Attendees - Lam, Kathryn, D.C., Holly, Meggie
Jennifer Sellers - Coastal Carolina ECO REPS
Jennifer - CofC ECO REPS aware of PEAC
trying to get things moving, will connect with Meggie, etc. soon.
Possible speakers:
D.C. will make an effort to connect with Anne Hutto from the Lowlands
Kathryn will make an effort to connect with someone from Coastal Conservation League
Lam will connect with Dana Bruce from JDRF– food politics, justice
Our OFFICIAL meeting with the State House Environmental Committee (Co-Chair, Representative David Hiott, at least,) on February 28 at 2:30pm.
Blatt Building
1105 Pendleton Street, Room 418
Columbia SC 29201-3732
Meggie offers her place as a space for us to develop game plan before meeting with Hiott. Will connect with others from SAGE to come as well. Focusing on 1-2 specific asks since time is limited.
D.C.Taking care of Google document to begin sparking up ideas.
Holly - important that we get policymakers etc to acknowledge that climate change does indeed exist and action is urgent, etc.
Kathryn – our goals can be big! Small goals with our local government! Think big, start small. achieving small goals is empowering and helps build skills to achieve bigger ones.
D.C.- small goals – city councils, mayors, correspondence and asks supporting retrofitting energy efficiency or commitment to clean energy, recognition that climate change exists, etc.
Kathryn - Local allies will help our state wide cause.
Check city council elections, etc.
holly – transition towns. Peak oil and climate change. Tri-county transitions. Outreach. Community resiliency, etc. SC has no transition towns
Meggie – facebook too easy to ignore. The only people who will work is us and we must make a bigger effort to connect.
Everyone agrees that it is important to reconnect with Southern Energy Network. Our long term goals are too important!!
Holly and/or Meggie will connect with Reagan from SEN.
Kathryn will set up gmail listserv
Kathryn and Lam will report back on the events of the SC Clean Energy and Jobs Forum on the next call.
Next call is February 26, 2012 @ 2pm
Call-in: 218-632-0550
Pass: 1066925#
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
February Conference Call - Feb. 15th, 2012
On call : DC (Greenville), Holly (Anderson/Clemson), Lam (Columbia), Meggie (Columbia)
I. Summit planning
Kathryn and DC have tried to reach out to Coastal students with little luck.
Meggie recently had the eco-reps state retreat and has contacts:
She will reach out to.....
Jennifer Sellers - Coastal Carolina
Brian Fisher - USC
We will follow up next week on any progress contacting Coastal
Shooting for Coastal, since they've never hosted a summit before.
Also, shooting for late March, early April.....any later and we risk losing momentum over the summer.
Summit Agenda : Let's focus on coastal and marine issues since we will be near the coast, in addition to the more usual teambuilding exercises and skill building workshops.
Some topics to consider:
-Marine environment
-Food justice and food politics
-Nuclear waste
Who to focus on to invite/bring into the summit :
-Let's reach out to the Occupy movement folks (especially in Charleston and Columbia, which are strong) to build some intergenerational dialogue.
-SC Progressive Network
-Agricultural stakeholders : current farmers, young and old, rural and urban farmers, budding farmers
-Food justice speaker, Deana Bruce
-Inviting a legislator to come
-Riverkeepers from around the state
-Effected community members from the surrounding areas (are there any neighborhood groups who would like to come talk? Conway, if we do it at Coastal Carolina)
-visual displays...in order to educate and convey extra information that we don't have time to cover....trifold science fair board style
Cost : how to make it as low cost as possible
-Residence Hall association helped out in the past at USC
-Beginning to think about food and getting donations...going out to eat at least once to offset costs
-Finding a place to stay on campus/off campus with Coastal students
II. Updates on meeting with legislators and the governor
DC and Holly have been calling Gov. Haley's secretary to set up a meeting with Nikki Haley. We have yet to hear back from them, though the secretary said her staff would call us back.
DC has been in touch with Jean Hogan, the assistant to the chair of the Agricultural and Natural Resources committee
Topics to consider:
-Funding of school nutrition programs......lots of legislations seems to get in the way of capitalizing on bringing healthy food to schools (this fits in nicely with the issue of food justice we were talking about earlier) Meggie has contacts and is doing research in the School of Public Health on this issue.
Holly and DC had a call a few weeks back and brainstormed some ideas to take to Columbia:
-Increasing of kilowatt capacity for renewable energy projects....via Rory McIlmoil in Kentucky
-Retrofitting or making LEED certified any new buildings built by the state
-Re: Haley's state of the state address.....she says we are open for business!!...so lets bring in more green jobs...
