States Continue To Tackle Global WarmingOnce again, the states are leading the way in legislative solutions to global warming. Following the passage of bills mandating strong caps on global warming pollution in California and New Jersey over the past two years, the spring of 2008 saw the passage of strong legislation in Wash-ington state and Connecticut; Florida, Maine, Maryland, Mas-sachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin advanced bills through their Legislatures.

In the Washington example, on March 13, Gov. Christine Gre-goire signed into law a historic climate action bill that requires reducing global warming pollu-tion to 1990 levels by 2020, 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2035, and 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Environment Washington and coalition part-ners like the Sierra Club Cascade Chapter, directed by alumnus Trevor Kaul, and the Washing-ton Blue-Green Action Alliance spent much of 2007 putting grassroots and media pressure on the governor’s Climate Ac-tion Team stakeholder process. The coalition then put pressure on state lawmakers to get behind the resulting strong climate bill. Environment Washington’s Bill Laborde lobbied, testified in the committee meetings, and helped ensure that key transportation provisions stayed in the bill.

Other key components of the victory include a requirement that the state develop a plan for participation in a multi-state cap-and-trade system; manda-tory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by all large industrial and energy emitters; a require-ment that the state Department of Transportation adopt statewide goals to reduce per capita vehicle miles traveled; and a provision that state agencies, colleges, and trade schools collaborate on increasing the number of “green collar” jobs in the state. The funding needed to implement the legislation was included in the budget decisions.

“This bill puts Washington at the forefront of addressing global warming and will ensure the state plays a prominent role in shaping the national climate debate as the Bush administration moves on and a new president takes office,” noted LaBorde.

Other state environment groups around the country, including Environment California, Envi-ronment Colorado, and Environ-ment New Jersey, are pushing for reforms on solar energy. Sister groups in Arizona, Massachu-setts, Michigan, Maryland, Penn-sylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin are all campaign-ing for more renewable energy in their states.

In This Issue . . . Program Updates . . . pg 2Highlights from campaign work around the country.

Alumni News . . . pgs 3-5See which alumni have made career moves or started families.

Remembering Joni Charboneau … pg 7 WashPIRG alumna will be missed by many.

Job Opportunities … pgs 6-7Check out these nonprofit job listings for yourself or a friend.

Save The Date … pg 8Find out when there’s an alumni party taking place near you.

Spring 2008State PIRG Alumni Newsletter

LEADING THE WAY—Environment Washington’s Bill LaBorde and other state leaders look on as Gov. Christine Gregoire signs global warming legislation into law.

Campaign Highlights

U.S. House Adopts Ethics Oversight Panel

The U.S. House of Represen-tatives voted on March 11 to establish an independent Office of Congressional Ethics.

The move, which passed 229-182, means that outsiders will be responsible for reviewing Mem-bers’ of the House of Representa-tives activities and investigating any wrongdoing. This represents the greatest reform in House eth-ics rules in over a decade and will help end an era of congressional self-policing that allowed the Jack Abramoffs of the world to play fast and loose with money in politics.

“We now have an opportunity to get past the recent failures of the House to ensure honest represen-tation on behalf of the American people. It represents a meaningful step toward fixing the discredited ethics enforcement process,” said U.S. PIRG’s D.C. Office Director Gary Kalman.

Colorado: Homegrown Power To The People

On March 26, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed the Homegrown Power Act into law as conserva-tionists, farmers, ranchers, and utility company representatives looked on. Passed by a bipartisan group of legislators, the new law will ensure that Colorado hom-eowners and businesses receive a fair credit for excess electricity produced (also called net-meter-

ing) by their own solar, wind, or geothermal energy systems, as well as other renewable forms of energy.

“Today, we bring the New En-ergy Economy home,” said Pam Kiely, legislative program direc-tor of Environment Colorado. “The Homegrown Power Act makes clean energy more ac-cessible and affordable for all Coloradans.”

Prior to the bill’s passage, only Colorado’s largest electric utili-ties and a handful of smaller elec-tric cooperatives and municipal utilities provided compensation to their customers. This measure ensures a fair rate for all Colora-dans and will help spur invest-ment in solar power and other forms of clean energy.

U.S. Senate Passes Strong Product Safety Legislation

On March 6, consumer and pub-lic interest advocates, including alumna Rachel Weintraub of the Consumer Federation of America and U.S. PIRG Con-sumer Program Director Ed Mierzwinski, applauded the U.S. Senate for passage of the sweep-ing Consumer Product Safety Reform Act.

