael Jones led the congregation in a rousing sermon about the biblical story of three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who stood up against King Nebuchadnezzar. Later, Reverend Yearwood took the stage and equated these historical figures’ stance to the fight against lobbyists of dirty energy industries and special interests in Washington. Today, the clean energy movement provides a historical moment to stand for lasting social justice, and it will take the courage and endurance of all our clean energy fighters and champions.

As the bus said goodbye to Missouri following the service at Friendly Temple, Rev. Yearwood took a few minutes to do an online interview with bloggers. During the interview, he touched on how important it is for depressed communities to transition to a clean energy economy, as it could create as many as 29,000 jobs in Missouri for both entry-level workers and experienced professionals. These are jobs that cannot be outsourced.

The tour will be in Indianapolis today for a site visit of a sheet metal workers training facility and press conference. Later in the day, the tour will roll through Indiana University in Bloomington for performances from Biz Markie and a student panel discussion. Hoosier students are already fired up!

Rev Yearwood and Rev Jones of, Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, speak on Clean Energy

By Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. and Rev. Jesse Jackson

Cross-posted from Hip Hop Caucus. Find out more about the Clean Energy Now! Bus Tour.

Our country, and the world, faces the duel crisis of a failed American economy and climate change that threatens life on this planet as we know it.

Poor people and people of color are feeling the adverse impacts of climate change first and worst, from rising energy prices, to increases in heat-related illnesses. Ultimately, however, the destruction resulting from our planet’s rising temperature will not be discerning of national borders, a family’s yearly income, or the hue of one’s skin.

It is similar to what we are all experiencing in these difficult economic times. No matter the race of a worker, when the lights are turned off for the last time in the manufacturing plant, or in any business for that matter, suddenly we amazingly look alike.

We as a nation, must commit to an inclusive transition to a clean energy economy, by decreasing our dependence on dirty fossil fuels, investing in new clean-energy technologies, and putting the people who most need jobs back to work. Our leaders must take urgent action — this year — to put us on a path to a prosperous clean energy future.

This is not a new call to action. We have been hearing experts, business leaders, and politicians talk about addressing climate change for a while now. Last year the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Now the Senate is debating whether they too will pass a clean energy jobs bill.

At the start of Black History Month, ten years into the 21st century, it is time for the African American community to have their voices heard on this issue. For too long communities of color have not seen climate change as their problem but we must now be a part of the solution.

African American’s historical struggle for economic opportunity inherently ties into the necessary global effort to reduce CO2 emissions and stop climate change. This was a topic that we discussed at the recent 13th Annual Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project Economic Summit in New York, and a topic that we will be mobilizing African American communities and young people around on the upcoming “Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Tour”.

A clean-energy economy means new jobs, less pollution in our communities, and increased opportunities for our children. This month the Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Tour will travel from New Orleans to Washington DC, through numerous states in a historic effort to ensure the voices of African Americans, and our young people, are heard on the issue of clean-energy jobs and protecting our planet.

Millions of our friends and neighbors are out of work. We can create 1.7 million new jobs and green our cities from the ground up if our leaders in Washington make a commitment to supporting clean-energy here in America.

Clean-energy investments create more than three times the number of jobs than the equivalent investment in the fossil fuel industry. These are green-collar jobs for roofers, electricians, and construction workers, jobs like retrofitting old buildings and constructing new buildings that are energy efficient.

There will also be opportunity for entrepreneurs of color to have ownership in the clean-energy economy. African Americans will be able to go from being energy consumers to also being energy producers.

A clean-energy future is an answer to African American’s calls for jobs, affordable costs of living, and safer, healthier neighborhoods. Big oil and their lobbyists have kept the United States dependent on dirty energy, and they have been allowed to disproportionately pollute the air that children breathe and the water they drink in low-income communities of color.

We know the devastating health effects of pollution. It is the asthma that disproportionally affects our children, it is the allergies that get worse every year, it is the heatstroke that kills too many of our seniors.

Furthermore, if we do not stop climate change, it will only become more expensive to heat and cool our homes, an already horrible burden on low-income families. Households that are at or below 150 percent of the poverty level, or sixty percent of their State’s median income, spend an average of twenty percent of their income on home energy bills. This is six times more than the national average.

There is nothing more dangerous and violent than nations becoming less productive, and more desperate, in the face of ecological disaster. Conversely, the greening of our cities can help us to take back our streets. Studies have shown that residents living in greener surroundings report less fear and less violence in their communities.

We can revive our economy, we can regain our communities, and we can restore our planet, by investing in clean-energy solutions. Fifty years from now, we want our grandchildren and their children to live in a prosperous healthy world because of the decisions that our leaders have the opportunity to make this year. We do not want our future generations to know that they are suffering and dying from drought, flooding, food insecurity, and hurricanes, and cannot afford energy for their homes, because of the lack of political will in Washington under our watch.

During Black History Month every year we celebrate the accomplishments of our African American heroines and heroes. This year, we will make history starting with a clean energy bus tour from New Orleans to Washington DC so that future generations can look to this moment and see that when all of God’s children come together, humanity is capable of saving the planet and providing access to health and wealth for everyone.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr. is the President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus. For more information on the Hip Hop Caucus and the upcoming Hip Hop Caucus Clean Energy Now! Tour, visit www.hiphopcaucus.org. Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. is the Founder and President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC). For more information about the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, please visit www.rainbowpush.org or call (773) 373-3366.