Out of each forum, Focus the Nation HQ will generate a Clean Energy Action List.  We will take these to COP15 as evidence of the American people’s desire for clean energy solutions, and of the hard work of the U.S. climate movement this fall.

The campaign kicked off last Friday in Durango, Colo., in conjunction with a 350.org event.  In Durango–a coal-, oil-, and gas-dependent town near the four corners of the United States–rural Southwest youth, like youth around the country, are demanding inclusion in the conversations about how their energy is generated.  The Durango event featured a diverse panel including local politicians, representatives from the Navajo Nation, and forward-thinking business leaders.

Now the campaign is going national with Clean Energy Forums in November:

• Friday, Nov. 6 — New York City
• Saturday, Nov. 7 — Santa Cruz, Calif.
• Thursday, Nov. 12 — Jonesboro, Ark.
• Thursday, Nov. 12 — Southfield, Mich.
• Saturday, Nov. 14 — Tallahassee, Fla.

If you’d like to get involved, sign up on Focus Local and find your region’s team to join in the organizing fun.

We still need organizers for events in the key states of Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia.  Focus the Nation is offering organizing stipends and funds for event budgets (when was the last time you turned down some cash?), so recommend a talented organizer or sign up yourself to help. You don’t even have to wait to hear from a Focus the Nation staffer — you can start organizing today using the Organizing Guide and Clean Energy Forum Module.

Consider the Clean Energy Forum to be the final ingredient for this fall of climate action.  First, there was the creative outburst for 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action on Oct. 24.  Then the training and excitement from Energy Action Coalition’s regional Power Shift summits.  Sprinkle in pranks from the Yes Men on the Chamber of Commerce for its anti-climate stance.  And you can top it all off with high-level civic engagement and dialogue by organizing your very own Clean Energy Forum.

You don’t want to miss this opportunity to help the lay the road to Copenhagen!

On Saturday, more than one hundred climate and cycling activists began a 300-mile cycling journey from New York City to Washington, D.C. Enduring endless chafing, near collisions, and constant pedaling, they are riding for climate change awareness and strong legislation. Most importantly, they will represent the vanguard of the climate movement’s fall of activism and engagement.

After they ride into the District, in all their glory and spandex, they will rally en masse to the U.S. Capitol (I hope you’ll join them). In the spirit of jump starting an engagement-packed fall, the following day, delegations of riders will lobby their senators on the need for strong climate legislation (Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are introducing the Senate version of a climate bill Wednesday afternoon) and a strong U.S. commitment at the COP-15 climate talks this December. Through these visits, they will alley-oop our upcoming efforts and let the senate offices know that they will hear from us every day until we get the clean energy legislation we deserve!

Check out some photos of the Climate Ride 2009:

Continuing the momentum, Focus the Nation has launched its “Community and the Road to Copenhagen” Clean Energy Forum campaign. If you’re worn out from endless sign holding, and your voice hurts from screaming at your stubborn legislature, this is the campaign for you. Nothing but solid targeted community and political engagement found at these forums.

Teams across the country will be working to build community and Senate participation, and you have to get involved. National organizers are standing by to answer the call, and already are providing the solid one on one support and resources that make the FTN volunteer teams so powerful. Grab this offer while it lasts because, much like Snuggies, there is a limited supply of opportunities for strong legislation!

Preparing to up the ante on this generation’s power shift, EAC has announced the 11 regions that will host the ’09 Powershift Summits. Packed with trainings, strategy sessions, and overall solidarity building, these regional summits will generate tons of action, including rallies and multiple forms of effective Senate engagement, to show the world that this generation is one very powerful political machine! If you’re near one of these regions, head on over and be part of this amazing movement! If not, how about a road trip?

No mass mobilization of committed young people would be complete without a sweet house party, right? But this type of house party is way better than the one where the random guy threw up on your mom’s china set. 1Sky is currently organizing their national network to hold house parties, where groups of concerned citizens will meet up to flood their Senate offices with calls. Each house party will push hard for Senate offices to inject strong policies within the bill and to fend off further weakening attempts, all while enjoying three layer dip and cold beer. The 1skyers are great multi-taskers!

