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Power Vote: Youth Voters for a Clean, Just Energy Future

 

On campuses and in communities nationwide, youth are leading the way in responding to the global climate crisis.

Now “Power Vote,” a national non-partisan effort spearheaded by the Energy Action Coalition, seeks to elevate the issue of climate change in the 2008 election by mobilizing one million young “climate voters.” To do this, the Energy Action Coalition and its more than forty partner organizations are organizing young people across the United States to pledge their vote "for clean and just energy.”

Power Vote will:

• Harness the political power of one million young voters who want a bold new vision for America's future that reduces dangerous pollution while creating millions of good jobs.

 

• Elevate energy and climate issues in this historic election.

 

• Mobilize grassroots support for bold political action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in a clean energy economy.

 

This is our moment. The “Youth Vote” is more important than ever before.

• “Millennial Voters” comprise 25% of the electorate – and counting! In 2008, a quarter of the electorate will be represented by the 50 million young people, 18-31 years old, who are classified as part of the Millennial Generation. According to a February 2007 Young Voters Strategies report, these voters will number 82 million and make up one-third of the total electorate by 2015. By all accounts, this is a demographic that candidates cannot afford to ignore!

The Power Vote Platform reflects the priorities of young voters.

• Economy: Today’s youth may be the first generation to face a lower standard of living than their parents – and currently young people have the highest unemployment rate in the country. Investing in a clean energy future will create millions of jobs and build new industries, revitalizing our sagging economy.

 

• Environment: Young voters are the demographic that polling has shown to care most about environmental issues. A recent survey by Opportunity 08 (a project of the Brookings Institution) found that "an overwhelming majority of young people feel Americans should do whatever it takes to protect environment.” Overall, their polling reveals, young voters “are more concerned about the environment than are their parents and grandparents."Recognizing that they will inherit this planet and its climate crisis, the Millennial Generation is demanding bold solutions to begin to address the problem now.

 

• Peace & Energy Security: Polling reflects that youth support a peaceful, energy independent future. America can break free from its dependence on oil by investing in clean domestic energy
  sources such as wind and solar.

With Power Vote, young voters will make clean energy and a new green economy top priorities in this year’s election and then hold every elected representative accountable to making our vision a reality!

Download the Power Vote One Pager

PowerVote on Facebook

1. Sign into Facebook

2. Download the application

3. Invite the maximum number of friends to also sign the pledge

Burning questions about switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or other energy-efficient light bulbs? Allow us to shed some light.

Q. How can a little light bulb make a difference?

A. “CFLs prevent the emission of substantial quantities of greenhouse gases and other pollutants,” says Vicki Fulbright-Calwell, lighting and mercury consultant at Ecos Consulting in Durango, Colo., and a prominent expert on the subject of CFLs. “They reduce consumer energy bills and last far longer than incandescent bulbs.”

If you replace the five standard light bulbs you use the most with CFLs, you can save roughly $60 a year on electricity. 

If every American home replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, we would eliminate 1 million cars' worth of greenhouse gas emissions. That's one bulb. Most homes have 15-30 bulbs.

How many CFLs does it take to make a dent in my energy usage?

Begin by changing the bulbs that burn for more than an hour a day. Kitchens and dining rooms, family and living rooms, bedrooms, hallways, and outdoor lights — such as the porch light — are good places to use CFLs.

Another tip — it’s okay to keep those cheap incandescents around, too, if they’re in fixtures that don’t get used a lot. No need to ever change that closet light or hall light that is only on for a few minutes a week.

CFLs have strange wattage ratings. How do I know which one to buy?

You’ll need to know the wattage of the bulb you’re replacing and its equivalent in a CFL.

Are some CFLs more efficient or longer lasting than others?

There’s not much difference in efficiency between brands of CFLs, says Bill Giebler, who's sized up a whole lot of CFLs in his 10 years heading up green product sourcing at Gaiam Real Goods. But there can be a big difference in how long a CFL will last, regardless of who makes it. Some CFLs have a 10,000 hour life while others are rated at only 6,000 hours.

What about that anemic blue light CFLs give off?

“When it comes to light quality, look at the Kelvin ‘temperature,’ which is a color rating,” says Giebler. If you find the light disconcerting, you’re likely the proud owner of a ‘natural spectrum’ lamp with a Kelvin rating of 5000+ that produces a white-toward-blue light, Giebler adds.

Technically speaking, natural spectrum light is better light: It mimics light at noon on a cloudy day, reduces glare and renders better color. These are the best bulbs for reading lamps, desk lamps, and work and art stations. But they’re blue and cold and have the tendency to dig up flashbacks of your worst elementary school memories.

