Today, the House of Representatives took an historic step toward a new clean energy economy and a healthy
future by passing the American Clean Energy and Security Act.
We're going to need to do much more in order to
make the dramatic shift we need in our energy policy and avoid the dire
consequences that scientists predict if we don't address global
warming. However, the first
step is always the hardest, and the House should be applauded for
taking it.
Next the bill will go to the Senate, where it will
face another tough fight. We look forward to building even more support
for clean energy solutions.
The Obama administration last Thursday called a "time-out" on new road-building in nearly 50 million acres of our national forests. Despite President Obama's promise to protect these forests and restore the 2001 Roadless Rule, Bush-era officials still working at the U.S. Forest Service had been moving to allow the timber, mining and oil industries access to roadless areas within the system. On May 28, the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, ordered that these forests be protected from road building. Now we're pushing for permanent protection of these places through full restoration of the Roadless Rule.
The
Congress passed a strong Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and
Disclosure (CARD) Act that will halt the most egregious abuses by the
credit card industry. Despite the credit card industry's lobbying to
defeat or gut the bill, the Senate and the House both passed the bill
with overwhelming, bi-partisan majorities. President Obama signed it
into law on May 22 and it takes effect in nine months.
This is a big victory for students and all consumers! We've been working on this issue for a while now - see truthaboutcredit.org for more on our campus education program about credit cards, plus the report we issued last year, The Credit Card Trap.
For too long, owning a credit card company has been a license to
steal. Over the last few years, the banks increased their use of
abusive tactics, such as changing due dates so they could trick
consumers into paying late. Worse, they charged a double whammy for
paying late - a high late fee first and then tripled interest rates of
36% APR or more. They also started charging good customers higher rates
because they supposedly paid some other creditor late (this is called
"universal default"). And when that wasn’t enough, they started raising
the rates of good customers for no reason at all.
These rip-offs have finally caught up with them. Gouging everyone,
even good customers who paid on time, caused thousands and thousands of
people who just want a fair deal to contact Congress and the Federal
Reserve.
The CARD bill doesn't fix everything, but it does eliminate a lot of unfair practices, including:
Credit card issuers could not extend credit to consumers under the age
of 21 unless the person has an independent means to repay the loan, or
has a cosigner with such ability. Consumers under the age of 21 could
choose whether to receive credit card solicitations.
Unjustified and retroactive interest
charges. Card companies could not hike interest rates retroactively on
balances accrued before a rate increase takes effect (with minor
exceptions) unless the cardholder is more than 60 days late in paying a
bill. If such interest rate increases occur, they must lower the rate
after six months of on-time payments. Card companies would not be able
to raise interest rates in the first year after a card account is
opened.
Universal default on existing balances.
Credit card issuers could not increase a cardholder's interest rate on
existing balances based on negative information about other bills
unrelated to their credit card.
Excessive and growing penalty fees.
Penalty fees would have to be reasonable and proportional to the late
or over-limit violation. Card issuers could not charge over-limit fees
unless the cardholder has agreed to allow over-limit transactions.
Unfair billing practices. Card companies could not charge interest on any portion of a balance that is paid by the due date.
Pay-to-Pay. Card companies could not
charge customers a fee to pay their bill, except for expedited service
provided by a service representative.
Final passage of this historic credit card reform legislation will
stop big credit card companies - many of which are benefiting from TARP
funds - from cheating Americans out of their hard-earned money.
On Wednesday April 15th MASSPIRG students at UMass Dartmouth and Bristol CC held a panel on Global Warming Solutions to showcase the climate champions in South Eastern Massachusetts.
After the exciting discussion about global warming and clean energy, Congressman Barney Frank told the students:
“I am grateful to the MASSPIRG students at UMASS Dartmouth and Bristol Community College for the energy they are putting into this important issue. If other student groups throughout the country show this same dedication, I am confident that we will get the support that we need in congress to pass a strong climate control bill.” – Congressman Barney Frank
The
panelists included U.S. Congressman Barney Frank (co-sponsor of the
American Renewable
Energy Act), State Senator Marc Pacheco (sponsor of last year's Global
Warming
Solutions Act, one of the strongest state global warming laws in the
country, and chair of the state senate's Committee on Climate Change
and Global Warming), a representative from New Bedford Mayor Scott
Lang's office, and Woods Hole oceanographer
and marine archeologist Dr. Robert Ballard (who is best
known for his discoveries of the Titanic and Battleship Bismarck).
