Power Vote

Travel log- Day 1 of the Michigan Campus Wind Storm Tour

By Andrew Munn

The Boss brought a crowd of Obama supporters, young and old, to Eastern Michigan University on Monday. Amidst the sea of Obama canvassers, pin and t-shirt vendors, union members, the Michigan Power Vote campaign spread our truly hopeful message of green jobs and climate justice. We however, were not the only energy activists on the scene. After an hour of wildly successful Power Voting, who should show up but the Trojan Horse of greenwash - American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

I am sitting in a hearing room at the state capitol in Nashville with a packed room for the kick-off event for today's clean energy debate event.

Fascinating conversation with leading engineers, researchers, policy advocates, students and union reps talking about Tennessee's energy future. The question at hand is "Can Tennessee be carbon and nuclear free?"

The answer is a resounding yes. Nuclear is not only incredibly costly but also dangerous and polluting. If Tennessee invests in efficiency and renewable energies they can save billions of dollars, create at least 17,000 good, long term jobs, and fight climate change all at the same time.

Tennessee Power Voters have some PLANS for today. If you're in Nashville, come on down and join us!

1:00 pm - Teach-in- Tennessee's Energy Future - Room 29 Legislative Plaza

Featuring Argun Makhijani - President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Energy Specialists, Officials, Students, and Citizens will discuss the potential for a carbon free, nuclear free Tennessee.

It's on! The national Power Vote Challenge Week has arrived and young people across the country are taking their Power Vote pledge campaigns to the next level. The Maryland Student Climate Coalition, set a state wide goal of getting 4,400 pledges in one week! Michigan shot back with a challenge of 4,401. Or course, Maryland won't allow ourselves to be upstaged by Michigan. I think this ridiculous rap video speaks for itself:

Bring it on Michigan! And let's make it rain PVs across this Nation! Take the challenge today. I would love to see some other states/schools go head-to-head.

Rock Star Power Voter Andrew Munn interviewed T. Boone Pickens guerilla style after his event at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Fueled by a media blitz campaign of over $50 million, Pickens hopes to stir up a discussion around energy in this nation. Though we may not have $50 million, Power Voters around the nation are initiating hundreds of thousands of one-on-one conversations about moving our nation to a sustainable clean energy future, much like the one we had with Mr. T. Boone Pickens. Help us get the word out on what a clean energy future looks like for America.

It's Challenge Week everyone! Time to step it up!!!



In the last two weeks we've seen campus organizations triple in size and sign up huge numbers of Power Voters. We've directly engaged with candidates across the entire political spectrum and at all levels of office - from city council to Vice Presidential. And we've had huge presences at both debates in Oxford, Mississippi and St. Louis.



To top it all off, just today the counter in our databases tipped past 200,000 pledges - and we're still counting!



The best bit of good news, though, is what lies ahead with the Power Vote Challenge Week. Already we have collectively committed to signing up 50,000 people in the next 7 days. Power Vote Challenge Week is the week when organizers across the country are stepping it up to talk to literally hundreds of thousands of people about clean energy, green jobs and climate solutions.

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I am sitting next to a grill at the Power Vote Windmill tour's first ever tailgate party. Kassie and I have Vols Fan sippy cups.

"It's exciting to have the windmill turbines out on game day," says Reagan. "Football is a huge tradition at UT. It's really great to have them out here and have a lot of conversations with a "non-traditional crowd." People might think UT football fans wouldn't care about clean, just energy but they DO. they're signing, they're pointing at the windmill and saying it's cool."

Last night Reagan and the UT Power Vote crew were out in downtown Knoxville and everyone was so into it. So many people had already signed the pledge, had heard about in their classroom, and wanted to let us know how great they though it was. "The

"UT is the cheese," says Andreas Bastias.

Sorry for being late getting an update on St Louis up.

I can honestly say that our experience at Wash U with Power Vote was one of the most inspiring of my life. The Wash U students were out before dawn and after dusk getting the word out about clean energy.

In one day, they got over 1,000 Power Vote pledges (that's 1/6 of their campus), talked to thousands of young voters, did scores of interviews, took on the "clean coal" liars, and made Power Vote THE thing on campus that day. My favorite part of the day was when busloads of So Illinois students came in the late afternoon and we rallied and pledged together and marched through campus as the sunset.

As one student told me afterwards, today this became more than an extraculicur activity- this is a movement!

Yes it is. We've got some awesome video that we'll try to get up before the end of the weekend.

The fossil fuel industry may be pumping record amounts of money into this year's election, but Power Voters are giving them a run for their money - grassroots style!

Check out this video the Lansing State Journal made about the awesome Michigan Power Vote team here: http://www.statenews.com/index.php/multimedia/29919

With 31 days until the election, Power Voters are gearing up to have hundreds of thousands of conversations on clean energy throughout the nation.

Brianna and I are here in St. Louis with the wind turbines supporting the 40+ Green Action student leaders running Power Vote at Washington University, the site of the Vice Presidential debate.

Green Action set a goal of collecting over 1000 pledges just today, and with the leadership of Melissa, Will and the many other students running the campaign they are well on their way. We're already at over 700 pledges!!

In addition to the amazing pledge collection, the students have been spreading the truth about clean coal - there's no such thing. On every campus we visit, I am overwhelming amazed at how much support we receive for the platforms we stand for.