Repower North Dakota
Written by Adam Desautel Tuesday, 27 October 2009 08:00
As the U.S. Senate continues the debate over the newly introduced Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, a North Dakota branch of Repower America is currently working to push legislation that will provide the state, as well as the entire country, with clean energy and environmentally friendly jobs and technology.
Repower America, which has a local branch office in Downtown Fargo, was introduced to “repower” the United States with wind and solar energy, which they say will “revitalize our national energy infrastructure.” It is a project of the Alliance for Climate Protection, a national non-profit organization started in 2006 by Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President and Nobel recipient. The organization is dedicated to educating citizens on the importance of acting on clean energy legislation.
Eric Mitchell, the North Dakota state director for Repower America, said that their mission can be summed up into three main areas and talking points. “It’s about climate change, national security and jobs.”
Regarding climate change, Mitchell discussed the importance of “lessening the greenhouse gases and CO2’s in the atmosphere.”
“Almost 90 percent of every credible scientist who is walking the planet now will tell you that the climate change is real, it’s happening now, and we are at a point where we really have to make a decision as to what direction we’re going to go on,” Mitchell said.
He also talked about national security and our dependence on foreign oil.
“We’re buying oil from and we’re making friends with countries that use some of that money to give it right back to the terrorists that we have to turn around and fight,” Mitchell said. “It’s a vicious, evil circle, but as long as we are dependent on that foreign source of energy, it’s just a reality of life. We have to do something to lessen that dependency.”
Creating jobs is another thing that Repower America believes will come out of a national shift towards green energy. “These are finally some more manufacturing jobs that you can’t export, jobs that will employ right here in North Dakota, jobs that will employ scientists, and get folks more focused on engineering again.”
Describing specifically where these jobs come from, Mitchell said for solar energy, “someone has to build the solar panels, someone’s got to sell those solar panels, and someone’s got to maintain those solar panels.” For wind, “someone’s got to build, sell, and maintain the turbines as well.”
“This is a whole new industry that’s going to come out of this, and we haven’t had anything like this in this country since the automated systems went into play to build cars,” Mitchell said. “And we could damn straight use some jobs.”
Mitchell holds that the move to clean energy should be thought of as even more than just an investment in our future. “It’s a necessity. I believe the Earth does take care of itself, and it will, but it may take a thousand years, and I don’t think we have a thousand years to wait. We don’t look like we’re going to be building colonies on the moon or in space anytime soon, so for now, we’re stuck here.”
For students wanting to get involved in this issue, Mitchell encourages signing up as a member on their website. Members are informed of the latest events, suggestions on what to do, and prompts on when it is most opportune to send letters to the editor, write letters to Congress, and other forms of action.
To sign up, go to www.repoweramerica.org/northdakota. Field Organizer Shayna Kurland can be contacted by phone at (402) 306-8564 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
