Energy Action Coalition

Courtney Hight. Courtney began organizing around environmental issues as a student at the University of Oregon and has since spent most of her career working to build the collective voice of young people. Courtney helped develop a campaign to make her campus more energy efficient, educating students on ways to reduce energy consumption as well as working with the University to retrofit… See full bio.

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Story: Did you know the Energy Action Coalition is a coalition of 50 youth-led environmental and social justice groups working together to build the youth clean energy and climate movement? Learn more about the work that they do here: In May 2005, the Coalition launched the Campus Climate Change, a three-year campaign to unite students and young people in achieving clean energy policies on thousands of campuses and communities. Students won hundreds of victories, and use of renewable energy started to become the norm on college campuses. As of May 2010, 685 campuses are committed to the President's Climate Commitment, a campus carbon neutrality pledge. In November 2007, the Coalition convened the first national youth climate summit at Power Shift 2007. More than 6,000 young people from all 50 states gathered at the University of Maryland on the outskirts of Washington, DC for a weekend of training, action and inspiration. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Congressman Ed Markey recognized the growing movement, addressing the 6,000 young people gathered at U-MD. It was here that Van Jones, founder of Green For All and future White House Advisor, and other environmental justice leaders captivated a generation with a vision of creating millions of green jobs for our country and restoring economic and environmental justice. Exactly one year before the 2008 elections, young people returned to their campuses and communities ready to rally for a clean energy economy in the upcoming elections. Young people recognize that change doesn't end on Election Day. In February 2009, an unprecedented 12,000 young people descended on Washington, DC for Power Shift 2009, representing every state and Congressional District in the country. The summit gained notice from prominent political figures like EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, as well as leaders in the environmental movement such as John Podesta, Major Carter, Jerome Ringo and Van Jones. Over 6,000 young people went to Capitol Hill for the largest citizen lobby day in history, and thousands more participated in the Capitol Climate Action, a successful demonstration to shut down the Capitol's coal-fired power plant. In the months following Power Shift 2009, the Coalition, its partners and the broader movement continued to keep the pressure on for a clean and just energy economy. In the run up to the Copenhagen international climate negotiations, young people hosted over a dozen regional Power Shift Summits and Rallies across the country, and the Coalition launched the "It's Game Time, Obama! Campaign" to win President Obama's commitment to attend the UN Summit and show real leadership. This resulted in the White House Youth Clean Energy Forum, where young leaders from across the country interfaced directly with President Obama's climate and energy team. During the negotiations in Copenhagen, the Coalition organized a Rapid Response team, linking US youth on the ground in Copenhagen to youth networks in the US, calling for US leadership and responsibility on climate change. (Learn more at: http://energyactioncoalition.org/content/about/ourwork)

Evidence of Impact Summary:

EAC ran a Climate Challenge on over 700 colleges across the country and more than 550 of those campuses have made institutional commitments to become carbon neutral. For the Power Vote campaign, they got 350,000 young people involved as climate voters and new leaders. And, they put on the Power Shift '09 Conference which was the largest gathering of young people (12,000) in history, to solve the climate crisis.

Organization Strengths Summary:

Climate Change experts believe that the Energy Action Coalition’s greatest strength is that they are the leader in the effort to mobilize youth around climate change issues.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

At the same time, the Energy Action Coalition should do more to partner with international organizations and other nonprofits doing similar work. They have the opportunity to have a global reach if they can organize and focus their efforts more.
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Courtney began organizing around environmental issues as a student at the University of Oregon and has since spent most of her career working to build the collective voice of young people. Courtney helped develop a campaign to make her campus more energy efficient, educating students on ways to reduce energy consumption as well as working with the University to retrofit some of the campus buildings. Post-college, Courtney worked with the Oregon Student Association, organizing students at the UO, and statewide, around increasing access to higher education for all people. Courtney mobilized students to fight for reduced tuition increases and increased funding for grant-aid and also helped organize a student-led effort to establish a housing code for the city of Eugene. Courtney then took her work to the national level, where she worked with the United States Student Association. Courtney organized nationwide trainings teaching thousands of students how to build grassroots power through electoral as well as direct action organizing. Courtney transitioned to be the Electoral Project Director, working to mobilize thousands of students nationwide to vote in the 2006 midterm elections. In early 2007, Courtney joined the Obama campaign as an organizer moving through multiple states, ending in Florida as the state Youth Vote Director. In Florida, Courtney worked to mobilize students on over 150 college campuses, 300 high schools and worked to target and mobilize non-student youth participation as well. Prior to joining the Energy Action Coalition, Courtney worked with the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Working with the Council on Environmental Quality, Courtney was able to see first-hand how decisions are made within the White House and the broader administration on various issues from restoration of the Gulf Coast ecosystem to preparing for the impact of climate change on our land and water. Courtney earned her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon.

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