Students working with MASSPIRG at North Shore Community College participated in a Sustainability Fair on campus. They made a cardboard cutout of Congressman John Tierney wearing a Campus Climate Challenge T-Shirt and had students take pictures with him holding a sign that said "Thanks Congressman Tierney for Being a Global Warming Champion." Over 150 people attended the fair and got over 60 pictures!
MASSPIRG students at Bristol Community College set up a public transportation table last week in support of Governor Deval Patrick's transportation plan.
They got 37 emails and 12 phone calls into state legislators. Transportation intern, Nick, made a great poster with facts about the plan and about the benefits of public transportation.
At Greenfield Community College, MASSPIRG students collected $200 in 2 days during their “$1 week” for the Hunger Clean-up. They asked everyone on campus to bring in $1 last week to donate to the clean-up, putting jars in a cafe and the campus bookstore. The cafe is matching all of the money collected.
MASSPIRG students at Middlesex Community College spent last week preparing for and running “Rhymes For Dimes.” The open mic, co-hosted by the African American Student Association, focused on hunger, homelessness and poverty issues. Volunteers made over a dozen posters with facts & stats about the issues in Massachusetts, which were posted all over the cafeteria. Over 70 people attended the event, and students came in and out of the cafeteria to eat lunch. The event was MC’d MASSPIRG student Patrick Dill, and performances by: Patrick Jenkins, Patrick Dill, Corey Belkins, Doreen Deshler and Jeffrey Paulino. They raised over $40 for the hunger clean up and got an additional 6 students signed up to volunteer for the clean up on April 3rd.
Last Thursday students at Middlesex Community College ran an educational event called “I am Clean Coal,” where they collected 91 signatures to Rep. Niki Tsongas, thanking her for her strong action on clean energy and climate issues, and handed out 50 Clean Coal fact sheets. At the event, volunteers wore signs that said “I am Clean Coal” on the front, and had scary facts about clean coal on the back such as “I am responsible for over 1 million acres of destroyed forest in Appalachia.” Five volunteers stood in a row and when students walked by the volunteers turned around to show them the scary facts.
The
American Recovery & Reinvestment Act recently signed into law by
President Obama contains plenty for students to applaud.
Higher Education: The final recovery bill included a $17 billion
increase in the Pell grant program for
college students. The increase means more grant money, as well as more
work-study aid and bigger tax credits for low-income students and their
families. Rep. George Miller, the key House leader on education, sought
input on the plan from the Student PIRGs' Rich Williams. http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_12284.shtml
Public Transportation: The bill added $8 billion for high-speed rail, a move strongly
supported by the Student PIRGs.
Another $8 billion in the bill is designated for other public
transportation uses. The New York Times quoted U.S. PIRG's John
Krieger: “After decades of looking on with envy at efficient bullet
trains overseas, American high-speed rail is finally leaving the
station.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/politics/13stimulus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=John%20Krieger&st=cse
Clean Energy:
The bill includes
more
than
$78 billion for clean energy and green infrastructure, including $33
billion for clean energy, $27 billion for energy efficiency, and $19
billion for green transportation.
At Salem State
Community College, MASSPIRG volunteers got 206 petitions signed to give to
Congressman Tierney telling him he's "Too Cool for Global Warming." The Daily Item local paper wrote a great article
about it. Media intern for the Global Warming Solutions campaign Cindy Sous is
quoted in the article! Check out
the article at this link:
Students at Middlesex Community
College collected over 180 clean energy
valentines from different students to
give to Rep. Niki Tsongas.
The Global Warming Campaign at Bristol Community College had a tabling event
where volunteers collected Valentine cards from 112 people for Congressman
Barney Frank. They also made a Renewable Energy Train
and in front of it put a cutout of Congressman Frank wearing a cutout of a
conductor hat. They generated over
20 photo-petitions.
