Our guest blogger is Jeff Mann, online director of the Energy Action Coalition.

Today at the White House, President Obama met with twelve young leaders from across the country that are in town for Power Shift 2011, the youth clean energy and climate summit being attended by over 10,000 people.

The young leaders described the meeting as positive and expressed excitement about working with the Administration to transition America to 100 percent clean energy and protect the Clean Air Act. Courtney Hight, co-director of the Energy Action Coalition thanked the president for fighting to “save the Clean Air Act”:

It was a real testament to President Obama’s commitment to young people that he met with youth clean energy leaders today. We are thankful he fought to save the Clean Air Act. That’s the man we elected and we need him to stand strong and stand up to big polluters and safeguard America’s public health.

The young people expressed concerns with aspects of Obama’s energy policy, particularly ongoing reliance on dirty energy sources like coal, nuclear, and natural gas. The young leaders also voiced concerns about continued subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

The President reminded the young leaders that they have the power to change this country. Grassroots organizing in communities and states will help move our nation on energy and climate.

“We’re conducting the largest grassroots organizing training in history, to prepare young leaders to go back to their communities and lead, and we’re calling on President Obama and Congress to join us in standing up to Big Polluters and creating a clean energy economy,” said Maura Cowley, Energy Action Coalition’s other co-director. “Young people know we need a clean energy policy not based on things that kill people, whether it’s dirty coal or dangerous nuclear,” Cowley added.

Follow @PowerShift11 and @EnergyAction for updates.

JR:  Conservatives can’t quite make up their mind whether they hate Albert Einstein or love him. Conservapedia says his theory of relativity is a liberal plot:   “The theory of relativity is a mathematical system that allows no exceptions. It is heavily promoted by liberals who like its encouragement of relativism and its tendency to mislead people in how they view the world.”  The first footnote to that Conservapedia entry states, “Virtually no one who is taught and believes Relativity continues to read the Bible.”

Brad Johnson points out a different right-wing view of Einstein in a TP repost.

Armed with fantasy and lies, Tennessee legislators are attempting to dismantle science education in their state’s public schools. Last week, the Tennessee House voted by an overwhelming 70-23 margin in favor of a radical bill to teach the “controversy” about scientific subjects “including, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.” During the debate on HB 368, introduced by Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville), anti-science conservative Rep. Frank Nicely (R-Strawberry Plains) argued that the “critical thinker” Albert Einstein would have wanted public schools to teach creationism alongside the science of biological evolution:

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Vote here.

I’m reposting this because the polls close at midnight tonight.

Each year, George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communications honors “one person and one organization for their excellence as climate change communicators.”

This year, the nominees, which include me in the first category and Skeptical Science in the second, are:

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Clean tech investments top $1 billion

Clean technology investments top $1 billion, according to the latest MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

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Power Shift 2011 is running a livestream here of their opening keynote session in DC featuring Al Gore and Van Jones at 7 pm.

Follow the action on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and the Power Shift blog.

Here’s a video about the conference:

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Requiring automakers to cut CO2 emissions 6% a year would help clean the air, slash our oil addiction and save motorists billions

There is no magic wand that will bring down the price of gasoline, which has once again crossed the $4 mark in California. But there is a long-term solution that will inoculate us from higher costs in the future.

The Obama administration can’t do much to lower the price of a gallon of gas, but it is on the cusp of a crucial decision that could help consumers come out ahead because they would need less gas.

So begins an op-ed in the L.A. Times by Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, and James Gerstenzang, the campaign’s editorial director.

Here’s more:

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More than 100 youth and community members from the Gulf Coast are travelling to Washington DC on Friday to attend Power Shift 2011 to deliver a unified message: the BP oil disaster is not over. One year after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, sending 11 men to a fiery grave, BP’s crude and dispersants are still impacting the Gulf and its communities. Entire cultures and livelihoods are in peril, there is a growing health crisis, and BP’s oil disaster is accelerating damage to the fragile coastal ecosystem. “Louisiana youth are awake,” says Devin Martin, a graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Power Shift coordinator for the Louisiana Chapter of the Sierra Club:

Louisiana youth are awake. We know that our dependence on offshore drilling creates a dysfunctional democracy and is not an economic strategy for our future. From nuclear meltdowns to mountaintop removal coal mining to the ongoing disaster in the Gulf, we are constantly reminded of why young people are passionate to create a sustainable clean energy future and restore government to ‘We the People’.

The diverse contingent from the Gulf Coast includes BP oil spill clean-up workers, injured chemical workers from Texas, Vietnamese youth from the fishing community in Biloxi, MS, historic African American communities that have faced environmental justice issues from years, college students from Tulane, Louisiana State University, Grambling, and more. Two of the people attending Power Shift have just completed walking 1,243 miles to DC from New Orleans to draw attention to the plight of the Gulf Coast.

The contingent will speak on six panels at the conference and blog about the experience on BridgeTheGulfProject.org, a citizen journalism project for Gulf Coast communities:

– Restoring the Gulf Coast: Voices from the Front Lines

– Community Organizing in the Midst of Crisis: Gulf Coast Responses to BP, Katrina, and More

– From Plantations to Plants: Race, Poverty, and Energy in the Dirty Gulf South

– Beyond BP: Life in America’s Energy Sacrifice Zone

– The BP Health Crisis

– Where Does the BP Oil Disaster Waste Get Dumped?

BP has scored a $10 billion tax refund for its part in cleaning up its toxic crime. On Tax Day, Monday, April 18th, the Gulf Coast contingent will take action in front of BP’s lobbying headquarters, and meet with their members of Congress to demand that Congress and the President act now to stop the crisis on America’s Gulf Coast, and make BP truly pay for their disaster.

Follow @PowerShift11, @BridgeTheGulf, and @GulfCoastFund for updates.

ThinkProgress has the story and the must-see video.  This is impressive messaging and branding — literally and figuratively.

Yesterday, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) said much of the legislation his state’s Republican lawmakers are pushing is “in direct contradiction to the expressed will of the people of Montana.” So, as promised, Schweitzer took his red-hot “VETO” branding iron to a stack of GOP bills that range from legislation to weaken Montana’s “clean and green” energy standards “” a highly beneficial tax incentive that encourages clean energy projects “” to a bill that would eliminate same day voter registration. Watch it:

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