States

Get Connected and Make Change at the State Level!

Southern Energy Network has helped build and will continue to support state student networks in five Southern states: Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida; and is working on building networks in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Get connected to your state network and join a supportive community of regional youth committed to building a clean energy future in your state! Share resources, leverage your collective power beyond campus, and help fight dirty energy facilities by supporting good local and state energy policies. Most state networks have annual or bi-annual state summits, days of action, and lots of opportunities for leadership!

Highlights from State Networks

• Tennessee students introduced legislation into a mock state legislature, the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature (TISL), in November 2006. The legislation does the following: 1) mandates a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (i.e. agrees to the Kyoto Protocol), 2) requires all new and renovated state facilities to consider green building guidelines, 3) increases energy efficiency in state facilities by 15% by 2025, and 4) ends coal surface mining in TN (i.e. stops mountaintop mining). All four bills passed the House and Senate and a couple of the bills even made it onto the governor's desk in the spring.
• The Florida Green Fee Coalition is continuing to push to get renewable energy on their campuses. UF and New College have both passed all the way through their Board of Trustees. Students at UCF, USF, FSU, FAU, and UWF are all working to pass initiatives on their campuses, while across the state they prepare to get a Renewable Energy Fund bill passed through the state legislature. With recent approval by the Florida Student Association, students are empowered to take it to the state!
• Students in North Carolina collaborated with other environmental groups around the state to plan a day of action to stop Duke Energy's proposed coal plant. Students took the lead on organizing this a day of action against the CEO of Duke Energy and North Carolina's Governor.
• Students in Georgia utilized their state network, the Georgia Students for Sustainability, to overwhelmingly pass a resolution through the student Board of Regents which requested that the board of regents give blanket support to all the states Green Fee's, and which recommended that the Board of Regents make sustainable energy managment plans a priority for development at all state institutions.