Over 250 students participated in the Teach-in on Global Warming
Solutions at Smith College. Astronomy Professor James Lowenthal focused on "what we need to do to retool the transportation system for less greenhouse gas emissions." Professor David Smith, director of the Environmental Science and Policy Program, presented a discussion about biodiversity and climate change. Professor Andrew Guswa, the advisor to President Carol Christ on the proposed Center for the Environment, covered topics including water supply, food production, disease, hydropower, and biodiversity. Professor Tom Litwin, who has done extensive work on the Bering Sea and how climate change is impacting the ice and the Yup'ik natives, gave a presentation titled, "Thin Ice: An Exploration of the Bering Sea in the Age of Climate Change." There was also a talk called "Making the Consumption/Global Climate Change Connection" given by Roger Guzowski, Five College recycling coordinator.
A series about the surge in consumer debt and the lenders who made it possible.
Colleges Profit as Banks Market Credit Cards to Students
Bank of America employees on the campus of Michigan State University in
East Lansing, Mich., offered give-aways like water bottles, backpacks,
games and other items, trying to persuade students to sign up for
credit cards and other banking services.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — When Ryan T. Muneio was tailgating with his parents at a Michigan State football game this fall, he noticed a big tent emblazoned with a Bank of America
logo. Inside, bank representatives were offering free T-shirts and
other merchandise to those who applied for credit cards and other
banking products.
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
Bank of America employees on the Michigan State campus offered
giveaways like water bottles, backpacks and games to persuade students
to apply for credit cards and other bank services.
“They did a good job,” Mr. Muneio, 21 and a junior at Michigan State, said of the tactic. “It was good advertising.”
Bank of America’s relationship with the university extends well beyond
marketing at sports events. The bank has an $8.4 million, seven-year
contract with Michigan State giving it access to students’ names and
addresses and use of the university’s logo. The more students who take
the banks’ credit cards, the more money the university gets. Under
certain circumstances, Michigan State even stands to receive more money
if students carry a balance on these cards.
Hundreds of colleges
have contracts with lenders. But at a time of rising concern about
student debt — and overall consumer debt — the arrangements have
sounded alarm bells, and some student groups are starting to push back.
The relationships are reminiscent of those uncovered two years ago between student loan companies and universities. In those, some lenders offered universities an incentive to steer potential borrowers their way.
Here at Michigan State, the editors of the student newspaper wrote
this fall that “it doesn’t take a giant leap for someone to ask why the
university should encourage responsible spending when it receives a cut
of every purchase.”
At Arizona State University,
students set up a table on campus last spring to warn of the danger of
debt and urge students to support limits on on-campus marketing.
The
contracts, whose terms vary but usually involve payments to colleges or
alumni associations that agree to provide lists of students’ names,
have come under harsh criticism in Washington.
“That is absolutely outrageous, the sharing of students’ information with the banks,” Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who oversaw a June hearing on campus credit card marketing, said in a recent interview. “That should be outlawed.”
Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times
A Fifth Third Bank display offered bottles of water, tuition raffles
and a bicycle as an inducement to get incoming freshmen at Michigan
State University to open credit card and other accounts.
College
campuses are one place that young Americans are introduced to credit
and the possibility of spending beyond their means, a problem now
confronting the nation as a whole. For banks, the relationships are a
golden marketing opportunity. For colleges, they are a revenue source
at a time of declining public funding. And for students, they help pay
the bills and allow more shopping.
But debt incurred in college becomes a serious burden at graduation, especially in a recession in which jobs are scarce. A survey of more than 1,500 college students by US PIRG
in Washington found that two-thirds had at least one credit card.
Seniors with balances had an average debt of $2,623 on their cards.
University officials say that their agreements with card issuers comply with the law and bring in valuable revenue.
“It
provides money for scholarships and other programs,” said Terry R.
Livermore, manager of licensing programs at Michigan State. He said
that the program was aimed primarily at alumni and the university would
not include sharing student information in future credit card
contracts. “The students are such a minuscule portion of this program.”
Jennifer
Holsman, executive director of the alumni association at Arizona State,
said the association tried to teach students about responsible uses of
credit. “We work closely with Bank of America to provide educational
seminars to students in terms of being able to get information about
how to pay off credit cards, how not to keep balances,” she said.
