Update from Linda Edwards, a Third Act Actions Lab Co-Facilitator
With the excitement of joining thousands of people around the country for Sun Day, we want to take a moment to share an update on the Petrostate Tour on Friday Sep. 19. The Petrostate Tour is our showcase Third Act Actions Lab Sun Day event and the launching action of our new working group. About 100 people have signed up to join the tour so far. If you have already registered, we look forward to seeing you soon and taking action together. If you haven’t registered yet, there is still time to sign up here. Please also attend our Petrostate Tour meeting tonight on zoom at 6PM ET/5:00 CT, our last meeting before we come together in person in DC. Registration for the zoom meeting is here.
Our next Actions Lab General Meeting will be Sept. 23 at 6:00 PM ET/3 PM PT. We hope you’ll take lots of photos and send us your favorites. We’ll pull them together into a National Sun Day Celebration slide show to share during our meeting. Register here to receive the zoom link. If you can’t make it to DC, we hope you will join in one of the hundreds of Third Act Sun Day events around the country!
What to Expect at the Petrostate Tour
The Petrostate Tour will begin at 10:30 with a short rally at Lower Senate Park, 200 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001, then visit the shadowy petrostate lobby firms that have made the United States a petrostate–a country where fossil fuel billionaires use every trick in the book to delay the inevitable transition to cheap, clean, abundant solar energy. The Petrostate Tour will visit four of the dirtiest tools of the Petrostate:
- American Gas Association (AGA)
- Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA)
- American Petroleum Institute (API)
- Venture Global LNG, Inc.
We will march together to stops 1-3, then board a double-decker open-top bus to visit stop #4. The bus will then return to the park where we will share a pizza lunch have an open discussion about how to continue our campaign against the Petrostate.
Other Events in DC Calling Out the Petrostate
The Petrostate Tour is one of three actions in Washington on Sept. 18-19 united by the urgent need to call out those blocking a rapid, just transition to cheap, clean solar and wind energy. Other actions will be at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an agency captured by the fossil fuel industry, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which Administrator Lee Zeldin is gleefully destroying. For more information on all three actions, sign-up and donation links, see: Hands Off Our Planet: No Fracking Petrostate.
Other Sun Day Events in the DMV: The Petrostate Tour is one of hundreds of Sun Day events across the country. In DC, a coalition including city agencies, the Sierra Club and Third Act DC will host Solar Curious? Get Solar Serious! The Sept. 21 event will connect homeowners and renters with fellow residents and trusted experts across the city, to empower participants to make their own energy through the sun. The Maryland Sun Day Celebration in Baltimore on Sept. 21 will include kid-friendly hands-on educational activities, art projects, and music. Third Act Viginia will host nine events across the Commonwealth, including a Solar Barn Raising in Harrisonburg, where volunteers will install solar panels on three Habitat for Humanity townhomes.