MILESTONES & SIGNIFICANT ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Since 1999, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has grown the organization from 3 staff members to 12 full-time staff members.
  
• In January 2003, Georgians for Clean Energy (formerly Campaign for Prosperous Georgia), the leading energy advocate in the state for 20 years, merged their organization with SACE. As a result, SACE gained offices in Atlanta and Savannah.
  
• In September 2003, SACE opened an office in Asheville, North Carolina.
  
• Authored and Published:
  
  1. Clearing the Air: Getting the Dirt on TVA's Coal-fired Power Plants
     
  2. Clearing the Air: Getting the Dirt on Alabama's Coal-fired Power Plants
     
  3. Southern Fried Air: Georgia's Dirty Power Plants and How to Clean Our Air Now
     
  4. Energy Impacts on Georgia's Water Resources
     
  5. Code Red Alert: Confronting Nuclear Power In Georgia
     
  6. A Safer Ride to School: How to Clean Up Our School Buses and Protect Our Children's Health
• Co-authored and co-published:
  
  1. Blueprint for Breathing Easier, with the Southern Environmental Law Center, and Environmental Defense
     
  2. Energy Efficient Florida: Smart Energy Policy that Benefits Florida's Economy, with Florida Public Interest Foundation and Florida Public Interest Group Education Fund
• In September 2004, organized and hosted the Southeast Climate Strategy Summit, bringing together 50 regional activists, academicians, doctors, and community leaders. The Summit resulted in the creation of the first network of organizations in the Southeast working toward global warming action in the region.

SACE IS WORKING TO SLOW GLOBAL WARMING. 1ST EFFORT - NORTH CAROLINA

By partnering with Environmental Defense and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, SACE created the first global warming specific campaign and staff position at the state-level in the Southeast and is reaching this goal by having done the following:

• Collaborated with the North Carolina Department of Air Quality to enhance the state's 2004 carbon dioxide report, which was required by the 2002 Clean Smokestacks Act. This report evaluates policy and technical options to reduce the state's impact on global warming.
  
• Presented to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau Board on global warming impacts and the need for state policy action. As a result, this influential body wrote North Carolina Governor Easley and State Senator Marc Basnight asking for a state climate action plan and legislation. Senator Basnight subsequently expressed publicly his belief that the state legislature should consider global warming threats to North Carolina's coastline in its 2005 decision-making.
  
• Presented to U.S Forest Service Outreach Coordinators and the Director of the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources on forest carbon sequestration opportunities for the Southeast.

SACE STRIVES TO MAKE OUR AIR CLEANER AND HEALTHIER BY:

• Managing the Southeast Power Plant Clean-Up Campaign in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia since 2000. The campaign works locally to push for federal legislation that would reduce four major pollutants from coal-fired power plants and protect the Clean Air Act.
  
• Collecting more than 28,000 citizen actions since 2001 through efforts to educate citizens, legislators and policy makers about mercury regulations, and air quality issues in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
  
• Generating more than 500 press hits in the Southeast since 2001, including radio, television, letters to the editor, op/eds and editorials, dealing with the Southeast Power Plant Clean-Up Campaign.
  
• Providing technical information to the United States Government General Accounting Office (GAO) for a report it published in March 2002 titled "TVA Plans to Reduce Air Emissions Further, but Could Do More to Reduce Power Demand."
  
• Coordinating a pilot study to compare cabin air quality on a conventional school bus versus a school bus retrofitted with pollution reduction technology and clean fuel and assess children's exposure to pollution while riding to school in 2004. Published a report of the findings January 11, 2005.
  
• Closely tracking air quality designations for Southeast cities and counties for smog and soot pollution in 2004 and provided technical comments to EPA to strengthen protective standards and areas of exposure.
  
• Establishing key partnerships with groups such as the Georgia Adopt-A-Bus Outreach Advisory Group, Mothers and Others, Environmental Defense, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Not One More Life to broaden our ally base for diesel clean up.

SACE SUPPORTS CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY BY:

• Pushing for the creation of the Southeast's first utility-owned green power program, Tennessee Valley Authority's Green Power Switch program. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, this award-winning program is the seventh largest green power program in the nation.
  