Credit card issuers say that they try to educate students to use cards
responsibly and that the cards they offer on campus have more
restrictive terms than cards offered to alumni.
“The available
credit for undergraduates is capped at $2,500,” said Betty Riess, a
spokeswoman for Bank of America. “We want to take a fair and
responsible approach to lending because we want to build the foundation
for a longer-term banking relationship.”
Ms. Riess said the bank
had agreements with about 700 colleges and alumni associations, making
it one of the biggest, if not the biggest, card issuer on campuses. She
said that only 2 percent of the open accounts under those agreements
belonged to students, but also said it was not possible to determine
what percentage of program revenue resulted from fees and charges on
those student cards.
Stephanie Jacobson, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase,
wrote in an e-mail message that the bank had fewer than 25 contracts
with colleges or alumni associations and that while some of the
contracts gave it the right to ask for and use lists of student names
and addresses, the bank had not done so since 2007.
That may be
because football games present a marketing opportunity that requires no
address information. Abigail D. Molina, a second-year law student at
the University of Oregon, applied in 2007 for a Chase Visa offered at a tent outside a football game. In exchange, she received a blanket.
I mostly wanted the blanket,” Ms. Molina said. She added that this
was her second university credit card. In 1994, when she was an
undergraduate at the university, she applied for a card at a booth on
campus and then accumulated about $30,000 in debt, almost all of it on
the card. In 2001 she filed for bankruptcy. Looking back, she said it
was “shockingly easy” to get the card, even as a first-year student.
Mr. Muneio, the Michigan
State student, said he did not apply for a Bank of America card because
he already had two Visa cards. “The last thing I need is another
account to keep track of.”
Many students are unaware of the
contracts that universities have with credit card issuers and do not
question the presence of marketers on campus or applications in their
mailboxes, despite recent protests on a few campuses.
Sometimes,
the contracts have confidentiality provisions. Universities may try to
distance themselves, stating that the contracts are only between alumni
associations and banks. But the universities provide alumni groups with
lists of current students’ names, addresses and telephone numbers,
which the groups pass on to banks.
The New York Times obtained
information about and, in some cases, copies of contracts between
lenders, public colleges and their alumni associations using open
records requests. Because private colleges are not subject to open
records laws, they are not included.
While most universities contacted for this article did not provide detailed financial information on the contracts — the University of Pittsburgh, for example, confirmed only that it had an agreement — two did share numbers.
The alumni association of the University of Michigan
is guaranteed $25.5 million over the term of its 11-year agreement with
Bank of America. Under the agreement, the association agreed to provide
lists of names and addresses of students, alumni, faculty, staff,
donors and holders of season tickets to athletic events.
Much
of the money goes toward scholarships, said Jerry Sigler, vice
president and chief financial officer of the alumni association. He was
unsure what students were told about the program.
“Students are
generally told how they can opt out of having their information
publicly displayed in directories or provided in response to requests
like this,” Mr. Sigler added. “But it’s not to my knowledge specific to
the credit card program.”
Michigan State University gets $1.2
million a year but is guaranteed at least $8.4 million over seven
years, according to its agreement. The contract calls for a $1 royalty
to the university for every new card account that remains open for at
least 90 days, $3 for every card whose holder pays an annual fee, and a
payment of a half percent of the amount of all retail purchases using
the cards.
For cards that do not have an annual fee, the bank
pays $3 if the holder has a balance at the end of the 12th month after
opening an account, a provision that appears to give the university an
incentive to get cardholders into debt.
A few schools have adopted policies that prohibit sharing student contact information.
Ball
State University’s alumni association, which has a contract with
JPMorgan Chase, does not provide information on students, said Ed
Shipley, executive director of the association. “Who we market to is
our alumni because that’s our purpose,” he said. However, the bank is
permitted to set up marketing tables at athletic events.
The
University of Oregon, whose alumni association also has a marketing
agreement with Chase, stopped providing student addresses as concern
grew about student debt, according to Julie Brown, a university
spokeswoman. The university still permits marketing booths at athletic
events.
Some research suggests that students may be using credit
cards less frequently, in favor of debit cards linked to their bank
accounts. A survey last spring by Student Monitor, a Ridgewood, N.J.,
company that tracks trends on campus, found that 59 percent of
undergraduate students had debit cards, up from 51 percent in 2000.