-Moratorium on coal and nuclear plants...we already produce more energy than we need, so no reason to continue building more dirty energy here.
-Putting the Environmental Control (aspect of DHEC), the Dept of Natural Resources, and the Dept. of Agriculture together for more efficient government, which Nikki Haley would be a fan of.
Upcoming Event : In Columbia, on Feb. 23rd at Convention Center, SC Clean Energy and Jobs Forum
Its FREE! It starts at 1230pm...Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, speaking at 4:15pm on a panel.
http://sccleanenergyandjobs.eventbrite.com/
Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center
1101 Lincoln St.
Columbia, SC 29201
Thursday, February 23, 2012 from 12:30 PM to 6:00 PM (ET)
Next Call : NEXT WEEK : We are rolling, so at least check in with each other on our tasks, which are:
Lam - get Google Doc together for summit planning
Holly - Will continue to call Haley's secretary
Meggie - will make contact with the eco-rep folks at Coastal to see about the summit there
DC - will continue to make contact with Jean Hogan about meeting
Next calls agenda :
-Check in about summit planning
-Check in about legislative meetings
-Talk about the Clean Energy and Jobs forum, which we are going to the next day
-Start talking about the newsletter for the spring
NEXT CALL : Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 9pm EST
call info Call-in: 218-632-0550
Pass: 1066925#
PEACe!
I. Summit planning
Kathryn and DC have tried to reach out to Coastal students with little luck.
Meggie recently had the eco-reps state retreat and has contacts:
She will reach out to.....
Jennifer Sellers - Coastal Carolina
Brian Fisher - USC
We will follow up next week on any progress contacting Coastal
Shooting for Coastal, since they've never hosted a summit before.
Also, shooting for late March, early April.....any later and we risk losing momentum over the summer.
Summit Agenda : Let's focus on coastal and marine issues since we will be near the coast, in addition to the more usual teambuilding exercises and skill building workshops.
Some topics to consider:
-Marine environment
-Food justice and food politics
-Nuclear waste
Who to focus on to invite/bring into the summit :
-Let's reach out to the Occupy movement folks (especially in Charleston and Columbia, which are strong) to build some intergenerational dialogue.
-SC Progressive Network
-Agricultural stakeholders : current farmers, young and old, rural and urban farmers, budding farmers
-Food justice speaker, Deana Bruce
-Inviting a legislator to come
-Riverkeepers from around the state
-Effected community members from the surrounding areas (are there any neighborhood groups who would like to come talk? Conway, if we do it at Coastal Carolina)
-visual displays...in order to educate and convey extra information that we don't have time to cover....trifold science fair board style
Cost : how to make it as low cost as possible
-Residence Hall association helped out in the past at USC
-Beginning to think about food and getting donations...going out to eat at least once to offset costs
-Finding a place to stay on campus/off campus with Coastal students
II. Updates on meeting with legislators and the governor
DC and Holly have been calling Gov. Haley's secretary to set up a meeting with Nikki Haley. We have yet to hear back from them, though the secretary said her staff would call us back.
DC has been in touch with Jean Hogan, the assistant to the chair of the Agricultural and Natural Resources committee
Topics to consider:
-Funding of school nutrition programs......lots of legislations seems to get in the way of capitalizing on bringing healthy food to schools (this fits in nicely with the issue of food justice we were talking about earlier) Meggie has contacts and is doing research in the School of Public Health on this issue.
Holly and DC had a call a few weeks back and brainstormed some ideas to take to Columbia:
-Increasing of kilowatt capacity for renewable energy projects....via Rory McIlmoil in Kentucky
-Retrofitting or making LEED certified any new buildings built by the state
-Re: Haley's state of the state address.....she says we are open for business!!...so lets bring in more green jobs...
-Moratorium on coal and nuclear plants...we already produce more energy than we need, so no reason to continue building more dirty energy here.
-Putting the Environmental Control (aspect of DHEC), the Dept of Natural Resources, and the Dept. of Agriculture together for more efficient government, which Nikki Haley would be a fan of.
