9-11-08, 9:50 am

The youth-led Energy Action Coalition this week launched a nationwide campaign called 'Power Vote.' The campaign aims to enlist 1 million young voters across the country to pledge to vote on Nov. 4th for candidates for both president and Congress who have the best environmental and energy policies.

'If you're on the ballot this fall, you need the youth vote to win,' said Energy Action Coalition Co-director Jessy Tolkan on a teleconference with reporters Wed. Sept. 10. 'And we won't be fooled by candidates who are attempting to 'green wash' themselves to waltz into Washington DC.'

James Hansen, the NASA scientist who first highlighted the problem of global warming before Congress in the 1980s, joined with Tolkan to tell reporters that global climate change and green energy policy shouldn't be partisan issues. 'We need to identify those candidates for office, independent of political party, who will support the policies that will preserve the climate, our planet, and the future for young people and nature,' he said.

Hansen described the ongoing danger climate change poses for the whole world. From ice packs melting in the arctic regions and rising sea levels, to higher temperatures in and increased acidity of ocean water, destruction of plant and animal life in the oceans, and changing regional weather patterns with harsher conditions, global warming is already having an enormous impact, he said.

'All of these effects can be minimized if we get on a different energy path,' Hansen argued.

Hansen indicated that fossil fuels are a major source of carbon emissions that cause global warming. Specifically, burning coal causes about half of the carbon emissions that result from all fossil fuels today, Hansen pointed out. He cited coal-fired power plants as the single largest factor that could cause us to slip past a point of no return from the worst effects of global warming.

Hansen said, 'We must stop the construction of coal-fired power plants that do not capture the CO2. If we do that, the problem is a solvable one.'

Hansen emphasized the many benefits in the 'preservation of creation' and the economic benefits of creating 'green jobs.'

Young voters will play a role in ensuring these changes are implemented, Tolkan suggested. 'We will be going to the polls and voting for the candidates who support the solutions that Dr. Hansen has so eloquently outlined,' Tolkan remarked.

Tolkan cited the growing numbers of young voters participating in the electoral process as a sign that young people, an increasingly diverse demographic, are rejecting the label of being apathetic, especially on the issue of a green energy policy and global climate change.

The Power Vote pledge expresses support for a platform that rejects 'dirty energy' policy. It calls for a a moratorium on coal and rejects new oil drilling and nuclear energy. The platform demands 'responsible clean energy with a massive investment in wind and solar.' Linking energy policy to the economy, the platform also urges the creation of 5 million new 'green jobs,' Tolkan added.

Tolkan also emphasized that this new activism will not end on election day, but youth activists will work to hold elected officials to their campaign pledges after November 4th.

None of the speakers identified a preference for either presidential candidate. John McCain, however, has repeatedly voted against investments in renewable energy and raising gas mileage standards on cars throughout his career. He has called for continuing to keep the US economy tied to oil and dangerous nuclear power, and he refuses to make caps on global warming-causing emissions mandatory.

In contrast, Barack Obama has proposed massive investments in creating 5 million 'green collar' jobs to develop the renewable energy sector, such as wind and solar power, that can't be outsourced. He has called for investments in technology to capture carbon emissions from burning coal, new investments in mass transit, as well as higher fuel efficiency and incentives for US automakers to build hybrids and other renewable alternatives.

--Reach Joel Wendland at