But
universities have arrangements with banks that offer debit cards too,
perhaps raising some of the same issues that the credit card deals do.
At New Mexico State University, for example, students are given the option of opening a bank account with Wells Fargo if they want to convert their campus identification into a debit card.
The
accounts are not mandatory, said Angela Throneberry, assistant vice
president for auxiliary services at the university. But, she said,
“There’s some revenue sharing that happens as part of this.”
A version of this article appeared in print on January 1, 2009, on page B1 of the New York edition.
Last week MASSPIRG at Salem State College participated in the 2nd Annual Community Service Week by hosting a panel "The Economy and Poverty." Speakers included Mark Cote, the director of the Salem Mission homeless shelter, and Emily Cohen from One Family, Inc, an organization committed to ending family homelessness in Massachusetts.
Students learned about the constant overflow at the Salem Mission homeless shelter, where the beds and waiting list are always full. For the colder months the Mission will provide emergency shelter for those in need, but even that will not address the commnunity's need. On top of the homeless, the hungry in the community are being turned away because "the food pantry is literally empty," according to Cote.
Emily Cohen reported that hundreds of families are being housed in Motels, a huge cost to the state, because family shelters are full to capacity. Both Cohen and Cote point to affordable and subsidized housing as the answer to get families and single adults out of the shelter system. Massachusetts is now running pilot programs on affordable housing and services for communities.
To help fund the Mission by volunteering at the Second Chance Thrift Store and advocate for more affordable housing in Massachusetts, contact Jen at jchase87@mac.com.
Add this to
the list of the country's financial woes: Credit card companies are aggressively
targeting college students, many of whom are naïve about money matters and
vulnerable to predatory offers that can get them permanently mired in debt.
According to an eye-opening survey by the
United States Public Interest Research Group, or U.S. PIRG, which is an advocacy
organization, some students reported receiving hundreds of credit card offers in
a year. The report also described how companies lure cash-starved students with
gifts of clothing and free food. In one flagrant case in Ohio, students who showed
up for the food were required to fill out credit card applications before they
could eat.
A
half-dozen states have placed restrictions on how credit cards can be marketed
at public colleges. Congress is considering sensible bills that would restrict
the amount of credit and the number of cards that students could be offered.
Lawmakers should also focus on the lucrative and often secret deals that
universities and their alumni associations regularly cut with credit card
companies.
Those deals
— which resemble the now outlawed student loan kickback deals — often grant
companies the exclusive right to market to a college’s students. In some cases,
the colleges get a cut of what the students spend, which makes the school a
partner in the plundering of young peoples’ meager assets.
Congress
must insist that these deals be made public and universities and alumni groups
must insist that students be given fair deals from credit card companies.
With
financing from the Ford Foundation, U.S. PIRG has begun a national campaign
urging schools to adopt some common-sense principles that would help shield
students from credit card marketers and financial ruin.
The group
calls on universities to stop selling the names and contact information of
currently enrolled students to credit card marketers. It also says that schools
should ban marketers from using gifts to entice students to sign up for credit
cards, and it urges schools to do more to educate students on managing debt
responsibly.
Most
importantly, the group calls on schools that still decide to cut deals to only
do business with credit card companies that steer clear of commonly used but
unscrupulous credit card terms that take advantage of students. That means an
end to hidden fees or unreasonable penalties, including universal default, under
which interest rates go up when the customer fails to pay a bill not related to
the credit card account.
Schools
need to reform their credit card practices. If they don’t move quickly,
lawmakers must do it for them.
One
thousand professors
from over 300 colleges in all 50 states released a statement declaring their preference for high-quality,
affordable textbooks, including open textbooks, over expensive commercial
textbooks.
Open
textbooks are high
quality open-access textbooks reviewed
and written by academics that can be used online at no cost and printed for a
small cost. Open textbooks are already used at some of the
nation’s most prestigious institutions, like Harvard, Caltech and Yale.
Textbooks cost students an average of $900 per year, which is a quarter of tuition
at an average four-year public university and nearly three-quarters of tuition
at a community college, according to the GAO. Research conducted by The Student PIRGs
identifies publisher tactics as the primary cause of escalating prices.
