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See a slideshow from the trip! |
Introduction | Cincinnati | Dayton | Columbus | Cleveland
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| Cincinnati City Councilwoman Laketa Cole and Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory sign the Mayors Climate Agreement Protection in Cincinnati's first certfied green building. |
Introduction
Fellow Travelers -- I thought I'd pass along a few snippets from the week-long
barnstorm across Ohio that I partcipated in on behalf of the Sierra Club
last week, along with some committed leaders from the United Steelworkers.
The trip was to help launch the new Blue/Green Alliance to promote good new jobs, renewable energy, clean technologies and fair trade policies that can, and will move us all toward solving the global warming crisis, while protecting the environment generally and boosting the economy in places where jobs have been hard to come by. The media response was amazing, thanks in large part to Margrete Strand and Susan Ellsworth of our Trade team that were with us on the tour, and Ginny Cramer, a wonderful new member of the Club's media team in DC.
Media trackers have determined that we generated media hits reaching over 4 million tv viewers, radio listeners and newspaper readers! The great piece on the front page of the Business Page from the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been picked up by the Associated Press and has been appearing in papers around the country. See some good media links below:
Cincinnati
Dave Foster (former Steelworkers Regional Director who's come on
board to Chair the Blue Green Alliance) and I had to rise early for three
live morning radio interviews, including a half-hour interview on the Mike
McConnell Show--he's known as the Rush Limbaugh of the heartland, and his
right wing talk show is highly rated all across the MidWest.
We emphasized that fair trade policies (not the Bush so-called "fair trade agenda) and a push for renewable energy will SAVE taxpayers money as new jobs are created and energy bills are reduced for Cities and working families. McConnell seemed surprisingly sympathetic, although shockingly skeptical about global warming.
We next joined Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory for a terrific press conference where he signed the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement--Mayor number 251, and joined the Sierra Club's "Cool Cities" Program to start lowering Cincinnati's greenhouse gas emissions. Also joining us was another Cincinnati environmental champion, Councilwoman Laketa Cole.
This was my first press conference ever in a gymnasium--it was a very high-tech gym on the 2nd Floor of the amazing new Rec Center at the University of Cincinnati campus--the region's first LEED-Certified Green Building, and we were joined by a representative of the desgner who touted some of its innovative environmental features, like collecting rainwater from the roof for irrigating nearby comunity gardens.
We had a large press contingent show up, including all 4 local TV network affiliates with camera crews, and the 5 and 11 o'clock news were saturated with our positive, solution-oriented message on renewable energy potential and fair trade policy.
Dave and I spent a very cordial hour with the editorial board of the Cincinnati Enquirer, which went extremely well. We were joined by business reporter Mike Boyer. The next morning the big headline on the front of the Business Section read "Greener Ohio Could Cash In", the first of many outstanding print articles generated throughout the trip. Most were in the business section, as we were focusing in on the issues of jobs, which a new clean energy future will bring.
In the evening we were hosted by International Relations Professor James Buchanan of Xavier University for a Chataqua-like roundtable dinner discussion at his Brueggerman Center For Dialogue, with a dozen or so community leaders, talking about trade and energy, and then joined almost 100 others, mostly Sierra Club members at the Town Hall Meeting at Xavier's Cintas Center. We also interviewed with a reporter from Cinci's City Beat weekly paper which did a fabulous story and summary of our tour, with photo, in the following week's paper.
Dayton
One of the Dayton highlights for me was being chauffered around town
in local Sierra Club activist leader Dave Brown's Honda Insight, one of the
best designed hybrid cars ever. We met with Montgomery County officials who
touted Dayton's new solar energy and wind energy pilot program at Madison
Park, and showed us how they cool the City of Dayton's and the County's
public buildings by using the extensive and cool underground aquifer the
underlies Ohio's Miami Valley.
Dayton's Mayor McLin was one of the very early signers of the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement, when she joined on almost 2 years back. Since then some of the old electric trolleys have been restored, lowering that City's piblic transit emissions substantially. We also had a very nice discussion with the Editorial Board and writers at the Dayton Business Journal, which did a page 1 story the following day.
Dayton, in Springfield, we toured the factory of James Leffel & Company, which fabricates and machines steel turbines using local source materials and labor. Those turbines help capture wasted energy from cooling water used to cool large towers at large utilities and other industrial processes. We were joined by TV, radio and newspaper media reps, and did several more media interviews--Carla Henthorn, the Steelworkers' co-chair of the Ohio Blue/Green Alliance filled in for Dave Foster, and helped us with increasingly profesional interviews for the next several days.
Her colleague, Steelworker Leader Tony Montana also provided great assistance, helping with media, setup and turnout. During our Dayton visit, we learned about a local East Montgomery County farmer who has installed 4 large windmills on his farm, and used that fact--the potential for using wond energy to help stabilize Ohio's farm economy--as one more pitch on conservative talk radio.
