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Luis Hestres — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:20:55 +0000

Yesterday I joined the newly formed Board of Directors of 350.org, coinciding with a range of exciting new changes at the organization. I have been a supporter of 350.org since I first heard about the wacky plan to turn a wonky scientific target into a global people's movement, and I'm thrilled and honored to be officially joining the team.

In the past three years, we have all watched the number "350" morph into a beautiful and urgent S.O.S., rising up from every corner of the globe, from Iceland to the Maldives, Ethiopia to Alaska. In the process, 350.org helped to decisively shift the climate conversation from polar bears to people -- the people whose island nations, cultures and livelihoods will disappear unless those of us who live in the high emitting countries embrace a different economic path.

What has always mattered most about that magic number is that we are already well past it. That means there is no time to waste on stalling tactics like action plans that only get serious in 2020 and shell games like cap-and-trade. Our single goal has to be radically cutting our emissions right here, right now -- not a decade from now, and not by paying someone else to do it for us.

If there is one thing that the failure of cap-and-trade has taught us, it is that trying to win this battle by lobbying elites behind closed doors is a disastrously losing strategy. Not only did it fail to deliver even weak climate legislation in the U.S., it made climate action look like just another opportunity for cronyism, helping to alienate a large sector of the public.

As 350.org has known all along, the real task is to build the kind of mass movement that politicians cannot afford to ignore. That means showing how making the deep emission cuts that science demands is not some dour punishment that will destroy our economy (as the Koch-funded right is perpetually claiming) but rather our best chance of fixing an economic system that is failing us on every level. Shifting to renewable energy and re-localizing our economies could create millions of good new jobs, while leaving us with cleaner cities and a healthier food system. And as 350.org's Global Work Party showed, a big part of averting climate chaos involves rebuilding and strengthening our frayed communities -- and that is a joyful process.

But it's not enough to dreamily imagine the world we want. We also have to confront, head on, the forces that are determined to use their power and wealth to stop us. Which is why 350.org just launched a campaign targeting the deeply anti-democratic influence that major polluters have over the political process in Washington, starting with the biggest fish of them all, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (chamber.350.org).

I see this campaign as a breakthrough moment in the history of the climate movement, recognition that the struggles for economic justice, real democracy and a livable climate are all profoundly interconnected. As 350.org founder Bill McKibben puts it: unless we go after the "money pollution," no campaign against real pollution stands a chance. The same can be said for any progressive goal, from labor rights to net neutrality. As we recognize these (and many other) connections among our various "issues," I am convinced that a new kind of climate movement will emerge, one that is larger, deeper and more powerful than anything we have seen yet. There is no question that 350.org will be helping to lead the way, and I can't wait to see what comes next.

@NaomiAKlein on joining the new @350

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Naima Pearce — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:35:16 +0000

A few weeks ago, 1Sky activists joined in the South Florida "King Mango Strut" with allies from across the state to bring attention to the BP Oil spill and shed light on the importance of clean energy. The day was packed with fun, theatrics and education.

Every year on the Sunday following Christmas Day, South Floridians gather in the heart of Coconut Grove to celebrate the parade known as the King Mango Strut. The strut is a wacky, satirical, no-holds bar parade that showcases the year’s most controversial stories in a fun, lighthearted manner. Months of preparation and anticipation go into each performance, creating an almost theater-like quality to the parade. Among the top stories showcased in 2010 were the Chilean miners, New York bedbugs, and, of course, the BP oil disaster... 1Sky Florida activist joined thirty-six Sierra Club members as the club opened “The Sierra Club B.P. Cafe”, where cooks, waiters and waitresses in full garb served the public large trays of delicious seafood dishes from the Gulf, all covered in an appetizing black gook."

You can read the full article here.

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Naima Pearce — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:36:35 +0000

I woke up Wednesday morning with a scratchy throat but also a whole lot of hope. This week was packed full of events, each one different, and each one inspiring. To kick things off, I was able to participate in a roundtable discussion with community leaders, legislators, business executives and one of my personal heroes, Van Jones, to talk about green jobs and the clean energy economy.

The conversation ran the gamut from energy efficiency to the disappointing failure of the Senate to pass meaningful climate legislation at the federal level. We also discussed the small bills such as a federal RES, which we need to support while also protecting the Clean Air Act. While the climate change movement has some serious threats to respond to -- Newt Gingrich just called for the disintegration of the EPA -- and there are several bills coming up that aim to take away the Clean Air Act’s ability to regulate carbon, there are also a lot of exciting opportunities at the state and federal level.

