After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
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INFORMATION: For the latest on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, keep in touch with any of these fine organizations: the Rocky Mountain Institute (1739 Snowmass Creek Road, Snowmass, CO 81654-9199; 970-927-3851; www.rmi.org); the Union of Concerned Scientists (2 Brattle Square, Cambridge, MA 02238; 617-547-5552; www.ucsusa.org); and the Worldwatch Institute (1776 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20036-1904; 202-452-1999; www.worldwatch.org). A recent Worldwatch report, containing everything you'd ever want to know about micropower, is available for download from their website.
LEGISLATION: Alaska's Senator Frank Murkowski, the scourge of sensible energy policy, has introduced an ugly little bill called the National Energy Security Act of 2001. Chainsaw Frank wants us to drill our way to energy utopia, proposing that we focus on fossil-fuel development, pay subsidies to the coal, oil, gas, and nuclear industries, and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil giants.
AGITATION: Contact your senators and let them know that Murkowski's energy-industry bill shouldn't go anywhere except into his scrapbook. Instead, we need laws to mandate higher fuel efficiency for our cars and trucks, to provide incentives and rebates for making the switch to micropower and renewable energy sources that are now just as economical as fossil fuels, and to fund the R&D for the next generation of alternative energy solutions.
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