The State of the Economy is Lousy

The state of the economy is lousy. Businesses are scaling back their workforces left and right. IBM. General Motors. Xerox. TRW.

500,000 less homes were built this year (1991) than in 1988. 2.2 million less cars were sold. 1.7 more million people are out of work.

And as for the polls? According to a Time/CNN poll conducted November 26, 1991, only 46% of Americans approve of the way George Bush is handling his job as President. A paltry 18% think Bush is doing a good job of handling the economy.

Even more sobering for those who think government can do something about this crisis is that the estimated budget deficit for 1992 is $348 billion, more than twice the $155 billion deficit our country faced when Ronald Reagan left office three years ago.

What's to be done?

One solution is to shift more of the tax burden from middle and working class taxpayers to the wealthy, who can afford a slightly larger tax bite. Businesses are saying don't increase our corporate taxes, or else we'll cut back on jobs. But it's foolish to assume a minor increase in personal taxes for wealthy business owners would cause such financial ruin that their businesses would in turn be shut down. What harms business the most is a decrease in the demand for its products and services, caused by a loss of discretionary spending power by the broader middle and working classes.

SEAC, Energy Independence and Corporate Accountability (by Ericka Kurz)

What's Going On, and What Does It All Mean?

Threshold (SEAC national magazine), pages 14-15, May 1991

by Ericka Kurz
SEAC National Campaign Coordinator

Things are zooming along with our Energy Independence Campaign, as are other Corporate Accountability campaigns such as Coors, Hydro-Quebec, and British Petroleum.

Corporate Accountability is really about democracy and decentralized decision-making in all aspects of society. It's actually a very "American" idea, in the original Constitutional, Declaration of Independence sense. We must make every effort to display the way in which the original ideals that founded this country have been abused and practically redefined - ideals like the "free market," which is about balanced, competitive economics accountable to citizens; not about big business monopolizing resources and claiming the right to do whatever it wants. Adam Smith probably rolls over in his grave when oil companies claim their right to drill the Alaskan Refuge (according to his "free market" principle), in spite of citizen opposition. It is the oil, nuclear, auto, and coal companies which are impeding a transition to efficient, renewable energy. With what sort of free market politics are they really operating?

Forbes Magazine in March called several members of the SEAC National Council (our 17 regionally elected representative schools) and the National Office to ask about our Corporate Accountability Campaign. They had seen the report MBD (an investigative agency for corporate interests in Washington, D.C. - see the Jan/Feb. issue of Threshold) had written up on SEAC and the Catalyst Conference that had phrases sort of like "SEAC...restructure Capitalism...bla bla bla" in it and made us look a little bit like the New Youth Red Fascist Centralist Leninist Party. Anyhow, Forbes was curious (and as we know pro-business - they tore Ralph Nader apart in one of their issues); so we tried as best we could to explain that we're not anti-business or anti-corporate, but pro-democracy and pro-accountability. We're more red, white and blue than Chevron or Amoco any day.

Democracy and Energy are the two most important issues which we as environmental activists can focus on, since more democratic political, economic, and social institutions will allow people everywhere to protect the natural resources they depend on, and since efficient, renewable energy will allow for more decentralized control of our energy production. Energy underlies everything: with an oil-, nuclear-, and gasoline-based energy system we have pesticide-based agriculture, air, water, and land pollution, nuclear weaponry, and centralized, powerful institutions which don't pay for economic "externalities" and manipulate our government with billions of lobbying dollars.

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SEACers Act for Energy Independence in D.C.

or, Young Lobbyists do that Democracy Thing!

Threshold (SEAC national magazine), pages 12-13, May 1991

by Jennifer Karson and Ericka Kurz
Coordinators, SEAC's Energy Independence Campaign

What happens when Thomas Jefferson, Betsy Ross, Benjamin Franklin, Uncle Sam, and a bunch of excited SEAC'ers demand Energy Independence? Read on...

Friday, April 12th, Energy Independence Day in Washington, D.C. brought together a group of college and high school student environmentalists that was small but committed, educated and ready to fight for democracy, efficiency, and renewables! The Energy Independence Campaign organized about 150 young revolutionaries from NJ, NY, CO, IL, PA, DE, CT, NC, VA, MD, and DC who took the message all the way to their Senators' and Representatives' snug offices on Capitol Hill: America's Youth want a Strategy, not an Energy Tragedy!