The bipartisan legislation rep-resents the most significant im-provement in almost two decades to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the agency that oversees the safety of more than 15,000 consumer products in the United States. The Act will

increase CPSC’s budget over seven years to $155 million; cre-ate a consumer database of prod-uct hazard information; make the industry’s voluntary toy safety standards mandatory; establish third–party, pre-market testing of children’s products; increase the current limit on CPSC’s civil penalties to $10 million for most violations; give State Attorneys General tools to better protect their residents; lower lead lev-els in children’s products; and protect CPSC staff and private-sector employees who blow the whistle on wrongdoing.

“Better product safety requires a comprehensive approach—fewer toxic toys, more money and authority for the CPSC, more disclosure to the public of hazards, more enforcement by state attorneys general, and more independent testing of toys and other children’s products,” said Mierzwinski. “We intend to work with the House and Senate to quickly package the best ele-ments of both their bills into a final bipartisan law.”

Ohio Passes Renewable Energy Standard

On May 1, Environment Ohio staff stood with Gov. Ted Strick-land as he signed Ohio’s re-newable energy standard into law. Environment Ohio staff had worked with a broad coalition of environmental, consumer, and business leaders—including alumnus Randy Swisher of the American Wind Energy Asso-ciation—to advocate the bill. The new policy will result in at least 12.5 percent of Ohio’s electricity coming from renewable resources like wind and solar by 2025 and also includes an energy efficiency standard to reduce Ohio’s cumu-lative consumption 22 percent by 2025.

“Ohio is now on the map for clean energy development that will reduce pollution, eliminate the need for expensive new coal-fired power plants, and take advantage of a booming new green economy that will create jobs,” said Erin Bowser, Director of Environ-ment Ohio.

Environment Ohio staff with Gov. Ted Strickland after he signed Ohio’s renewable energy standard into law.

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Alumni Profiles

Alumna Joan Clayburgh grew up in the Lake Tahoe region of California, but it was upon venturing to UC San Diego for college that she first became involved in environmental orga-nizing, initially as a CALPIRG volunteer and then through sum-mer canvassing with directors like Jon Scarlett.

After working in alumnus Larry Eason’s San Francisco canvass office, Joan became a campus organizer with CALPIRG, and the next few years saw her or-ganize at Occidental College, at UC Santa Cruz alongside

Joan Clayburgh: Preserving the Sierra Nevadaalumna Sheila Ballen, and at UC Berkeley, while collecting signatures for the Big Green campaign on the side.

Her favorite summer canvass ex-perience during that time was in the first Pittsburgh office work-ing with alumna Cathy Duvall, although she also fondly recalls directing the Venice Beach can-vass office with alumna Jeanne Bassett and the Santa Cruz can-vass with alumna Julie Miles.

Top students that Joan worked with as an organizer include alumni Tanya Africa and An-

drew Fogg. She also managed to meet her future husband, alumnus Jim Delso, through the San Diego canvass office where Jim was working alongside field managers and directors like J Bonasia, Ted Nordhaus, and Dave Adams.

After serving as the director of Pesticide Watch for several years, Joan wrapped up her work with the PIRG network and be-came the campaign director for California for Pesticide Reform, where she worked closely with

Joan Clayburgh, Jim Delso, and Lucky the dog in California’s Mokelumne Wilderness.

Laurie Moskowitz: Fieldworks Founder

Alumna Laurie Moskowitz has always been passionate about politics—so much so that she was very upset to barely miss the age cutoff for voting in the 1980 presidential election. By the time the next presidential race rolled around, Laurie had gotten

Rob Stuart, and U.S. PIRG’s Liz Hitchcock. She went on to direct summer canvass offices throughout New Jersey, run a new school organizing drive, and eventually oversee all of the NJPIRG campus chapters.

Laurie wrapped up her work with PIRG to get into electoral politics and ran congressional and senate races before working as the voter contact director for the DNC and then running field for Gore’s campaign in 2000.

Shortly thereafter, she founded her own firm, Fieldworks. To this day, Fieldworks makes the most of the results-oriented

approach Laurie learned from her time with PIRG. Among Fieldworks’ current and recent clients are national political par-ties, ballot initiative campaigns, state parties, and organizations involved in issue advocacy like Garden State Equality and the Save Darfur Coalition. Laurie is glad to count fellow alumni Lew Granofsky and Mindie Reule among her central staff.

On a personal note, Laurie lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Steve Rabi-nowitz, and their two sons, Jake (age 6) and Sammy (age 4). She can be reached at laurie@fieldworks.com.

involved first-hand through the UC Berkeley CALPIRG chap-ter, where she volunteered on voter registration and the bottle bill campaign and served on the student board for a chapter that included other stars like alumni Daniel Silverman and Ted Nordhaus and current U.S. PIRG Executive Director Andre Delattre.