If you experience these symptoms, immediately find yourself a 2700K CFL bulb (often sold as “soft white” or "warm glow") that gives off a yellow light similar to incandescent light. Screw in your kinder, gentler new bulb and breathe deeply.

Can I use a CFL with a dimmer switch or 3-way switch?

Yes. CFLs made specifically for dimmer and 3-way switches are readily available now; look for them alongside regular CFLs.

Note that it’s a fire hazard to use a standard CFL in a dimming circuit. (Who knew?) If a CFL is not clearly marked for dimming, do NOT use it in a dimming circuit, even at full brightness. The same applies for a 3-way bulb — if it doesn’t say it’s for 3-way, don’t use it in a 3-way fixture.

Don’t CFLs contain mercury?

While CFLs do contain minuscule amounts of mercury, they are an environmentally friendlier choice right now despite their mercury content, because of the energy savings and reduction in coal-fired power plant emissions that result from using them. Learn more here.

Can I get a break on my power bill for using CFLs?

There are a number of utilities that offer rebates, says Calwell. She adds that since utilities will not be promoting CFLs forever, don’t count on rebates as your reason to switch. For the latest information, check with your local utility.

Are LEDs better than CFLs?

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, use a third of the wattage of even the smallest CFL. LEDs also last even longer than CFLs (up to 10 times longer) and contain no mercury. Like CFLs, they also run much cooler than incandescents. LEDs are common in electronics and in gadgets such as headlamps made for camping.

But there's a reason CFLs are now ubiquitous while LEDs for lighting your home remain a lesser-known option: "Nothing beats a CFL for lumens per watt," says Giebler. "It’s the best for getting energy efficiency while also fully lighting a space."

Using LEDs in household lighting fixtures is still a novel concept — but Giebler says LEDs are the best type of bulb out there for reading lamps, task lighting and small areas. He says a 3-watt LED makes a perfect porch light. The light is bright enough to mark your house, yet the low output reduces light pollution. And LEDs run fine in very cold temperatures, unlike CFLs.

let us know how you are contributing to living green.

My eco friendly dream is to have an eco friendly home. A building that works with the environment instead of against it. I'm currently designing the features I want to include into it. Weather it be a home that I will renovate or build from scratch everything will be 100% eco. I definitely want a green house/ green room which will either be attached to the house or separate so I can grow my own food. Solar panels on the roof are a must. With skylights, letting natural light in to the home. Ground heating, rain collecting for flushing toilets and watering plants. Wind turbines on the roof and maybe even extend it out into the back yard making a mini wind farm. My goal is to produce enough power from all these sources so that I no longer exist on the energy radar. Going off the grid is one of the top goals of this project. All materials will be recyclable or sustainable. This is a longer term goal and all depends on my financial situation. Too bad building eco isn't cheaper!

I've learned a lot so far from green / eco books i have purchased like cradle to cradle Remaking the Way We Make Things, Design for Sustainability: A Sourcebook of Integrated, Eco-logical Solutions, Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living, The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a time, Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying, 365 Ways to Live Green: Your Everyday Guide to Saving the Environment. I have also purchased films like The 11th hour, and An inconvenient truth, and planet in peril that has boosted my motivation for doing all these things. I'm starting an eco site as well www.ecogreenglobe.com which connects people with eco web links to help them live a greener life. The things i do now since i don't have the money to build a home. I buy 100% eco friendly cleaning products from sun & earth, Bought a eco friendly push reel lawn mower instead of a gas mower (works quite well too!) changed all my bulbs to cfl's, changed my shower head to an eco friendly water saving one. I buy all recycled paper towels, toilet paper and purchase small gadgets like small solar panels to charge my cell phone, and ipod. I recycle 99% of all my garbage, i usually throw away 1% of actual garbage a week which is a biodegradable bag of about the size of my hand. Hopefully i wont even need to throw that out when i get my com poster. The things i hope to do yet is start a com poster, and collect rain water for maybe flushing toilets and or watering plants. There are hundreds of things we can do to live green and im trying every single one of them with all my heart. I just cant wait till i have the funds to build an eco home!

This is one of my top goals as an environmentalist i really want to replace my 2007 mazda 3 that gets about 24/32 mpg. Thats good but not good enough! I have a couple solutions that might interest some of you. I have a couple eco auto links to share with you all to help us tackle this goal. 
http://www.smartusa.com/
http://zeropollutionmotors.us/

The smart car is a compact vehicle that gets good millage is on the market right now.
The compressed air car from zeropollutionmotors.us is a car being made in Europe and hopefully will be mass produced by 2010. achieves over 100 gas-equivalent mpg and over 90 mph. They look funny, but if it means driving greener and more efficient i'm all for it!
If you guys have any other solutions let me know.