Upcoming Event : In Columbia, on Feb. 23rd at Convention Center, SC Clean Energy and Jobs Forum
Its FREE! It starts at 1230pm...Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, speaking at 4:15pm on a panel.
http://sccleanenergyandjobs.eventbrite.com/
Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center
1101 Lincoln St.
Columbia, SC 29201
Thursday, February 23, 2012 from 12:30 PM to 6:00 PM (ET)
Next Call : NEXT WEEK : We are rolling, so at least check in with each other on our tasks, which are:
Lam - get Google Doc together for summit planning
Holly - Will continue to call Haley's secretary
Meggie - will make contact with the eco-rep folks at Coastal to see about the summit there
DC - will continue to make contact with Jean Hogan about meeting
Next calls agenda :
-Check in about summit planning
-Check in about legislative meetings
-Talk about the Clean Energy and Jobs forum, which we are going to the next day
-Start talking about the newsletter for the spring
NEXT CALL : Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 9pm EST
call info Call-in: 218-632-0550
Pass: 1066925#
PEACe!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
January Call Notes
Who was on that sucker?
Kathryn - Aiken
Jennifer - USC
Samantha - USC
Holly - Anderson/Clemson
Lam - Columbia
Kelley - Charleston (Rock Hill?)
D.C. - Greenville
I. Summit
D.C. - We hope to hold the summit at USC Beaufort or Coastal, USC as back-up
Holly - Having a summit elsewhere helps students fell more a part of the group
Kathryn - We need to strengthen our ties with students/community on the coast, Coastal Carolina
Lam - Coastal can be our preliminary backup to Beaufort
Samantha/Jennifer - USC would get a strong group to go to summit if held on the coast
II. Governor Haley/Environmental Committee Meeting
D.C. - Contact Leigh LeMoine, Secretary for Haley at 803-734-5151 to request meeting; USC kids could reach out to State Senate environmental committee?
Kathryn - Send out listserv e-mail regarding meeting(s), issues we'd present; list of members of each committee
III. DHEC Meetings
D.C. - Encourages students to attend meetings this year; make us known
Kathryn - Stay informed by going, try to get ourselves out there even as an unofficial group; we need a starting line
IV. Revisiting Our Statewide Campaigns
Lam/Sam/Kelley: There's an appeal to #Occupy, such as not having one specific point, but we should locate an item/project to focus on
Holly/Jen - Curious about Port of Charleston vs. Port of Savannah issue
Kathryn - Coastal Conversation League would have more knowledge
Holly - Unite with like-minded organizations in SC
V. PEAC Events
Holly - Monthly calls, keep in touch; have local-level projects (listening to communities at churches, community centers, etc.); continue holding calls and summits; We will need more people power to obtain these goals...6 or 7 of us will not cut it..."I don't want to graduate from PEAC and go to Sierra Club" :-)
Lam - We have a problem with aging out, must recruit and maintain
VI. PEAC Newsletter
Lam - Let's connect with Palmetto Public Record (a blog)
Holly - Listserv should be moved off of Clemson server at some point
D.C. - Use the newsletter to keep important information out there
Kelley - Great to have e-Newsletter, too much stuff on Facebook, and information would get lost
Lam - Let's find more writers for the letter, as well as PEAC blog (peacchange.blogspot.com)
Samantha - Newsletter should be monthly; calls should be every 2nd Wednesday of the month
Holly - Post minutes of calls in the newsletter
Next Call: Wednesday, February 15, 9pm
Thank you to D.C. For taking notes and promptly posting them to the Facebook group! If you haven't joined us on Facebook yet, please do to stay up to date on our latest news!
Kathryn - Aiken
Jennifer - USC
Samantha - USC
Holly - Anderson/Clemson
Lam - Columbia
Kelley - Charleston (Rock Hill?)
D.C. - Greenville
I. Summit
D.C. - We hope to hold the summit at USC Beaufort or Coastal, USC as back-up
Holly - Having a summit elsewhere helps students fell more a part of the group
Kathryn - We need to strengthen our ties with students/community on the coast, Coastal Carolina
Lam - Coastal can be our preliminary backup to Beaufort
Samantha/Jennifer - USC would get a strong group to go to summit if held on the coast
II. Governor Haley/Environmental Committee Meeting
D.C. - Contact Leigh LeMoine, Secretary for Haley at 803-734-5151 to request meeting; USC kids could reach out to State Senate environmental committee?
