Blog

by Shaza Hussein, University of South Florida - Tampa

School started last week, but the work towards clean energy has begun way before! Two weeks ago, our Tennessee and Mississippi fellows came together for a weekend retreat to plan for semester long campaigns. Southern Energy network fellows are very important to the work that we do. They are on campus running the campaigns themselves, doing events, setting up booths, recruiting more students, training new leaders, and building the grassroots.

One and a half years ago, Sierra SCENE (Sierra Student Coalition Empowering Nashville Environmentalists) was founded in Nashville to help provide an outlet for high school youth in Nashville, TN and their passion for environmental issues. Since being founded, the Tennessee Youth Environmental Network (Tenn YEN) has been started by Laura Rigell and Alex Durand, two gap year students, in Maryville Tennessee, to help connect high school environmental groups.

by Andrea Willingham, Eckerd College

What began with a guest lecture by environmental activist Bill McKibben a few weeks ago turned into one of the most monumental events for nearly 250 Eckerd College students on the weekend of Nov. 4^th-6^th.

          Last month, students at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville had a die in flash mob as part of the 100 actions to demand 100% clean energy. After the die in flashmob, we marched to the Chancellor's office to discuss shutting down the coal plant! We were able to set up a meeting with the Vice Chancellor, and last Tuesday, 6 students including myself met with the Vice Chancellor, Sustainability Manager, and the Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Services.

Just a little over a week ago, over 450 young people from across the south made their way to Asheville, NC for the 7th Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference (SSREC). At SSREC, they attended workshops, heard inspiring keynote speakers, and connected with their state networks.

by Jacquie Ayala, SEN Florida Organizer

We’ve made history. Yesterday, the Obama administration announced they would delay the decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until its environmental impacts have been re-reviewed.  This means a 12-18 month delay that most are projecting will effectively kill the project.