After graduation, Laurie began work as an NJPIRG campus organizer by jumping right into the “Save NJPIRG” statewide reaffirmation campaign, work-ing alongside alumni Gina Collins Cummings, Ken Ward, Patty Dorsey Kelmar, and

—Continued on page 7

Weddings and Babies:Green Corps alumnus Eric Antebi and his wife Marla Kolman Antebi announced the birth of their son Matan David Antebi on April 5.

CALPIRG alumna Janine Benner married Greg Dotson on Sept. 2, 2007 in Hood River, Ore. Alumni and staff in attendance included Kat Barr, Kelly (Scannell) Brooks, Alison Cassady, Ivan Frishberg and Christy Leavitt, Brian Henry and Alicia Supernavage, and Melissa Waage. Janine and Greg first met when Janine was a consumer associate with

Page 4

CALPIRG and lobbied Greg’s boss, Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.). The couple now lives in Washington, D.C., where Janine works as Legislative Director for Rep. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.).

U.S. PIRG’s Steve Blackledge and Environment California’s B e r n a d e t t e D e l C h i a ro celebrated the birth of Oliviero “Oliver” Cassius Del Chiaro Blackledge on April 1.

Student PIRG and canvass alumna Denise Costello married Dan Pomroy on Jan. 5 at Casa Santo Domingo, the ruins of a 16th century monastery in

Antigua Guatemala. After honeymooning in Argentina, the couple returned home to New York, where Denise is in graduate school in International Relations at Columbia.

Green Corps alumna Maureen Drouin and her husband Mathew Scease announced the birth of Lily Drouin-Scease on Oct. 27 in Maine.

Fellow Class of 2000 Green Corps alumni David and Robyn (Williams) Heeks welcomed Holden Williams Heeks to the world on March 27.

Campus team alumnus Seth Levin and his wife, Kami, c e l e b r a t e d t h e b i r t h o f Elijah Finn Lewis Levin on March 3. Elijah joins older brother, Sydney.

Alumna Melanie Nutter and husband Levi Oliphant welcomed Nash Ryan Oliphant to the world on April 14 in San Francisco.

Former Campus Organizer Amanda Sears and her husband, Brad Sawler, announced the birth of Chloe Anneke Sawler on Nov. 27 in Portland, Me.

Movers and Shakers:Former MPIRG Board Chair and Executive Director Dave Ander-son reports from Minnesota that he’s now the executive director of All Parks Alliance for Change. Dave also serves as an advisor to the Manufactured Home Owners Association of America.

Legal Department alumnus Jeff Bernstein recently began teach-ing math at Cleveland High School in the Seattle School District.

Former MASSPIRG Campus Organizer Karen Bernstein has decided to attend law school starting in August. She will be attending Pace Law School in White Plains, NY and special-izing in environmental law.

New Babies

Lily Drouin-Scease Elijah Finn Lewis Levin

Alumni Updates

Denise Costello and Dan Pomroy

Matan David Antebi Oliviero Del Chiaro Blackledge

New Voters Project alumna Kate Cleary reports from Guatemala that she has just wrapped up the first of two years in the Peace Corps as part of a requirement for her Masters International degree in ecology at Colorado State University.

Green Corps alumnus David Edeli recently wrapped up his work as Senior Field Organizer with Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch to begin law school at Stanford University.

Former Publications staffer Re-becca Farabaugh is pleased to announce the launch of GreenYour.com, “Your guide to green anything,” a new online guide to eco-friendly living, which she has been writing for and helping to build throughout the past year.

CALPIRG alumnus Coby King began a new position in Febru-ary as the senior vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles office of MWW Group, a top public relations firm.

Fund alumna Kim Mongoven recently began a new position as the Development Director at the Community Renewal Society in Chicago.

NJPIRG alumna Traci Sheehan recently assumed the role of Executive Director of the Plan-ning and Conservation League in California.

MASSPIRG alumnus Ken Sil-ver, now an assistant professor in the Department of Environ-mental Health at East Tennes-

—Continued from page 4

reports for 13 different states identifying policies that each state could implement to cut global warming pollution.

They’ve also produced major papers on transit planning, as well as reducing state budget deficits through “green” initia-tives.

This spring, Frontier Group looks forward to the release of its first works on health care, water efficiency, and low-car-bon fuels.

Frontier Group, the PIRG network’s in-house research and policy development cen-ter directed by Susan Rakov, has been busy helping Envi-ronment America and its state affiliates to establish their research reputation.

