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.
Remind them that 12,000 of us came to DC in March for PowerShift '09 to demand change from our new administration, and how exciting it is to see the things we've been talking about and rallying behind starting to yield results.
There will always be more work to do, but right now we want to celebrate our movement and your commitment to being the difference in safeguarding our planet and the diverse people who love it and live in it. Thank you for your efforts, and we look forward to making 2010 a historic year in the name of progress.
Happy Holidays,
Jessy Tolkan
Executive Director
Energy Action Coalition
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