Columbus
The historic Ohio Statehouse served as an impressive backdrop for
our Columbus press conference, where State Senator Dan Stewart and other
officials joined us to highlight, among other accomplishments, Columbus'
restoration of the Lazarus Building as the newest LEED-certified Green
public building in central Ohio. We had some frank discussions with the
Ohio Free Press, including its Editorial Board and founder Harvey Wasserman,
who probably knows more about wind energy than anyone in the Midwest,
perhaps the nation.
Keep an eye out for Harvey's new book Solartopia, which documents how we can power our entire elctric grid, and much of the rest of our energy needs with solar energy in the next dozen years. We also met with the Columbus Dispatch and its chief business writer Paul Wilson, and then joined up with local Columbus activists in our third town hall meeting in three nights, at the AFL/CIO labor council hall.
After that we enjoyed some great, gritty blues music down in the Arena District, where our new friend State Senator Stewart was having a fundraiser, and we "just missed" Columbus' Mayor Michael Coleman, whom we hope will be the 254th U.S. Mayor to sign the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement in the coming weeks.
Cleveland
One of the most well-attended and stimulating events of the week
was our breakfast town hall meeting at a large labor hall in Cleveland,
where Steelworkers and Sierra Clubbers came out in force for a very healthy
discussion on how our bankrupt trade policy has helped decimate the region's
jobs, and pollute the envioronment of Ohio.
There were also trade activists and environmental justice leaders in attendance, and all of us lamented that our "free trade" policy was sending Ohio jobs to places in the third world that have a combination of the worst (or non-existent) environmental protections, and the lowest wages. We discussed how to spread the word about reversing course by setting up "fair trade" agreements--with enforceable labor and environmental standards, and using renewable energy and clean technolgy innovations to bring jobs back to Cleveland.
That morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer had a huge photo and headline on the front page of the Business Section..."COMMON GROUND--United Steelwokers, Sierra Club unite for good jobs, safety, clean environment". With a big color photo of a large wind turbine, the article could have been written by our own media team... "...yes its true, the country's biggest manufacturing union and biggest environmental group are joining forces to combat what they say is mounting damage from globalization of the economy and global climate change...the 850,000-member Steelworkers and the 750,000-member Sierra Club say their Blue/Green Alliance will fight for energy independence, fair trade and toxic pollution reduction at U.S. factories. .... "
Given that terrific welcome to town, our Editorial Board meeting with the Plain Dealer went excedingly well, and we're hopeful they'll follow up with a positive Op/Ed challenging local businesses and the State and City governments to take up the challenge of finding new Ohio jobs in the renewable energy and related clean technologies fields.
The tour wrapped up with a magnificent "Energy Independence" press conference held on the lawn in front of the large new windmill silently generating clean energy along Cleveland's rejuvinated lakefront. It's wedged in between the Cleveland Science Center, the world-renowned Rock-N-Roll Museum and Hall of Fame, and the new Browns football stadium. It was a well-timed Independence Day media hit to launch the big July 4th weekend, with a great "Energy Independence" Poster, featuring a prominent Bald Eagle and American Flag, along with large Sierra Club and Steelworkers logos.
Longtime Cleveland Sierra Club activist Bob Greenbaum, and Northeast Ohio Group Chair Tom Perko joined us and were instrumental in helping with logistics for the Cleveland legf of the trip. During the press conference we were joined by Cuyahoga County Comissioner Tim Hagin, and Mayor Tom Longo, City of Garfied Heights (previous signers) and Mayor Georgine Welo of South Euclid, who signed as the 252nd mayor to add her name to the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement.
Then Andrew Watterson, Cleveland's Sustainablity Programs Manager (every city should have a Sustainability Programs Manager!) announced that on Monday, July 3, 2006, Cleveland's Mayor Frank Jackson would become the 253rd Mayor to sign the pact, and would also make Cleveland a "Cool City", with commitments to start mapping out a plan to greatly reduce its CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.
Cleveland has already purchased 32 hybrid vehicles for its municipal fleet, and plans to build on that positive start in the very near future. Once again the press conference drew a good mix of TV cameras crews, radio and newspaper reporters, including Ohio Public Radio and Fox News.
From the reception we received in Ohio (we had radio interviews and other press hits in Akron, Toledo, Youngstown and Canton as well) it seems as if we're on to something big! As Howard Dean once famously yelled....and now its ON TO PENNSYLVANIA, AND TO ARIZONA, AND TO OREGON, AND WISCONSIN, AND TO FLORIDA AND MINNESOTA, AND NEW MEXICO....AUGHHHH!
Cleveland Plain Dealer: June 30, 2006
Steelworkers, Sierra Club join on globalization
WCPO, OH: July 1, 2006
Steelworkers, Sierra Club Join On Globalization Issues
WKYC-TV, OH: July 2, 2006
Steelworkers join forces with environmentalists
Dayton Daily News: June 28, 2006
Steel/Labor and Sierra Club unite to spur more green jobs
Cincinnati Enquirer: June 27, 2006
Greener Ohio Could Cash In, Cincinnati Enquirer
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