Last fall, analyst Travis Madsen completed a major report in concert with Envi-ronment America: “When It Rains, It Pours” documents the increased frequency of heavy rain and snow storms

problem in a way that people can recognize from their own experience,” said Emily Fig-dor, Environment America’s Federal Global Warming Pro-gram Director.

Earlier last fall, for the of-ficial launch of Environment America, Frontier Group’s Tony Dutzik wrote “Amer-ica’s Clean Energy Stars,” highlighting states that are leading the way in five areas of clean energy policy. Overall, Frontier Group has produced

across the U.S. over the past 60 years. Looking at daily data from more than 3,000 weather stations over a period of 60 years, the report provided evidence that a key predicted impact of global warming—a change in precipitation pat-terns—is already occurring.

The report was covered by 200 media outlets, including the New York Times.

“Frontier Group has really helped us to illustrate the

Frontier Group Update

Janine Benner & Greg DotsonHolden Williams Heeks Chloe Anneke Sawler

see State University, recently testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on the need to improve the procedure through which compensation claims are processed for workers made ill from exposure to radia-tion and harmful substances like beryllium during their service in the Cold War.

Former GRFX Designer Ilene Solomon is wrapping up work as a paralegal in an AmeriCorps program called the Massachu-setts Legal Aid for Self-Suffi-ciency Program in the immigra-tion unit of Greater Boston Legal Services. She plans on attending law school in the fall.

NJPIRG alumnus Jim Walsh, now with NJ Citizen Action, was recently featured in a video to promote Family Medical Leave legislation in New Jersey. Check out the video at: http://www.bluejersey.com/showDi-ary.do?diaryId=7034.

Page 6

Current Career Opportunities With The State PIRGs And Affiliated Organizations

For more information, visit www.uspirg.org/jobs, www.environmentamerica.org/jobs, and www.progressivefuture.org/jobs or call Surf del Mar at (303) 573-5885 x325.

• Key Leadership Positions, Progressive Future – Nationwide Help build a new progressive organization looking to take our country in a differ-ent direction. Responsibilities include: managing staff, working with volunteers, building a political network, fundraising, recruiting staff, generating media, and influencing decision-makers using grassroots tactics.

• Health Care Advocate, U.S. PIRG – Washington, DCWork to counter the influence of HMOs and prescription drug companies to protect the health of all Americans; develop U.S. PIRG’s approach to health care problems within a broader political context and develop a comprehensive platform for solving them; serve as the public spokesperson for national health care campaigns through media events, press releases, editorial board meetings, and other tactics.

• Public Interest Advocate, ConnPIRG – Hartford, CTUse investigative research, media outreach, grassroots organizing, and advocacy on campaigns to pass strong rules through Congress on issues such as toxic chemicals, prescription drug safety, and public transit.

• D.C. Media Director, Environment America – Washington, D.C.Develop effective messages and manage outreach to national media outlets on federal issue campaigns, organize compelling news conferences and briefings for the national media, execute rapid responses for breaking environmental news stories, and pitch stories and feature pieces to national outlets.

• Director, Environment Massachusetts – Boston, MALead the effort to protect Massachusetts’ air, water, and open spaces. Direct statewide energy campaigns including efforts to clean up dirty sources of electricity, promote clean and renewable power, and advance progressive transportation policy.

Do You Know These Alumni?

PIRG, Fund, and affiliated organizations’ alumni are everywhere!

Thousands of people have worked for or volunteered with these organizations over the past 35 years, and we’d like to stay in touch with each one of them.

Unfortunately, we’ve lost track of many alumni. Below is a short list of people for whom we have no contact information. If you know these people, please contact Kirsten Schatz at alumni@pirg.org or (303) 575-5885 x 331.

To see a longer list of “missing” alumni visit: www.pirg.org/alum-ni/lostalumni.html.

• Jess Thomson, 2003-2005; NJPIRG, MASSPIRG, Canvass• Matt Miller, 2003-2004, MD Canvass• John Griffith, 2000-2002, U.S. PIRG• Vanessa Marvin, 2000-2001, Green Corps• Carmen Lopez, 1999-2000, U.S. PIRG• Lynn Woods, 1999-2000, Green Corps• Rebecca Ferguson, Late 90s, TOP• Katrina Galante, Late 90s, CT Canvass