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SEAC members lobby against Bush's National Energy Strategy

"18 SEAC members travel to Washington to lobby against National Energy Strategy," Daily Tar Heel, 4/16/91

By Natarsha Witherspoon, Staff Writer

Eighteen members of the UNC Student Environmental Action Coalition lobbied on Capitol Hill on Friday against President Bush's energy strategy. Lisa Abbott, co-chairwoman of SEAC, said the National Day of Action involved students from across the country. "I think it was the first time many UNC students lobbied on the Capitol and said what they believed in and were listened to," she said. Ericka Kurz, SEAC's national campaign coordinator, said about 150 students attended the rally, which was part of SEAC's "Energy Independence" campaign.

Part of Bush's National Energy Strategy calls for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and coastal areas of North Carolina for oil drilling. Abbott said the strategy also includes deregulating the nuclear industry, which would take away the power of citizens to prevent the operation of nuclear waste dumps and sites. SEAC members want Congress to make energy conservation and finding renewable energy sources their priority, she said. "The strategy never mentions fuel efficiency," she said. "It is lip service. There is no specific funding for the conservation of energy." Randy Viscio, SEAC's national outreach coordinator, said the group wanted Congress to pass the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency Bill, which would raise the average fuel mileage of new cars from 26 miles per gallon to 40-45 miles per gallon.

Abbott said, "We asked our representatives to co-sponsor a bill in the House and Senate saying our country needs to reduce our dependency on oil. It was exciting to see students from all over the country," she said. A training session gave the students tips on lobbying, she said.

The students from UNC met with environmental aides of Sen. Terry .Sanford, Rep. David Price and Rep. Charlie Rose, all of North Carolina, Abbott said. Other students from UNC-Greensboro spoke with N.C. Sen. Jesse Helms' aides, she said. "The representatives were receptive and knowledgeable about the issues," she said.

"I think the strategy Bush has proposed, the National Energy Strategy, will be passed piece by piece," she said. "If it was to be adopted we could have one of the biggest disasters we could ever imagine in this country. It would destroy our land and leave us more dependent on fossil fuels and nuclear power." Viscio said the lobbying efforts included letters, phone calls and petitions. The rally was really a small part of the campaign, he said. Kurz said SEAC was considering holding a national conference that would concentrate on the energy campaign. "Students at UNC have done a great job locally, writing 30 letters," she said. SEAC has more than 200 chapters at colleges nationwide, with its national office located in Chapel Hill on Franklin Street.

Tell the Bush Administration what we think about his National Energy Tragedy!

Threshold (SEAC national magazine), pages 24-25 (centerfold), March 1991

poster designed by Ericka Kurz
SEAC National Campaign Coordinator

WE DEMAND:
conservation
renewables
energy efficiency
RIGHT NOW.

The Declaration of Energy Independence

Threshold (SEAC national magazine), page 23, March 1991

by Ericka Kurz
SEAC National Campaign Coordinator

Around the world and in this nation we face a crisis - a crisis of dependence on nonrenewable resources which threaten our health, defeat democracy and drive us to war. Oil and nuclear power as sources of energy pollute our neighborhoods with petrochemical waste and radioactive toxics. Oil and nuclear power as industries wield their tremendous financial influence to corrupt our government and undermine public interest.

Safe and democratic energy alternatives are as readily available as the sun and the wind. But their utilization will require the dismantling of the oil and nuclear oligopolies which currently control our energy production. The departure from limited and dangerous energy resources and the transition to sustainable ones, which will benefit the citizens of this nation and beyond, must be mandated and led by our highest elected representatives. But increasingly we see that our representatives no longer stand for the will of the people. They have been bought by oil dollars and industry lobbies.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, and as citizens of the world have the right to secure their freedom, independence, and destiny. That at the base of these pursuits lies the production of energy: with it we build our infrastructure, maintain our agriculture and express ourselves as creative beings; and that energy should benefit the many who use it, not the few who produce it. That to revitalize and sustain our economy and democracy, we must put in place a decentralized system of efficient, renewable energy.

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