KateyL's blog

This April 1st on Fossil Fools Day students from across Ohio will take action to follow up with our NO NEW COAL campaign in Ohio! Young activists will be gathering in Columbus to take direct action while students from across the state will take action on their campuses and call-in for support. To get involved in Ohio or for more information contact me at lauerkj@hiram.edu. Stay tuned for specifics and outcomes after April 1st--AND be sure to register your school's action at fossilfools08.org!

Solidarity!

P.S. Don't forget to vote for your least-favorite fools on the website! AMP's Gerken is on the list, hoping to build ANOTHER coal-fired plant in Meigs Co.

UPDATES from RAN and OSU Students:

Just this morning students at Ohio State began a sit-in to demand ethical standards for the purchase of wood and paper. The members Free The Planet, a student group on campus, vow to stay until President Gordon Gee signs an agreement to stop the University from buying wood products obtained from Indigenous conflict areas and to include more recycled content in paper and lumber used on campus.

"We’re in contact with the five inside. We’re also in touch with a group of more than two dozen of their supporters rallying outside the President’s office. Police are reportedly on the scene, but have not indicated any intent to arrest at this point."

Ohio students ask leaders to stop coal plants and need your help!

This Feb. 8-10, over 70 students from the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition gathered in Columbus to set campaigns and form structure for the brand new state network –the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition–and to tell officials that we will not stand for new coal fired power plants in Ohio!

We decided to take our concerns to the top, and have a chat with two people key in deciding on American Municipal Power’s proposed coal power plant in Meigs County, Ohio. More than 50 students dropped by to visit and deliver letters to Director of the Ohio EPA Chris Korleski, and the President and CEO of AMP-Ohio Marc Gerkin on Sunday to let them know that we think that proposed coal power plants are one of the greatest threats facing Ohio today, and that the hearing process on proposed power plants is unjust and disempowering to Ohio citizens.

This spring, from February 8th to the 11th, Ohio students will be holding our first Ohio Area Student Environmental Summit: OASES. Check it out at oh-sec.org! It is a conference weekend being held in Columbus, organized for the Ohio Area community by Ohio students—the first environmental summit of its kind in Ohio. The summit will focus on building power, using power, and not abusing power. Workshops on deforestation, climate change, (damn) coal corporations, media, tampaction, to name a few, will educate us about environmental justice issues locally, regionally, and globally. We hope to end the weekend with lobbying and a direct action, and we also hope to establish a framework to get some work done as a state (hell yea!).