Next, I had the opportunity to lead a climate activist training for 30+ volunteers. I'm always happily amazed when people are willing to take time out of their busy lives to attend volunteer events, but this was one of the smartest, most passionate, ready-to-act groups I’ve ever met. Many of the attendees were already active in the climate movement, working on projects to retrofit their churches, teaching classes at local colleges on climate change or planning rallies and events -- not to mention Bill Bradbury, our former Secretary of State, who was one of the first climate presenters to work with Al Gore.

I think I may have learned more from them then they did from me. Over the course of the training, it became clear to me that while we have a huge fight in front of us at both the state and national level, we are building an incredible movement full of people from all walks of life. As Van Jones said, "We must do better." After my meeting last night, I truly believe we can.

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Luis Hestres — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:44:41 +0000

The Clean Air Act (CAA) was signed into law in 1963 and has since been amended several times. This law requires that all new power plants use the best available technology to reduce pollutants that are a threat to human health. The power industry argued that there was no need to regulate old power plants, since they would be replaced over time with new plants that meet the CAA requirements. The fact that this didn’t happen is both a lesson for how we need to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in the future and an opportunity to quickly begin reducing our emissions in the present.

Soon after passage of the CAA, it was clear that these old plants weren’t going away. To the contrary: Old plants were being “upgraded”, without meeting the requirements of the CAA. That’s why New Source Review was added to the CAA in 1977. If an existing plant was modified such that there were significant increases in emission, then the plant would need to be brought up to the CAA standards and the best available technology for controlling emissions would need to be installed. Routine maintenance is allowed under new source review. During the Clinton administration, a battle royal was waged about the definition of “significant” and “routine”. For the most part power plants have only performed “routine maintenance” since 1977. Still, power from these old plants has increased by operating them more hours each year.

In the 1980s, acid rain was killing lakes and streams in the Northwest; Congress amended the CAA again in 1990 to address this problem. This time their approach included the old plants, forcing them to either clean up their emissions or buy permits. The number of permits would drop over time, driving their cost up until the demand dropped, which happens when a power plant installs sulfur dioxide (SO2) scrubbers or is shut down.

This is a market-based approach, sometimes called cap-and-trade, that the Republicans brought forward and has been very successful in reducing SO2 emissions at a much lower cost than was predicted (which is almost always the case for environmental and safety regulations). The pro-market folks are now deriding the same basic concept for carbon dioxide (CO2).

Now it’s time to take stock on how well the CAA has done in cleaning up power plants. We’ve had almost 50 years of federal regulation, so one would expect that almost all coal-fired power plants would to be using some form of emission control at this point. I’m not talking about cutting edge IGCC plants or carbon sequestration. I’m talking about sulfur dioxide scrubbers that have been around for eighty years.

Well, an interesting report called Dirty Kilowatts by the Environmental Integrity Project explored that question, and I found the results shocking. They used data from 2005 and 2006 to find the dirtiest large coal-fired power plants in the country. My expectation was that there would be a few plants that had managed to survive for decades without installing emission controls.

Boy, was I wrong.

A coal power plant with state-of-the-art, best available technology can reduce emissions of SO2 down to about one pound per MegaWatt hour (MWh) of electricity. The dirtiest 50 large power plants averaged over 20 times that much. These dirtiest plants emitted 40% of the SO2, while producing 13% of the electricity produced by coal-fired power plants. This data is a bit old and some of these plants may have been cleaned up or shut down recently; the emissions permitting system is finally putting pressure on the operators to clean them up.

What is happening on the Navaho reservation is instructive of what can happen. A coal plant in Laughlin, Nevada shut down rather than spend 1.2 billion dollars installing pollution controls. This led to the shutting down of the coal mine on the reservation that supplied that power plant with fuel. This in turn led many on the reservation to question their long relationship with coal mining; that it isn’t consistent with their values and that rather than pierce the skin of the earth, they should harvest their abundant wind and sunlight.

The interesting thing here is that the shutting down of this coal plant was driven by regulations on SO2 and NO2, but resulted in a decrease in CO2 emissions as well. There are scores of power plants like this one and I don’t want them cleaned up: I want them shut down.