Kathryn - Send out listserv e-mail regarding meeting(s), issues we'd present; list of members of each committee
III. DHEC Meetings
D.C. - Encourages students to attend meetings this year; make us known
Kathryn - Stay informed by going, try to get ourselves out there even as an unofficial group; we need a starting line
IV. Revisiting Our Statewide Campaigns
Lam/Sam/Kelley: There's an appeal to #Occupy, such as not having one specific point, but we should locate an item/project to focus on
Holly/Jen - Curious about Port of Charleston vs. Port of Savannah issue
Kathryn - Coastal Conversation League would have more knowledge
Holly - Unite with like-minded organizations in SC
V. PEAC Events
Holly - Monthly calls, keep in touch; have local-level projects (listening to communities at churches, community centers, etc.); continue holding calls and summits; We will need more people power to obtain these goals...6 or 7 of us will not cut it..."I don't want to graduate from PEAC and go to Sierra Club" :-)
Lam - We have a problem with aging out, must recruit and maintain
VI. PEAC Newsletter
Lam - Let's connect with Palmetto Public Record (a blog)
Holly - Listserv should be moved off of Clemson server at some point
D.C. - Use the newsletter to keep important information out there
Kelley - Great to have e-Newsletter, too much stuff on Facebook, and information would get lost
Lam - Let's find more writers for the letter, as well as PEAC blog (peacchange.blogspot.com)
Samantha - Newsletter should be monthly; calls should be every 2nd Wednesday of the month
Holly - Post minutes of calls in the newsletter
Next Call: Wednesday, February 15, 9pm
Thank you to D.C. For taking notes and promptly posting them to the Facebook group! If you haven't joined us on Facebook yet, please do to stay up to date on our latest news!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
January Call : Wednesday, Jan. 18th at 9pm
Hey yall,
We will be having our first PEAC call of the year on Wednesday, January 18th at 9pm EST. The call in number is:
218-632-0550 and the passcode is 1066925#
We had a lot of great energy and momentum from the Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference in Ashville last November, and so we are going to build off that for the new year! Dante and I have come up with some topics for the call, and they are :
1) Spring Summit....discuss location
2) Setting up meeting with Governor Haley and the Environmental Committee (legislature)
3) DHEC (Department of Health and Environmental Control) meetings
4) Revisit our conversations about a state wide campaign
5) Events throughout the year, in our local cities (listening project, church outreach)
6) An E-newletter to stay in touch, promote state wide call-in days, etc....
These are just a brainstorm we had, and certainly can prioritize them, since the call will be kept to one hour. We will have a monthly call starting with the January call, so if you can't make this one, no problem!
Please share the call info with others at your school or in your community. We'd love to have fifteen people on the call.
Call in : 218-632-0550 Passcode: 1066925#
Wednesday, January 18th at 9pm
We will be having our first PEAC call of the year on Wednesday, January 18th at 9pm EST. The call in number is:
218-632-0550 and the passcode is 1066925#
We had a lot of great energy and momentum from the Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference in Ashville last November, and so we are going to build off that for the new year! Dante and I have come up with some topics for the call, and they are :
1) Spring Summit....discuss location
2) Setting up meeting with Governor Haley and the Environmental Committee (legislature)
3) DHEC (Department of Health and Environmental Control) meetings
4) Revisit our conversations about a state wide campaign
5) Events throughout the year, in our local cities (listening project, church outreach)
6) An E-newletter to stay in touch, promote state wide call-in days, etc....
These are just a brainstorm we had, and certainly can prioritize them, since the call will be kept to one hour. We will have a monthly call starting with the January call, so if you can't make this one, no problem!
Please share the call info with others at your school or in your community. We'd love to have fifteen people on the call.
Call in : 218-632-0550 Passcode: 1066925#
Wednesday, January 18th at 9pm
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Our Goals
The Palmetto Environmental Action Coalition is the state environmental network for the state of South Carolina. We meet a few times a year face to face as a group and use conference calls the remainder of the year to communicate and plan events. We show up to hearing across the state to be the voice for the environment and lobby our representatives in Columbia.
Our goals are to :
- Energize our state network to share and take action on environmental issues pertinent to South Carolina.
- Build strong statewide campaigns together to act as one voice for the environment in South Carolina.
- Facilitate communication among environmentalists and other conservation/natural resource advocate groups in SC.
- Provide resources and support to one another across the state.
- Lobby our state representatives and governor regarding environmental issues in SC.
If you would like to join the network and pitch in or call in to our monthly conference calls, please email Holly Garrett at hgarret@clemson.edu.
Our goals are to :
- Energize our state network to share and take action on environmental issues pertinent to South Carolina.
- Build strong statewide campaigns together to act as one voice for the environment in South Carolina.
- Facilitate communication among environmentalists and other conservation/natural resource advocate groups in SC.
- Provide resources and support to one another across the state.
- Lobby our state representatives and governor regarding environmental issues in SC.