Bundling textbooks with unnecessary supplements forces students to purchase
items they do not need; unnecessary new editions undermine the used book
market; and withholding critical price information keeps faculty in the dark.
“As faculty members, our top priority is to choose the
textbook that is best for our students. We share concerns about
affordability, and face similar frustrations with publisher practices,” said
Sandra Schroeder, Chair of the American Federation of Teachers Higher Education
Program and Policy Council. “Open textbooks and other affordable options,
when appropriate for a course, are a win-win for everyone.”
MASSPIRG chapters across the state released the "Campus Credit Card Trap" report,
which outlined the unfair marketing practices of the credit industry.
Students overwhelmingly support limits on campus credit card marketing,
according to the results of the nationwide USPIRG survey of more than
1500 students at 40 colleges in 14 states.
The average student
receives nearly 5 credit card offers a month and nearly two in three
students reported that they had at least one credit card. Fifty-five
percent of cardholding students said they used their card for
day-to-day expenses. Reflecting escalating college costs, 55 percent
said they charge their books and nearly one-quarter said they pay their
tuition with a card. On average, freshmen had a balance of $1,301 and
seniors had more than twice that, $2,623.
Credit cards are
marketed to students using free gifts and introductory teaser rates.
The use of aggressive marketing techniques obscures students' ability
to be scrutinizing consumers when considering a credit card contract.
Seventy six percent of students reported stopping at tables on campus
to apply for credit cards, and nearly one-third were offered a free
gift to sign up.
Includes
$700 million to fund public transportation related projects
Boston—The state legislature passed transportation
bond legislation on Tuesday, including $700 million dedicated to public
transportation improvements and expansions.
The lion’s share of
the public transit funding is for the Green Line extension to Somerville
and Medford,
incase the project does not qualify for federal New Starts grants which would
cover over half of the cost.
“This is a great
move forward in seeing more public transportation in Massachusetts,
especially in advancing the Green Line into one of the most densely populated
communities in New England,” said MASSPIRG
Advocate Eric Bourassa.
Bourassa noted that
public transportation has immense benefits, not only for transit riders, but
also for achieving oil dependence, addressing global warming, and clearing
traffic congestion.
Last month MASSPIRG
released a comprehensive study of public transportation systems nationally and
in Massachusetts,
entitled A
Better Way to Go: Meeting America’s 21st Century Transportation
Challenges with Modern Public Transit. The
report’s key findings were that existing transit in Massachusetts saved 154
million gallons of oil in 2006, which translated into $403 million in savings
for the economy. And transit saved 21 million hours of traffic delay for
commuters and reduced carbon emissions by 1.2 million metric tons in 2006, the
equivalent of taking 225,000 cars off the road.
Other funding in the
bond legislation will be for additional stops on the Fairmont Commuter rail
line, more parking at transit hubs, and a study to link the MBTA Blue and Red
lines.
On Thursday in the city building lobby the MASSPIRG chapter
at MCC released the "credit trap" report done by U.S. PIRG which
outlines the unfair marketing practices of the credit industry. The average
student receives nearly 5 credit card offers a month and is graduating with an
average of 4,000 in credit card debt. Credit cards are marketed to students
using free gifts, introductory teaser rates - and some schools are even selling
the information of its students to these companies. Many students are using
credit cards to buy books, food and even pay for tuition. Over 55 students and
faculty signed on to the "Principles of Fair Credit Card Marketing"
and the chapter handed out over 40 "consumer's guide to credit cards"
in their efforts to educate the student body and address the issues of student
debt.
On February 28th MASSPIRG students at MassBay Community College gave away 8 gallons of ice cream in 2 hours to raise awareness about global warming. MASSPIRG students gave away the ice cream as quickly as they could as an example of how urgent it is that students take action now to help stop global warming "before the ice cream glacier melts." Along with getting a scoop of ice cream over 150 MassBay students signed petitions to their state senators thanking them for supporting the Global Warming Solutions Act, and learned about 10 easy ways that they could help stop global warming.
Mass Art students in Smith Hall this week took time out of their hectic mid-term week to register to vote. 20% of the students registered to vote this week. Even though the 2008 presidental election is months away, students wanted to make sure they were all ready to go when November rolls around.