Shutting them down is a three-for-one: we reduce traditional pollutants that cause smog and asthma; we reduce CO2 emissions that cause climate change; we create a market for wind, solar and other renewable by reducing the amount of electricity on the market generated by coal. It jump-starts the changes we need without there being any carbon regulation on the books, though fear of a carbon cost does drive the decision not to upgrade these old plants.

An important lesson from the history of the CAA is that if you don’t explicitly require something to happen, you can guarantee it won’t happen (unless it’s bad, then you can guarantee that it will happen). The pollutants that the CAA didn’t address (e.g. mercury and CO2) have either remained constant or increased. The old power plants that weren’t required to clean up their act, didn’t. As we craft policy for CO2, we must explicitly cover old plants or they will continue to pollute the atmosphere and disrupt the climate. That doesn’t necessarily mean to need to shut them all down tomorrow, but some system that creates an increasing amount of economic pain on business as usual must be part of the solution. Whether that’s cap-and-trade, cap-and-dividend or a carbon tax is much less important than the fact that it must put pressure on the old coal plants.

URL:

http://www.sustainablewestseattle.org/

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Garth Moore — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:25:24 +0000

What does the date 10.10.10 signify? To some merely a symmetrical date of repeating numbers; to others a very lucky and auspicious date to hold weddings and cultural events.

For hundreds of thousands of people at 7,347 events organized in 188 countries, 10.10.10 was 350.org’s Global Work Party to get to work seeking solutions to the climate crisis. Citizens from nearly every country in the world joined together to dig at local farms and community gardens, install solar panels, plant trees and carry out other community-improving and energy-conserving projects. These actions were meant to send a clear message to our political leaders: “if we can get to work, so can you!”

SACE staff and members were involved in numerous projects throughout the Southeast including community garden projects in Oxford, MS and the Raleigh-Durham region in NC. Through 1Sky Florida, a joint project of SACE and 1Sky, we helped to coordinate or support numerous projects in Florida, including a tree-planting project on the campus of the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, FL.

South Florida Clean Energy Network’s leaders in Ft. Lauderdale, including representatives of 1SkyFL, Greenpeace, and Oceana, organized "Greenfest" on Fort Lauderdale Beach on 10/10/10. TV reporters showed up as 60 cyclists rode in from the local Critical Mass group, Food Not Bombs showed up with vegan food for the crowd, activists clean up trash, speakers from various organizations engaged the crowd to work for more change. Speakers included 1Sky Climate Precinct Captain, Maria Rotunda, who urged attendees to not only change their light bulbs and alter lifestyles, but to also work for political action that will create the massive changes across society. The evening wrapped up with a candlelight vigil of candles shaped in a 350 formation- signifying the 350 parts per million of carbon which is the appropriate level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (which was surpassed in 1986). Today’s levels are at about 390 and climbing by 2 ppm each year.

1SkyFL also helped to coordinate many volunteers at a rally in Miami for the 10/10/10 global work parties to stop climate change (see video below). Organizers and volunteers from 1SkyFL, Greenpeace, Oceana, and Sierra Club collaborated to promote and recruit citizen participation in the event, as well as attention from TV and newspaper reporters from CBS, NBC, and The Examiner. 1Sky promoted a bike ride to the event from the downtown area over the Venetian causeway with the help of Emerge Miami and South Florida Bike Coalition, to encourage citizens to arrive at the event emissions-free. Once arrived, cyclists cooled off in the water on a hot day. All participants gathered to create a formation of the number 10/10/10 for a photo. Here’s the video -- compiled by Juan Carlos Gallo.

In the end, will these individual and community actions lead to real and needed policy actions in our country and around the world? Christiana Figueres, the new Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, endorsed 10.10.10 and encouraged participation in the mass civil society action in advance noting it could encourage governments to move more aggressively. You can watch the video of her statement prior to an international climate policy gathering in Tianjin, China last week. While the U.S. Senate ducks its responsibility to take action and international negotiations crawl slowly along, Figueres’ statement is some proof that our voices and our concerns are, at least, being heard.

URL:

http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2010/10/11/101010-global-work-party/

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Luis Hestres — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:56:22 +0000

By Ed Toribio, owner of Home Energy Alternatives in Nebraska. This is the second in a series of posts from clean energy business leaders across America. -- Luis

Last month, as we wrapped-up Independence Day celebrations, I recalled the meaning behind this important holiday, the birthday of our country. The Founders had a clear vision for this country based in the belief that all Americans are entitled to the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Today, our dependency on foreign oil and the effects of global climate change has put these fundamental rights at risk.

