Right after the State of the Union, young climate activists submitted a question about the President’s remarks on clean energy and crossed their fingers hoping that it would get asked. The smiling faces of Energy Action Coalition activists made it in the the intro screen as the YouTube announcer explained the format.

During the CitizenTube State of the Union Q & A discussion, President Obama severely dodged a question submitted by young activists about his support of dirty energy.

His answer is unwise, and deceitful. I hate to say this about the President that has done more to invest in a clean energy economy than anyone before him (not a hard accomplishment since W, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and Carter were the only presidents in office since  clean energy became an issue), but young people are tired of being lied to by the White House and congress.

Study after study show that renewable energy and energy efficiency are abundant and affordable enough to meet our short term emission reduction targets (including base load concerns).

Poll after poll shows overwhelming support for renewable energy, conservation, and even for strong action on the climate crisis.

Last night was the first of a series of conference calls for leaders of the movement to discuss using these next few months to Define Our Decade and create a plan to move forward in realizing a clean energy future. With over fifty people on the call, and lots of ways to engage, this conference call -- not usually known to be an especially enthralling forum -- was high energy and inspirational.

Laying out a vision

We started with a discussion on how we are each working to define our decade in our own community. Aided by a chat room, we created an online visioning session, a brilliant display of the hope and creativity of our generation -- and I have to admit, I haven't been as excited about a chat room since middle school.... -- We shared ideas to strengthen our local projects and showcase the movement to the general public.

• We heard about continuing efforts to engage diverse allies around the need for federal climate and energy legislation
• Campus organizers in New York and Florida both shared their hopes to transition their campuses by creating campus green energy funds, and made plans to continue to share with one another.
• We heard awesome ideas for focusing on and spotlighting a couple of key issues and solutions, to demonstrate what we'd like to see as a national movement.
• And there was a lot of discussion about needed to "declare freedom from fossil fuels" and other dirty energy. One organizer offered her vision to establish a moratorium against new coal and nuclear facilities in the Green Lakes Region, another talked about the fight and direct action campaigns in Appalachia to end mountaintop removal mining, and a number of people talked about working to kick their coal plants off their campuses.

It's the day after MLK Day, and the eve of Obama's inauguration.

In light of insufficient progress on national climate and energy policy, and a disappointing outcome in Copenhagen, it's clear as a movement that we need to stop and reflect on our path forward.  It's been great to see this discussion on IGHIH with a number of really thoughtful posts.  We got an idea of where we came from, learned about the importance of ambition and going big, and reflected on what we can learn from Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. I'd like to continue the conversation, and have us reflect on what it means to be entering a new decade.

In this decade, the Millennial generation will come to power, becoming the largest voting constituency and entering the workforce.  How do we want to define our decade?

We need a movement wide discussion, and a movement wide vision. A vision built from the ground-up with the numbers to stand behind it to make it powerful.

How do we want this decade to be defined? What should our political objectives be to achieve this, and perhaps more importantly what are WE, collectively ready to work towards and achieve in the next ten years.

Do you want your or your organization's blog featured? Do you want to be able to manage and email your local contacts? Do you want your beautiful face on the front page? Fill out the survey, and make sure to forward along!

http://www.energyactioncoalition.org/digitalsurvey

We are currently redesigning the Energy Action Coalition's web presence and entire digital infrastructure to better support organizers in the field, Coalition partners, activists, media professionals, potential donors, and the whole movement in a seamless streamlined way.

There are a few pages in this survey, but it is not long. Make sure you make it to where you click submit (not continue) to make sure your survey is registered.

In 2009, you all relentlessly proved that the youth climate movement is more powerful than ever, and as an eventful year ends we want to thank you for all you contributed. 

Our votes, our meetings with elected officials, our community outreach, our regional Power Shift '09 summits, our "It's Game Time, Obama!" actions that led to the new administration's first-ever White House Youth Clean Energy Forum, our presence in Copenhagen, our investment in new leadership and a dynamic campaign vision for 2010 leave us poised to realize long-awaited results in legislation, participation in next year's critical midterm elections and engagement with the general public.

We experienced some setbacks this year with Congress and Copenhagen, but there is still reason to be optimistic about the future -- most notably because of YOU! We've seen our collective power in action, and we're confident that we'll continue to make a huge impact on securing a clean and just climate and energy future for our generation.

Remember while you're spending the holidays with friends and family to tell the story of the amazing year we had and encourage them to join us in this fight.

Tell them about our meeting at the White House in which we held the President's top officials accountable for mountaintop removal, the myth of "clean coal" and insufficient emissions reduction targets. Tell them about the $4 billion coal plant we saw shut down in Ohio over Thanksgiving. Tell them about the local community leaders we saw look their elected officials in the face and demand an explanation as to why they should bear a disproportionate amount of the negative effects of climate change and dirty energy. Tell them about the stimulus money we've seen used to create the green jobs we heard about on the campaign trail.