Middlesex Community College students designed, collected and created over 120 clean energy valentines to give to Senator Panagiotakos on Valentines day. They were hand delivered by lead students on Valentines day to the senators office where they had a legislative meeting with the senators aid about the "Global Warming Solutions Act" S534.
On Valentine's Day North Shore Community College MASSPIRG volunteers collected money for their Hunger and Homelessness campaign, raffling off a $25 UNO's giftcard to one lucky contributor! The money will go to buy supplies for My Brother's Table, a local service providing hot, nutritious meals to all who need them.
On Valentine's Day Mass Art students created and signed 80 "green" valentines, which were hand delivered to state senators Steven Tolman and Marian Wash. The valentines encouraged the senators in their support for the Global Warming Solutions Act.
On Valentine's Day Mass Bay students delivered six large, green valentines to their state senators, Cynthia Creem and Karen Spilka. The valentines had over 150 signatures, and thanked the senators for their support of the Global Warming Solutions Act.
On December 6th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a 21st Century energy bill that will harness American ingenuity and put us on a path to cleaner, smarter new energy future for America.
This bill is a breakthrough on energy policy and sets the country firmly on a path to increasing clean energy, lowering energy demand, and reducing U.S. dependence on oil.
We're now calling on the Senate to pass this bill quickly and for President Bush to sign it into law.
Highlights of the bill include:
Promote Clean Energy - by following the lead of half the states to establish a national renewable electricity standard, requiring utilities to produce 15% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020. The bill also extends renewable energy production tax credits for four years and investment tax credits for 8 years.
A national renewable electricity standard will substantially reduce global warming pollution while sparking a clean energy boom across the U.S. According to a recent analysis by Environment America, renewable energy development in states with RES policies is already boosting local economies by luring new manufacturing and other skilled jobs. It's projected that the standard would save consumers at least $13 billion and cut 126 million metric tons of global warming pollution per year by 2020 (equal to taking more than 20 million cars off the road).
Reduce U.S. Dependence on Oil - by increasing fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks to 35 mpg by 2020. This would be the first meaningful increase in fuel economy standards in more than 15 years. The provision replaces the current standards with an attribute-based system that gives the auto industry tremendous compliance flexibility by allowing for different mileage requirements per vehicle size. The standards in the Senate bill would save 1.2 million barrels of oil a day in 2020, save consumers $25 billion at the gas pumps, and substantially reduce global warming pollution. With oil prices continuing to set new records above $80 a barrel, Americans want new standards and more efficient vehicles now.
Save Energy - by adopting strong energy-efficiency incentives and standards. Both the House and Senate bills contain legislation that would help Americans save energy in their homes and businesses. These policies include appliance and lighting efficiency standards, tax incentives, and building codes.
Students from MASSPIRG chapters in Western Massachusetts met with Senator Rosenberg to talk about the Global Warming Solutions Act (SB534). Senator Rosenberg stated his firm commitment to strong measures to reduce climate change and to addressing our energy needs. Students from Smith College and UMASS-Amherst came out of the meeting with a commitment to building their relationship with Senator Rosenberg in the future.
Caroline Henderson, a first year at Smith College, spoke at a press conference organized by Environment Massachusetts to release their report on changing weather patterns in Massachusetts. Winston Vaughan, a field organizer with Environment Massachusetts, spoke about the increasing frequency of severe storms in the region. State Senator Stan Rosenberg also spoke at the event. Henderson's statement discussed the role of students in fighting climate change, and highlighted accomplishments by Smith students and the recent success of Powershift.
MASSPIRG students at Worcester State College organized a "Get Naked for the Homeless" clothing drive last Thursday, collecting gently used garments to donate to local shelters. Volunteers set up tables around campus to raise awareness about the issue, and took pledges from students to bring in clothes later if they didn't have any at the time. The drive will continue through next week.
On October 3rd, over 30 students and 1 pumpkin agreed to have their pictures taken with the statement,"Senator Hart, be a climate challenge hero, support SB534!" These were picture petitions taken to send to Sentaor Jack Hart to try and convince him to support the Global Warming Solutions Act, which will cut Global Warming emissions 80% by 2050!