At first, it is hard to find a connection between life, liberty, happiness and energy, but if you look closely, the American way of life depends heavily on access to energy sources. With increasing demand for energy, it becomes a challenge to use energy in a responsible manner; therefore, we must consider the impact and negative repercussions of generating electricity burning fossil fuels.

We need to be serious about reducing greenhouse emissions and breaking our dependency on foreign energy. The strategies and resources for achieving such goals can be found right here in the U.S. It is essential we develop renewable energy resources to meet our country’s energy demand. With the transition to a clean energy economy, the U.S can accelerate the economic recovery by opening roads to private investment and putting hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work. Building a new smart grid, upgrading aging transmission lines, extensive research in biofuels, solar, and battery technology will create well-paying jobs for construction workers, machinery operators, engineers, technicians, project managers and all the indirect jobs needed to support these industries.

As the owner of a small solar company in Nebraska, I offer sales, design and installation services of solar electric systems for homeowners and businesses. As part of the initial contact with my customers, I usually ask them what their motivation to buy a solar system is. All of them seem to have the same answer, “I want to take control of my energy future, I am concerned about increasing energy prices and I want to be a good steward of the environment”. The State of Nebraska does not have a Renewable Portfolio Standard, so it is difficult for my business to grow and hire more workers. Nationally, Nebraska ranks third in the country for wind energy and 12th for solar potential. A National Standard will open the doors for companies like mine to develop these resources, contribute to the economy and produce private-sector jobs. Without a standard, my business might not be able to make it into the next year.

I urge members of both parties in Congress to work together to resolve this energy and climate issue, putting the best interest of the country before special interests and scare tactics. The Founders created government to guarantee all Americans the right to grow in a healthy environment and seek happiness in a free country. The role of government should be to protect its citizens and make sure those ideals stay intact for generations to come. The time has come for our elected officials to act and pass a comprehensive energy and climate bill that works for America and protects our freedom. The politics of delay and denial are a serious threat to the founder’s ideals and the American way of life.

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Luis Hestres — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:29:13 +0000

By Jesse Hart, owner of Hart Homes LLC/Black Hills Solar in South Dakota. -- Luis

My wife and I started Black Hills Solar about four years ago with the idea that we would build energy efficient and low maintenance homes for the people in the Black Hills area. To save the homeowners money every month on their energy bills, we used structural insulated panels for the exterior walls and blown fiberglass insulation in other areas. On the outside of the homes, we used products that don't need annual maintenance and have long warranties so people don't have to repaint and maintain their house every year.

As the housing market changed, so did our business. We went from building new homes to remodeling and fixing existing homes, but we still try to help customers lower their energy usage and make their home require less maintenance. We look for many ways to help customers reduce their energy demand, such as adding more insulation or installing new windows.

I always tell my customers that first you conserve energy and then you start making your own power. There are a lot of choices out there for solar and wind products, and I try to use products that are manufactured here in the U.S. For solar products I use a company that is starting to make solar thermal systems and solar electric (PV) panels in the U.S. They will also make evacuated tubes, which were once only made in China. The wind company that I deal with is a U.S. company but makes products overseas. I am also trying to work with a wind energy company that will be manufacturing in my hometown.

Solar and wind products bring lots of well paying jobs to the area. For example, when I install solar electric (PV), I get panels that are made in the U.S. and I also hire a licensed electrician to run the electrical and wire to the house. When I put up a wind turbine, I need to hire an electrician, and buy concrete and the turbine, which comes from a local manufacturer. Right now my business is small but in addition to the employees who work for me, we create jobs in other areas, such as manufacturing, shipping, and trained professional jobs.

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Luis Hestres — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:25:53 +0000

By 1Sky blogger Nick Santos. See his bio at the end of this post.-- Luis

By now, most of you have probably heard the double dose of bad news coming out of the Senate (It seems like political bad news too frequently comes from there). Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has indefinitely delayed action on a climate bill and is still talking of scheduling floor time for Senator Rockefeller's (D-WV) reprise of Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) Dirty Air Act.

