"There's only so much space inthe atmosphere, and if we don't stop filling it up with pollution, the planet is going to pop and burn...or burn and then pop."

- Crystal Druham, California Student Sustainability Coalition, EAC member

I totally over-packed for the Energy Action Coalition (EAC) Council meeting. The extra pair of shoes, the just-in-case dress shirt and slacks, and more than 2 pair of draws for a 4-day stay in The Bay with EAC proved that I had very little idea of what exactly I was getting into.

Energy Action Coalition is best known to the League for hosting Power Shift 2007 -- the youth summit on climate change that brought 6,000 students from 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico to the University of Maryland to build, chill, rally, and lobby the Feds on climate change. I was there too, actually, and witnessed one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen -- a 3 AM spoken work/ballroom dancing battle in the College Park, MD IHOP parking lot. Needless to say, it's never anything short of ground breaking when EAC is involved.

Just to break it down good and proper like, I’m gonna tell you:  about EAC, how they manage be so awesome, the outcome of the Council meeting and the direction EAC is heading, and finally, the distinct role that the League has an opportunity to play as members of the Coalition.

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EAC first came together as an informal network in 2003, but proved the group’s durability and commitment in 2006 by launching the Campus Climate Challenge (CCC). 16 EAC member organizations agreed upon a joint budget and fundraising plan, and EAC began funding campus work through member organizations participating in the CCC. Absolutely bonkers – only young people could ever believe in each other, a shared purpose, and the future so much as to combine resources on such as scale (sound familiar Leaguers!!).

Campus Climate Challenge has been an amazing success, spawning over 250 participating campuses in every state, and over 50 in the six League states. Overall, there are 37 member organizations – 46 including supporting members like the League – and 24 members that are funded by CCC. The cow pie hit the fan in November 2007, when EAC hosted Power Shift, and sent thousands of well-trained students storming into the capital rocking green hard hats and a message of more green jobs, no coal, and emissions reductions or else!! After such an awesome demonstration of POWER, EAC knew it was time to push forward like never before. And with 2008 on the horizon, staff and members knew the time.

For the past 4 months, EAC members have been preparing for this meeting through weekly working group conference calls. Basically, nothing moves until Council approves, which is what makes EAC so awesome. EAC invests in people, programs, platforms and processes. Emphasizing individual roles and accountability of coalition members, constant communication among members, and the importance of how things are accomplished, brings this group to achievable, optimistic goals through consensus-based decision making.

The Council meeting was at The Women’s Building in the Mission District of San Francisco – a huge community center and office space for women with a colorful mural draping the entire exterior. Picture a large, hard wood floor room with a balcony. It smells like organic coffee grounds and the forest, the professional atmosphere is top-notch and all about business, with bike-riding, hipped-out student organizing champions of climate change sitting in a semi circle, each headed by paper name-plates for their organizations. Not that anyone needs the nameplates – everyone knows each other by first name.

The first day was filled with introductions and working group presentations on the following potential campaigns: No New Coal, Green Jobs, Power Vote 2008. If adopted by the group, these campaigns would be integrated into the Climate Challenge, thereby defining an expanded role of this program. Yours truly presented for the green jobs working group, highlighting the potential for this campaign to extend campus work into neighborhood communities, and the importance of infusing EAC’s youth energy into the overall green jobs movement. EAC Co-Director Jessy Tolkan presented on Power Vote 2008, which aims to push Climate to the forefront of presidential candidate platforms, and build alliances with youth organizations that do not work directly within the Climate movement, but have a potentially significant role to play with a clear understanding of why Climate Change is important to their work.

These campaigns were adopted by Council, with green jobs getting a resounding yes, and Power Vote 2008 getting a lot of cheers, but also a lot of question marks. No doubt, the Climate movement is full of organizing ballers, but electoral work is a bit of a mystery if your not, say…the League of Young Voters. Hyyyya chop!!

EAC is a powerhouse for the breadth of a base it has built, but they will be the first to admit that the depth of their membership needs a lot of work. Membership background is reflective of the environmental movement overall – white, privileged, and sequestered to university campuses. But as young, progressive people, members recognize this weakness to their movement. The group has drafted an Anti-Oppression policy that is a hallmark of their efforts, and has survived continuous scrutiny by some of the more influential members.

In a very real sense, the newly adopted green jobs arm of the Climate Challenge provides a platform for existing campus partners to build new, nontraditional alliances on campus, for the purpose of extending campus work into neighborhood communities that would most benefit from the growth of a green jobs workforce.

One thing that the League is well known for, is building relationships among diverse but related peer-groups and organization. The Youth Vote Movement is ideal for organizing across lines of money, colors and issues. We are posed to be the connecter of this campaign.

And I don’t event have to tell you about Power Vote 2008, because if you don’t know by now, you better either ask somebody or buy a clue from your mom. Generational Alliance (GA) is building a coalition that is like a youth voter version of EAC, all under the umbrella of an 8-issue youth platform that includes: healthcare and reproductive rights, education access, energy and the environment, voting rights and election reform, affordable housing, war and military recruitment, workers rights, and prison and justice system reform.

Imagine leaving 2008 with a progressive president of our choice, and a gigantic youth-voter coalition that’s like EAC, but includes groups working in all the issues GA is pulling together. Think about how important the League has been in building this vision over the past 8 years. And finally, imagine the power we can build with models of cooperation and joint decision making like EAC. Truly, the sky is the limit. Unless it pops and burns… or burns and then pops.

Final shouts go to EAC members and staff, Rainforest Action Network, Center for American Progress, Net Impact, PIRGs everywhere, SSC, Restoring Eden, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Greenpeace and more. Special shouts go to the amazing people who build the BART system that hauled me all over The Bay, and the poor soul who designed the trolley stop bench with a plastic flip-seat feature. I don’t think anyone would ever actually sit on one of those seats.

PEACE