If you would like to join the network and pitch in or call in to our monthly conference calls, please email Holly Garrett at hgarret@clemson.edu.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
PowerShift 2011 Summary
Hello, all that may be interested! Back on April 15-18, we PEACers saw tens of young adults represent South Carolina at the largest youth environmental conference in the country - PowerShift 2011. Students (and former students) from Clemson, USC, Winthrop, Coastal Carolina, Furman, and USC Aiken attended the weekend events and the Congressional Lobby Day. Over 12,000 young adults united to meet like-minded persons concerned about environmental issues like coal-fired plants, big oil, nuclear technology, and sustainability.
The first day included speeches from Al Gore and Van Jones, and preparation for the big day on Saturday. That following morning, we all had to answer the question of "why are we here?" For four hours (alongside Florida's attendees,) we analyzed and augmented our Stories of Us to become Stories of Self - to find the joint reason(s) for why we'd come to D.C. Following this, some of the PowerShifters took it to the streets and participated in long-standing rallies. Others remained in the D.C. Convention Center and frequented learning sessions covering entirely too many environmental topics to name here. Saturday finished up with speeches from environmentalists, new and old, tall and short, and powerful. Lisa Jackson, Director of the EPA spoke well of our intentions and encouraged us to keep at it, or else nothing will happen. After the speeches, a concert followed celebrating our passion.
Sunday saw the regions reconvene in their rooms and continue working on their Stories of Us. And following lunch, the individual states had breakouts to discuss their take on the weekend's events and to begin planning for making change back home. We South Carolinians determined that we cannot waste any more time in achieving our goals and that 2011 will see the action and similar successes PEAC obtained in 2009.
Not everyone was able to stay for Lobby Day on Monday, but Coastal Carolina and a University of New Hampshire student from the state were able to visit a few aides of our Congressmen.
All in all, Powershift 2011 was not as energized for our state in comparison to 2009, and the conference seemed a little slow at points. Nevertheless, having 12,000 persons concerned about making this country and world a better place for them, the poor, and the powerless in the same place is one of the strongest statements we can make to our political leaders.
The first day included speeches from Al Gore and Van Jones, and preparation for the big day on Saturday. That following morning, we all had to answer the question of "why are we here?" For four hours (alongside Florida's attendees,) we analyzed and augmented our Stories of Us to become Stories of Self - to find the joint reason(s) for why we'd come to D.C. Following this, some of the PowerShifters took it to the streets and participated in long-standing rallies. Others remained in the D.C. Convention Center and frequented learning sessions covering entirely too many environmental topics to name here. Saturday finished up with speeches from environmentalists, new and old, tall and short, and powerful. Lisa Jackson, Director of the EPA spoke well of our intentions and encouraged us to keep at it, or else nothing will happen. After the speeches, a concert followed celebrating our passion.
Sunday saw the regions reconvene in their rooms and continue working on their Stories of Us. And following lunch, the individual states had breakouts to discuss their take on the weekend's events and to begin planning for making change back home. We South Carolinians determined that we cannot waste any more time in achieving our goals and that 2011 will see the action and similar successes PEAC obtained in 2009.
Not everyone was able to stay for Lobby Day on Monday, but Coastal Carolina and a University of New Hampshire student from the state were able to visit a few aides of our Congressmen.
All in all, Powershift 2011 was not as energized for our state in comparison to 2009, and the conference seemed a little slow at points. Nevertheless, having 12,000 persons concerned about making this country and world a better place for them, the poor, and the powerless in the same place is one of the strongest statements we can make to our political leaders.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Powershift 2011 or Bust!!
South Carolina student leaders are gearing up to travel to Washington DC from April 15-18th for Powershift 2011. This conference has become THE central event in the youth climate movement bringing together students from all over the United States to learn from, share with, inspire and empower each other to create the clean, renewable energy future we need! We are coming together to reclaim our democracy from greedy corporations and push our nation to move beyond dirty energy that is harming the health of people and the planet.
This Sunday, Feb. 27th at 9pm EST the Palmetto Environmental Action Coalition will be hosting a conference call to discuss our next steps in getting student leaders to DC in April. We'll talk about recruitment, registration, and fundraising. If you are interested in getting on this or future calls to represent your school or organization, please email stuenva@g.clemson.edu for the call-in information.
Here is a video from the first Powershift in 2007. The late Judy Bonds speaks to the crowd about our responsibility as youth to lead the way and build a better, cleaner future. Judy was taken from us this year but her memory and spirit will live on in the actions we take and words we speak.
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