Tying all these national efforts together, making it a true locomotive of action if you will, is the new Climate Network online platform. This great system of online collaboration between FTN, 1Sky and EAC, is your one-stop shop for organizing and coordination. Open to all climate activists, the Climate Network gives you and your group the tools you need to manage projects, share resources, and spread the word.

By connecting organizers in congressional districts and across many organizations, the Climate Network gives you the power to build a coalition at home, while partnering with national organizations and campaigns. The Climate Network is your one way ticket onto the climate movement express. All aboard!

Photo: 1Sky

It’s as if you can hear the collective fist-clenching of youth organizers and activists in communities and campuses across the country.  It is a signal that the battle for just and prosperous clean energy solutions has begun again.  The climate movement has been preparing for this moment, and whether we fail or succeed, the movement as a whole will look back on this fall as the turning point in our activism.   

As this summer progressed, and especially as the events of the last few weeks transpired, all of us have realized that the Senate side of the climate-bill debate will be much different and much harder than our spring organizing in the House.  The game has changed, new players have arrived, and the climate movement has been forced to adjust to the new playing field. 

The health-care debate showed that there was no floor for the underhanded and scandalous tactics of entrenched industries and interests.  The coal and oil companies quickly copied the playbook.   Now the most important global legislative challenge of our time has begun to take a back seat due to the current “political climate,” and the administration seems unwilling to get into the ring.  To overcome these barriers and achieve legislative change during this vital window of opportunity, the climate movement needs to mobilize, engage, and collaborate on an unprecedented level — and that’s exactly what it is preparing to do.        

Three national partners are set to join forces for the first time by executing a collaborative and diverse campaign.  Energy Action Coalition, Avaaz, and Focus the Nation, each with their unique campaign plans and strategies, have spent the last few weeks coordinating to maximize impact and flex the most organizing muscle possible. 

EAC’s Power Shift campaign is preparing for statewide Power Shift summits in targeted states across the country, and as its numbers swell with youth activists signing up, it remains the most visible beacon within the youth climate movement to get involved and take action.  With the help of national and regional partners, EAC will not only generate great statewide trainings, but also tens of thousands of letters and phone calls into the White House and Senate offices calling for a strong climate bill and a strong presence at the COP15 global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

Focus the Nation has transformed its 2008 town-hall model into a system of more inclusive and diverse community forums.  In targeted states across the country, these “clean energy forums” will bring constituents together to discuss clean energy solutions and make strong asks of their senators, thus creating important systems of political accountability and intergenerational constituency-building for the Senate debate on climate legislation. 

Avaaz and 350.org will host actions to increase the visibility of the debate, and create important levels of inspiration and awareness across the country and the globe.  Avaaz is set to host a series of creative demonstrations around the capital throughout the fall, and 350.org has set Oct. 24 as a day of action across the world.  Powerful images of these actions and demonstrations will circulate to policy makers and media outlets across the grid to maximize impact and remind people that every voice counts in this fight — even if politics isn’t your cup of tea.

Catapulted by the momentum generated in its “Back to DC” campaign, 1Sky is also gearing up to activate its large grassroots network for Senate-side engagement.   The new Clean Energy Works Coalition is set to join the fight as well.  The coalition, made up of hunters, farmers, veterans, environmental, and labor organizations, plans to target 28 Midwestern, Western, and Southern states with hundreds of field workers, a lobbying campaign, and television, radio, and internet advertising.                      

Whether they are planning a state Power Shift summit, a clean energy forum, a 1Sky “Flood the Senate” house party, or all of the above, young people across this country are igniting their peers and communities for action.  The same generation with the organizing and electoral power to elect the first black president is set to accomplish another great feat. 

If successful, this movement will give the Senate and Obama administration a clear choice: Stand up, utilize the political backing they have been given, and strengthen and support the climate legislation; or ignore their constituency, and gamble their children’s future away by representing the dirty industries of a failing and unjust pollution-based economy.  The creation of this dichotomy will not just achieve the climate solutions we and future generations all deserve, but it will lift our towns up and shift the political winds back to a system where policy makers are accountable to those they represent.