• Naava Palic, Late 90s, Canvass• John Barrella, Mid 90s, D.C. Canvass• Tom Deckert, Mid 90s, Financial Dept.• Jim Elfline, Early 90s, CONNPIRG• Paula Toffolo, Early 90s, PA/NJ Canvass & TOP• Kim Croffoot, Late 80s/Early 90s, Canvass & OSPIRG• Arden Russell, Late 80s/Early 90s, MASSPIRG• Tom Coan, 80s/Early 90s, MASSPIRG• Alana Abbot, Late 80s, MASSPIRG, CA Canvass• Bill Hoch, Late 80s, NSCAHH• Thom Murray, Late 80s, WashPIRG• Rich Newman, Late 80s, FL Canvass• Stephanie Silos, Late 80s, NJPIRG• Vicky Smith, Late 80s, OSPIRG• Kirsten Swope, Late 80s, MASSPIRG• Wayne Parrish, Mid 80s, MASSPIRG• Howie Altman, Early 80s, MASSPIRG• Dan Fairchild, Early 80s, COPIRG• Colin Furrer, Early 80s, MA & FL Canvass• Ellen Messing, Late 70s, MASSPIRG• Jana Mohr, Late 70s, MASSPIRG Canvass• Dan Brandt, Late 70s, OSPIRG

A video tribute to Joni is avail-able online at http://captured-memories4u.biz/VideoTributes.html. Donations can be sent to Team Survivors Northwest Se-attle, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, or the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

The PIRG family lost a friend when WashPIRG alumna Joni Charboneau passed away on Jan. 6 in Tumwater, Wash. fol-lowing a lengthy and courageous battle with cancer.

Joni had worked as an advocate for WashPIRG in the late 1980s. Coworkers recall Joni’s conta-gious energy and passion for the work at hand.

She was always active in many causes and treated WashPIRG as part of her extended family.

In Memoriam: Joni Charboneau

Nonprofit Career Opportunities

Check out these career opportunities around the country. For more information, please visit each organization’s Web site.

To list job openings, e-mail alumni@pirg.org.

• Work in coalition with alumna Kate Rube as Policy & Research Direc-tor or Legislative Director at T4America Campaign in Washington, D.C. Send cover letter and résumé to Mariia Zimmerman at mariia@ T4America.org.

• Work with alumni Vanessa Pierce and John Urgo as the Development Director for HEAL Utah in Salt Lake City. Send résumé, cover letter, and short writing sample to jobs@healutah.org.

• Work with alumna Jodi Segal as Senior Policy Director or Membership Director at the Ohio Environmental Council in Columbus, OH. Send a letter of application, résumé, and names of references to oec@theoec.org.

• Work with alumna Patricia Dorsey Kelmar as Associate State Director of Community Outreach at AARP of New Jersey in Princeton, NJ. Apply online at www.aarpjobs.com/jobs/.

• Work in coalition with alumna Sheila Dormody as Environmental Health Organizer or part-time Web Organizing Assistant at Clean Water Action in Boston, MA. Send a letter of interest and résumé to Jennifer Bonkowski at jbonkowski@cleanwater.org.

Joan Clayburgh Profile

—Continued from page 3

current alumni Gregg Small, Jonathan Kaplan , and Teri Olle.

These days, Joan is the ex-ecutive director of the Sierra Nevada Alliance, a regional network of 95 conservation groups working to protect and restore Sierra lands, water, wildlife, and communities.

Whether it’s pertaining to land use planning, water-shed protection, or climate change work, Joan loves the people she works with and enjoys getting to pass on the necessary organizing

tools and strategies to pas-sionate activists who are working to protect the places they love.

In addition to crediting her PIRG experience with giving her the training necessary to be effective in her current work, she also counts fellow alumnae Mary Raftery, Ju-lie Miles, and Tanya Africa as her best friends.

Joan lives in South Lake Tahoe with Jim and their two dogs and a cat, and can be reached at joan@sierrane-vadaalliance.org.

The State PIRG Alumni Network1536 Wynkoop Street, Suite 100Denver, CO 80202www.pirg.org/alumni

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U.S. PIRG Executive Director Andre

Delattre with alumni Rick Hind and Lauren Pooler Marshall at

the D.C. alumni event in March.

June 19, 2008

June 20, 2008

Dec. 11-19, 2009

Save The Date: Upcoming Alumni Events

Alumni and staff are gathering in cities across the country to catch up with old friends and meet some new faces from the PIRG family. For more details on upcoming events and for photos from past events, visit www.pirg.org/alumni/calendar.html. If you’d like to help organize an alumni get-together near you, contact Kirsten Schatz at alumni@pirg.org or 303-573-5885 x331.

Minneapolis, MN Contact Ed Johnson: ejohnson@ffpir.org

Concord, NH Contact Erika Staaf: estaaf@environmentnewhampshire.org

Aspen, CO

Eligible career alumni should save these dates for the next Alumni Aspen vacation!