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Why the Ride?
I believe 2010 is the critical year for America to set the agenda for the coming decade in response to the ever-worsening global climate crisis, and I am committed to taking action. On September 12, 2010, I am biking from Boulder, CO to Washington, DC, calling for a 100% renewable electricity grid for the U.S. by 2020. I will be pedaling roughly 2,500 miles over the course of eight weeks on a hybrid electric-assist recumbent trike.
My intention is to launch a new national conversation around America's energy and climate policies, while building grassroots support for this revolutionary green energy paradigm shift. This is about everyday Americans "taking back our power" by demanding a green industrial revolution that will put unemployed Americans back to work, reestablish our role as world economic leader, and help ensure future generations a livable planet.
I will be spending most of my time visiting and celebrating the success stories of renewable energy and efficiency projects as motivating examples of the choices already being made by local communities to realize this homegrown green industrial revolution. I will also be highlighting the deficiencies of old technologies like coal and nuclear power, and bearing witness to the misery being visited upon Appalachian communities and ecosystems by the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining.
Follow the Ride Online!
To build public interest in this 2,500-mile consciousness-raising trek, I will be regularly uploading videos and photos, as well as blogging on social networks. I will also be giving presentations to interested audiences in cities and towns along the route, as well as actively seeking out media interviews with local news outlets. My currently planned route takes me through all or parts of the following states: Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.
Our political system in Washington, DC is clearly broken, with the two major political parties more interested in fighting each other than for the American people they were elected to represent. But the partisanship dividing our country today does not accurately reflect who we are as a nation. If anything, it reflects the degree to which unaccountable corporations have succeeded in diverting attention away from the real needs of the American people. The energy and climate challenges we face today are not Republican, or Democratic, issues. They are American, and human, issues that affects each of us, regardless of political persuasion. Everyone needs clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink, healthy food to eat and a planet to live on.
Sign the Online "100% by 2020" Petition!!
I refuse to believe America's best days are behind her, but we need to dispense with Washington's timid "inside the beltway" mentality and start dreaming big dreams once again. There has never been a more important time for America to reclaim our moral standing in the world by reaffirming our economic might as a force for good. This is the message I hope to convey - through the voices of everyday Americans I meet along the way - to our political leaders in Washington, DC. To that end, I will be collecting signatures on an online petition to the President and Congress issuing the 100% by 2020 demand. If you believe this is a goal worthy of America, please sign the petition when it goes live in September and forward it to everyone you know!!
While the task of revolutionizing our electricity grid pales in comparison to the revolutionary sacrifice that brought this great nation into being, realizing the "green dream" of a 100% renewable electricity grid in 10 years will nevertheless demand a level of courageous civic, business and political leadership rarely seen since our nation's founding to overcome the inertia of the status quo and to convince a reluctant Congress and White House to quickly reverse decades of regressive energy policies. But it is in our national character to take on such huge challenges, and prevail, just as it is a core American desire to leave our children a better world than the one we inherited.
I am undertaking this bike odyssey as my personal stand for the future. I hope you will stand with me.
DRAFT "100% U.S. Green Grid by 2020" PETITIONWHEREAS, America has enough clean solar, wind and geothermal resources to meet all of our electricity needs; WHEREAS, millions of new jobs will be created by shifting tax breaks and subsidies from polluting fossil fuels and nuclear power to energy efficiency and renewables; WHEREAS, Americans would further benefit from local, state and federal policies that allow everyone to profit from producing renewable energy; WHEREAS, cutting carbon emissions in the atmosphere from the current 392 parts per million to 350 (the number top climate scientists say is the safe limit for humanity) is required to stabilize the planet's atmosphere; WHEREAS, a national moratorium on new polluting coal plants, followed by a phase-out of existing coal plants, is required to achieve these deep cuts in carbon emissions; WHEREAS, displaced coal miners, and veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, have earned guaranteed retraining and re-employment in the green jobs sector; and WHEREAS, it is in America's interest to lead a worldwide green industrial revolution that revitalizes the U.S. economy, secures our energy independence, heightens national security, promotes good health, and ensures U.S. economic competitiveness. THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that we the undersigned citizens of the United States of America do hereby call upon President Obama and the U.S. Congress to establish a national goal of a 100% renewable electricity grid by the year 2020. |