I have gone solar in a way. Well a way that i can afford for now. I have purchased a solaris solar panel to charge my cell phone and ipod. Works quite well. I also want to purchase a roll able solar panel for my laptop. As for my long term ultimate solar goal is to Build or renovate an eco home with solar panels on the roof producing either half or all of my power that i use for the home. I could take it further and say i want to buy so many panels that i want to be off the grid. or even create a mini solar farm in my backyard so i could help people in the neighborhood power their homes, or feed it back to the grid. Of course i do not have the funds to do this yet, but its a goal that will hopefully become a reality for me and others around the world. I hope they bring the prices down so we can afford them.

I would like to achieve my goal of alternative energy by purchasing a wind turbine for my home. One of my other goals is to build an eco home. Hopefully when that goal is completed i can produce it's power with the wind turbine. My ultimate wind goal is to have a small wind farm in my back yard to not only power my home , but feed it back to grid or to other homes in the neighborhood!

i would love to be able to grow my own natural/ organic food in my own garden instead of buying our poisonous food filled with pesticides and bad non eco friendly fertilizer. hopefully this will be a nice addition to my main goal which is to build an eco home.
I will keep you guys updated on my progress!

When you look out your window or go for a walk outside in nature what do you see? You might see a blue sky with a glowing sun and a flock of birds soaring through the air like feathers, but when your eyes are really open and really focusing on the things that are happening in front of you, you might see something completely different. I am here to tell you that there is something deeper than our existence at work and it is happening right in front of us every second of the sunlit day, and every hour of the moonlit night. 

As a society we live our lives selfishly and un aware of what impact we have on our future and resources we take for granted. We turn on our lights without any presence of being needing light. We drive our hungry four wheeled pigs around eating all our hidden back up resources that were suppose to be saved for a rainy day. We work in our offices huge and spaces filled with stacks of papers that will eventually be thrown not away but thrown into our once beautiful land and shoved down our planet's throat like a little kid being forced to drink beer. 

The problem is not that our planet needs us, because planet can certainly survive without us and might even live as a better world than we have made it into be. What the problem is, is that we are living our lives in the wrong way. Our society has built a structure of power and consumption. So much so that our way of living has become a disease. We have turned our species into a virus for the planet. We are slowly deteriorating a life of a living thing and in the process slowly killing off ourselves.

Our world has created a power hungry people. We consume way too much way too fast. We are growing way too fast for our planet to support us. Our planet will no longer be called earth, but mars, a desolate barren waste land if we don't change the way we live. We are not only effecting the planet but ourselves. We create our own diseases, our own health problems, our own products that have been made from a dirty source of power and production line. 

We need to change the way we think. We need to break down the way we make product, the way we travel from place to place, how we work, how we eat, how we build environments around us to live in sync with the planet and not against the flow of life itself. We need to re design our way of living so that we are living off of the planet's supply of energy and sustainable resources.

Cut the oil and power & Money hungry monsters and start thinking clean, renewable, sustainable energy and use the natural things we already have access too instead of creating a deep wound in the planet's heart. Start thinking solar, wind, and technologies that can be reinvented into ways of living that are healthy for us and our home planet earth.

We have the knowledge and power to change our ways we just need to be aware, see the truth and act on it . Try thinking of life this way. When you think of washing your clothes, what do you think of. You think I need a washer and dryer machine. The problem is we think of the wrong thing when thinking of a process solution. We need to think of the process we need instead of the thing we need to do it"Oh hey, I need to clean my clothes". People have developed ways of washing clothes with less energy and less resources. Why use resources that will run out and cost a bundle when you could do the same process with unlimited resources, huge amounts of power, free, renewable, sustainable, and reusable for everyone on the planet.
I encourage everyone able to see the impact of our actions to stand up and walk. Do not say yes this is bad we need to do something, because that is the reason we fail. We do not act, we dream and soak in the problems of our society and let our future pass us by. If you want change you have to ACT! CHANGE! ACHIEVE! ACCOMPLISH! REACT! These are all action words we need to see in progress right now. As a people we need to think slower and act faster. We take too much time thinking up what should be done and do less of actually doing it. There is no need for us stall any longer. We have our goal now let us all take this goal and make it reality. Be the change we need!

I have given you all a link to my eco website so that you may see all the the eco / green sites I have come across in my research. These links will help you live a green eco friendly life. I also recommend watching Planet Green network- a 24/7 environmental channel.
http://www.ecogreenglobe.com/