Bicyclists ready for a greenway

Thank you for reading the Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) blogs and being involved in our initiatives over the past 13 months!  The experience I gained working on SET efforts has been essential for me as I stayed abreast of recent changes in our energy system and their effects on climate change. After ~35,000 visits, more than 250 blogs, and scores of endorsements for our campaigns – I have found an amazing opportunity that I can’t pass up. I will be the next Executive Director of the East Coast Greenway Alliance (ECGA).

A Tangible Project to Reduce Emissions and Drive Economic Recovery

I’ve been writing about the importance of addressing climate change and oil supply insecurity for years now. Finally, I found a project to commit the next several years to do just that. I will still blog every now and then on developments in solar, wind, and energy efficiency, but my focus will be building relationships with allies up and down the east coast to deploy a bike/ped corridor that gives people a local and long-distance option for green travel that lowers transportation costs and thus supports American economic recovery.

Building on a Solid Foundation

The ECGA was founded in 1991 by 10 committed cyclists who had a vision of a bikeway/trail to connect cities up and down the East Coast. Within a few years, a growing nonprofit emerged from this interest under the leadership of co-founder Karen Votava. Karen, the other seven that came on staff, and scores of committed volunteers transformed the ECG from an idea into 600+ miles of greenway that now make up 21% of the eventual trail. A number of people have already biked this urban sister to the Appalachian trail, as on-road portions are mapped out connecting the current greenways.

It is now my task to build on the solid foundation laid out by the ECGA and its 5,000 members. By 2025, I aim for a complete off-road greenway to be a commuting and recreational path for millions of people from Florida to Maine.

We’ll Need Your Help

By 2015, we plan to have a smooth ride available for travelers from New York City to Wilmington, Delaware. And by 2020, the path from Washington, DC, to Boston should be accessible to all – while still making tremendous progress on our trail sections to the South and North of this route. To meet our ambitious goals of trail growth, we will need you to support the East Coast Greenway Alliance as a member or an ally.

Please check out our ECGA daily blog, twitter stream, and facebook page which will go live in September to keep our members and the public up-to-date on progress. If you like SET and care about global warming and the American economy, you’ll love the East Coast Greenway.

Let’s complete it together!

To use their webtools, go here.

This is what they had to say:

I have some exciting news to share: President Obama just signed into law an economic recovery bill containing $87 billion in green investment funds–the largest investment ever in clean energy solutions!

And it was your passion and commitment to bold climate action that made this day possible. For the last two weeks, you phoned Congress for more than 121 hours through the 1Sky website–the equivalent of five days of nonstop calling on behalf of a green recovery. Kudos also to our allies who flooded congressional inboxes with emails.

President Obama and the members of Congress who supported the bill heard you loud and clear and took bold action. If we want them to do so again in the future, they need to know we have their backs today.

Please send a ‘thank you’ note to President Obama and the 306 members of Congress who voted for a green recovery:

http://www.1sky.org/green-recovery-thankyou

The green investments in the recovery bill will not only create over 1.7 million green jobs our country needs urgently: they are also a critical down payment on a clean, renewable energy economy.

President Obama and the bill’s supporters in Congress took a bold step towards real climate solutions, and they deserve our thanks for a job well done. Please send a ‘thank you’ note to the President and those in Congress who backed a green recovery:

http://www.1sky.org/green-recovery-thankyou

This is only the first step of many to solve the climate challenge and build a clean economy. In the months ahead, we’ll have to keep pushing Congress and the President to enact strong caps on carbon pollution and a halt to new coal power plants.

But in the meantime, take a moment to appreciate what we’ve accomplished today. Thank you for taking ownership of this movement!

Liz Butler
Field and Outreach Director, 1Sky