There's a lot of implications to both of those actions, and I'm now beyond frustrated with the Senate, so let's step through why this extra delay from the Senate is absolutely dangerous for public health and welfare.

First, let’s address the delay of the climate bill. The Senate continues to show absolute cowardice in its unwilling to act, despite clear public support for the measures. Working on climate change issues has given me a healthy dose of reality regarding the Senate’s timelines and the frequent delay that’s involved. However, this delay has the potential to be more devastating than the others because, unless something changes, we’re looking at a minimum of three months of delay, but potentially 6-12 months in reality. This length of time is unacceptable to address one of the biggest issues of our time.

As if doing absolutely nothing was too good for the Senate, Senator Rockefeller is pushing for complete regression through his version of Senator Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act. Rockefeller's bill seeks a 2-year delay on EPA action on climate change, and this idea is, plain and simple, terrible because it eliminates the most effective defender of the public interest on climate change. EPA's mandate to address carbon dioxide emission comes from requirements in the Clean Air Act that the Supreme Court reaffirmed in a landmark 2007 case, Massachusetts v. EPA. The Clean Air Act has proven time and again, through action on acid rain, mercury, and smog-forming emissions, to be an effective and economically efficient defender of the public interest, health, and well-being (studies have shown the Clean Air Act’s benefits outweigh the costs by as much as 42 to 1). The EPA's public rulemaking process is nearing completion with requirements for big polluters like coal power plants set to take effect in January 2011. In response to these upcoming science-based regulations, Senator Rockefeller is attempting a political counterattack to protect coal interests over public health.

Two more years of delay will do nothing more than pad the pockets of polluters at the expense of public health. Furthermore, any amount of delay would require additional time spent restarting rulemaking and also have high potential for another congressionally sponsored delay. Two years of delay is indefinite delay, so we can't afford to have our senators strike these Clean Air Act requirements, even temporarily.

And the impacts and costs of further delay remain staggering. We've seen what our oil dependence has done to the public and environmental welfare in the Gulf Coast. We also see what it does in funding petro-dictatorships around the world. Similar impacts to public health -- increased costs for vital resources like water, more rapid spread of disease, increased temperature -- are happening or likely to happen as a result of emissions we have difficulty seeing, but which remain just as immediate. Senators should be seizing the moment to support Clean Air Act's mission to protect our health and environment, not destroying one of the most effective public protection laws in U.S. history. Senators have a choice now to either take the country backward by undoing 40 years of clean air policy, or move forward to protect public health by addressing climate change. Shame on any Senator who chooses utilities and polluters over consumer health and votes for Senator Rockefeller's legislation.

Nick Santos is a former 1Sky policy fellow and now works with The Environmental Consumer in California. The author's opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the 1Sky campaign.

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Luis Hestres — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:04:56 +0000

By Genevieve Raymond is a full time mom and part-time founding member of Climb Against Coal. -- Luis

We were moms on a mission. We woke up at midnight Saturday morning to attempt the 14,411 ft summit of Mount Rainier. We had a message for Governor Gregoire: close Washington’s largest toxic polluter and point source of deadly carbon — the TransAlta coal-fired power plant in Centralia.

We are not experienced mountaineers, but six months ago, when we brainstormed this crazy idea, we determined to meet an urgent challenge with radical action. We each have children between the ages of 3 and 6, and our kids have taught us to be loud and persistent in our demands. The Governor’s plan to burn dirty coal for fifteen more years is unacceptable. The time to transition to clean energy is now.

At the 14,411' summit of Mount Rainier. Banner reads "Governor Gregoire: Close TransAlta Now. Coal Kills"

We were the last team to leave base camp at 1:30 a.m., but all of our training paid off: we climbed 5000 ft in six hours and were the first team from Camp Schurman to arrive at the summit. While we stood awed and breathless atop Mount Rainier’s magnificent glaciers, it was hard to ignore other, less awe-inspiring facts:

TransAlta’s coal plant, Washington’s largest point source of carbon emissions, was warming the climate and destroying Rainier’s glaciers beneath our feet;
The snow that we melted for our drinking water was laced with mercury, a potent neurotoxin which blows onto the mountain from TransAlta’s stack;
The views we expected from the top of our state’s tallest mountain were muddied with haze caused by TransAlta’s nitrogen oxide emissions.

