We did it! The Obama administration announced that they are going to put solar panels on the First Family’s living quarters.
It’s a great win for your efforts over the last months—everyone who wrote letters, signed petitions, and turned out for the Solar Road Show as we rolled down the east coast from Unity College towing one of the Carter panels. You never know what will happen when you ask for change!
After a successful launch at his home – the net-zero energy, LEED Platinum Unity House – President Mitchell Thomashow joined the Solar Road Trip crew for the first leg of our journey. He was to give the convocation address at the University of New England this afternoon and we decided to give him a ride. We hope he’s as quick to pick up a ride home as he was at writing his first mandolin tune.
Bill addresses the audience and press from the net-zero energy, LEED Platinum Unity House.
Unity studentsTaylor and Stephanie decorate the van during the launch.
Bill and Chelsea wait to sign the Carter Panel.
Check out the more photos from the launch event here.
How fitting that Labor Day was the unofficial kickoff for the Solar Road Trip — nearly a month out from the 10/10 Global Work Party. The Unity College community got to work today prepping for tomorrow’s official launch, welcoming Bill to campus, and rallying in our student center to hear a bit more about the upcoming journey.
In his brief address to the campus community this evening, Bill emphasized the context of the Solar Road Trip. Â His message?: Â It’s really important to do this work at home, where you are; but the scale of the climate issue demands a movement response, it requires the political will to pass meaningful legislation. Â 10/10 is not just about getting to work on climate solutions, but about demanding that our political leaders do the same . . . on their own roofs, and on the Hill.
Of Unity College (from which Bill has an honorary degree), he said, “A college where everyone has to take a course on sustainability is on the right track.” Â Today that track points us toward the White House.
I just came across this great piece by John Wihbey that tells the “lost history” of solar on the White House. The article lays out how President Carter installed the panels in 1979 only to have them removed by President Reagan seven years later and eventually shipped up to Unity College. Tomorrow, we’re launching our road trip to return one of Carter’s original panels back to the White House and write a new chapter in America’s solar history (make sure to sign the letter to Obama on this site).
Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panels: A Lost History That Haunts Today
By John Wihbey | November 11, 2008
The glass, aluminum, and stainless steel panels reclined at low angles and basked in the sun as the men in suits and ties, flanked by reporters, took to the West Wing roof to look at what they thought was the future. That day, June 20, 1979, was clear enough for the sun to bring out a bright reflection on the panels, and for shadows of those on the roof to be drawn dark and tight around them.
For President Jimmy Carter, it had been nearly three years of tough fighting for clean energy. After a long rollout of green tax credits, the creation of a nascent Energy Department, and a pledge to conduct the “moral equivalent of war” (at the time, spoofed by critics as “MEOW”) against an energy crisis, Carter had built up scars. And there would be more to come. He had had battles with Congress and with his political enemies over green issues. But he had some victories, too, and this day brought one more, a small moment of symbolism.
Solar panels, some 32 of them, were on the roof of the White House. The set was just right – the sun had come out for the press as though for a stage call. Tape rolled, the cameras snapped.
Read the rest of the article over at the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media.
Hey all, the solar trip is less than a week away and our excitement is growing everyday!
Who are we?
We are three students from Unity College in Maine who will be taking a road trip to Washington D.C. with a historic solar panel to urge President Obama to fulfill his promise of a clean energy future. We will need your help all along the journey and well after.
The Jimmy Carter solar panels on our cafeteria roof have become a regular sight for the students here. We never imagined that we would have the opportunity to take one of these panels down and bring it back to the White House so it could give the country another chance to take that road to an energy independent future.
Our campaign got started with the launch of our website and the announcement of our trip on the Late Show with David Letterman on Tuesday night. During the show, Bill McKibben called on President Obama to be expecting us next week, and to set an example for the nation by installing solar panels on the White House.
In only a matter of days, Bill McKibben will join us in loading the historic solar panel, piling into the van, and waving goodbye to our supporters as we head off on our journey.
As college students we have become very familiar with exams, but if there was ever a test that mattered for our generation and the future of life on earth, this would be it. It’s up to the youth and the youth-spirited to seize this clean energy campaign now in order to turn the tide on a climate that is already burning up our future.
We won’t succeed alone. We need your help so that this trip will make a difference.
If our education at Unity College has taught us anything, we have learned that if we want to make difference, we need a strong social movement now. That’s why after the road trip, we’re urging folks to go all-out for 10/10/10, a massive planet-wide day to take action on climate change and demand our leaders to do the same. We hope you’ll sign up your town! Check out 350.org/1010.
We’ll see you along the northeast coast, all over the web, and everywhere you can look up and see the power of the sun, still waiting for us to take full advantage of it.
Let’s get the ball rolling—and get solar back on the White House!
Amanda, Jamie, Jean, Jason, Jesse, & Bill
If you are one of the 4 million plus people that watches the Late Show with David Letterman every night, then you’ve already seen this clip with 350.org founder Bill McKibben. If not, check it out—Bill lays out the case for the need to get back to 350 ppm, talks about the momentum building for 10/10/10, and announces our upcoming road trip to take one of President Carter’s original solar panels back to the White House.
Please share the clip with your friends and spread the word. Together, we can get President Obama (and other world leaders) to get to work with us on 10/10/10!
350.org founder Bill McKibben will be on the David Letterman Show tonight, one of the most watched talk shows in the United States, to talk about his new book Eaarth, our plans for 10/10/10, and to kick off our Put Solar On It road trip!
As you can imagine, we’re pretty excited here at the 350.org office. This is great exposure and it couldn’t be better timed. Next week, Bill and a group of students will be driving one of Jimmy Carter’s original solar panels from its current home at Unity College in Maine back to the White House.
You can follow all the excitement of the road trip at our new Put Solar On It road trip site. Bill and the team will be tweeting, blogging, video-ing, etc. from the road and doing events in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. along the way. Join us as we ask President Obama to install solar panels on the White House roof on 10/10/10 and tell us his plan to put solar on rooftops across America and around the world.
Make sure to tune in to watch Bill on Letterman tonight and help spread the word!