Vashon friends and family circle up in the O of "NO COAL"

We wrestled our banner out in the wind, managing to snap a few photos, and then it was time to head back down to a less nausea- and fatigue-inducing elevation. After taking a day back at base camp to recuperate and revel in our accomplishment, we headed down the mountain to Glacier Basin (including a thrilling 1,500′ glissade, a.k.a., sliding on our butts). I had been anticipating this moment for months--triumphant moms, returning to our families, gathering our kids up in our arms. We were met on the trail not only by our families, but by much of our island community who had come out to the Park to support our effort and also to make their own stand against coal. Early that morning, as we were still tucked into our sleeping bags at 9,400′, our friends and families were laying out a 75,000 square foot image with black landscape fabric on a snowfield stating: NO COAL.

It was an incredible moment of solidarity and the mountain really was abuzz with the message of our action. From the climbing rangers at base camp — “Oh, you’re the No Coal Moms? You guys are famous!” — to all the climbers we spoke to — “You guys might not have been mountaineers a few days ago, but you definitely are now!”; from the rangers at Glacier Basin and everybody who passed on the trail snapping photos, to the person who hiked down a few thousand feet from Burroughs to get our email address so he could send the photos he took of the No Coal banner. Everybody we spoke to was supportive, engaged, and ready for Washington to move beyond coal.

We are proud to join the many voices throughout the state urging Governor Gregoire to step up. Our parents taught us to face our problems, to try creative solutions, and not to procrastinate. We are teaching our children those same lessons. We can not push this problem into our children’s future. In 2025, when our kids are grown, we want them to look back at this time with pride -- pride that their parents took a stand, made sacrifices, and met a challenge to help future generations live on a thriving, nurturing planet.

View our letter to Governor Gregoire here: http://www.climbagainstcoal.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/governor_letter_final.pdf
View photos from the climb here: (available for media and blog use) http://www.flickr.com/photos/climbagainstcoal/sets/72157624537682408/
More information on the climb and a diary of the event can be found here: http://www.climbagainstcoal.org and http://www.facebook.com/climbagainstcoal

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Luis Hestres — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:29:56 +0000

By Maine State Representative Diane Russell. -- Luis

Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation. Across the country, organizers, activists and lawmakers have been building infrastructure, creating momentum out of inertia and pushing the giant boulder of climate and energy legislation up Mt. Everest.

On March 20th, I stood with Maine’s Governor John Baldacci at a Maine Coalition press conference talking about the Coast Guard’s “Spill Drill.” A lobsterman spoke about the Julie N. oil spill on Casco Bay and its impact on the fishing industry when it happened off our coast. We begged the question, “What happens if…?”

On April 25th, the Deepwater Horizon exploded, killing eleven people and beginning its torrential outpouring of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. While we stood there in March talking about the potential impact of an oil spill, we could not have predicted the magnitude of the very disaster our press conference foretold.

Nor could we have anticipated the sea change of public opinion, or the anger about to be unleashed. On June 26th, Mainers joined thousands of people from around the world for Hands Across the Sands. I spoke at our event in my home district on the East End Beach in Portland. I’ve been to countless events on this issue. I know every organizer by name and nearly every volunteer at least by face.

Or…at least I did.

The people who showed up to the East End Beach are the very people who do not show up. There were new faces there -- lots of new faces. And on those faces I saw anger, I saw determination and I saw hope. Those of us who have been fighting this battle have grown tired and even frustrated.

On that Saturday, Mainers flooded our beach and countless others to join hands in an act of solidarity that transcended political boundaries. That day, in that moment, I felt as though reinforcements had arrived. The new energy from them sparked new energy in us: a renewed call to fight until the end. To make it to the finish line of a marathon that has long surpassed its 26 mile limit.

That day, I felt like something changed. It’s like the winds of change picked up and changed direction. Our collective consciousness took hold, as people stood hand-in-hand feeling the power that collective action can have in our physical and spiritual world.

And, indeed, something had changed. Shortly thereafter, our own Sen. Olympia Snowe announced that she and Sen. Kerry would work together to draft bipartisan legislation designed to move beyond the 60 person vote and toward a new beginning for all of us. It is not a perfect proposal, nor is it what all of us would like to see. But in a world when perfection comes only from the divine, progress itself is a giant step forward.

We have prepared well for this moment in history, and now the opportunity of a generation has presented itself. Let us hope the winds have changed our luck -- and our future.