• Helping start and serving on the Green Power Switch steering committee.
  
• Co-hosting and organizing the first Southeast Green Power Summit (Raleigh, NC) in 2002; the second Green Power Summit (Atlanta, GA) in 2003; the third Green Power Summit (Orlando, FL) in 2005.
  
• Organizing and leading diverse, stakeholder groups in Georgia, Florida, and the TVA region that developed standards that power companies must meet if they want their green power program to be certified by the nationally recognized "Green-E" program. This provides a "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval for the environment that assures utility customers they are buying a legitimate green product when they pay extra on their electric bills for green power.
  
• Influencing the development of the first commercial wind energy site in the Southeast. The site produced enough wind power to electrify more than 400 homes in the region from 2000-2004. In 2004, 15 additional wind turbines were installed with the capacity to generate enough energy for more than 6,000 homes.
  
• Organizing and co-hosting the first conference on wind power in the Southeast with the Department of Energy, American Wind Energy Association, four state Energy Offices and the Tennessee Valley Authority in 2001. This event spurred the creation of wind working groups and wind projects in the region.
  
• Working with environmental stakeholder to promote accreditation of the North Carolina green power program - the first statewide green energy p rogram in the nation supported by all the state's utilities and run by Advanced Energy, an independent but utility financed nonprofit corporation.
• Administering the Department of Energy Million Solar Roofs Initiative for the State of Tennessee Energy Office. This initiative strives to remove barriers that prevent the expansion of solar energy technologies.
  
• Reaching out to college students. From 2003-2004, an estimated 800 students throughout the Southeast have experienced a presentation or strategy session as a part of our outreach to Southeast college campuses to educate students on how to become advocates for green power and energy efficiency/conservation measures.
  
• Organizing and co-hosting the first Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference in April 2004. The event was attended by more than 200 students from 12 states and 44 Universities who learned about green power solutions at the university setting.
  
• Securing funds in 2004 to pay for the equipment and installation of solar energy systems on two zero energy Habitat for Humanity homes built by Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
  
• Negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Florida Power and Light (FP&L) in 2004 to build solar generation sites in the state and to work toward buying southeast produced wind power for their Sunshine Energy program, the first large scale green power program in Florida.
  
• Organizing and coordinating the Tennessee Wind Working Group in 2004 by bringing together government, commercial and nonprofit groups interested in promoting residential and commercial wind power development and hosting a small wind technology seminar the first such seminar in Tennessee.
  
• Participating in the North Carolina Wind Working Group to share knowledge and experiences.
  
• Helping create, promote and implement the TVA Generation Partners program that provides the first modern incentive and interconnection standard for solar and wind residential systems in the Tennessee Valley.
  
• Becoming the first regional organization represented on the steering committee of the Green Hydrogen Coalition, a partnership of concerned organizations working together to promote the safe, clean production of hydrogen, in 2004.
  
• Creating a program to provide financial incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, for customers in Georgia, through state planning efforts to improve air quality. SACE's work during 2003-04 helped lay the foundation for future efforts to address air pollution through clean energy solutions.
  
• Persuading the Georgia Public Service Commission to put in-depth attention to energy efficiency as a way to cut back the need for building more power plants and transmission lines. SACE has been participating in a stakeholder process to come up with a recommended plan for regulators to approve in 2005.
  
• Organizing a Georgia Wind Working Group.
  
• Co-hosting and organizing the second annual Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference with the University of Tennessee and UT's student group, Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville. More than 250 students from 8 states and 32 colleges attended the February 2005 conference.

SACE PROTECTS OUR WATER BY:

• Serving as the lead energy organization in the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) since 2003, assisting the 95 other coalition members in advocating collectively for water management policies that will ensure adequate, healthy water and provide clean energy opportunities.
  
• Conducting research and presenting findings about the adverse impacts of Georgia's existing power plants on local water supplies at the biannual 2003 Georgia Water Resources Conference.
  
• Presenting expert testimony before the Georgia Public Service Commission making the case for why greater investments in energy efficiency and green power supplies are needed by Georgia Power and Savannah Electric companies to make the state's water supplies safer.

SACE ENSURES SAFE, SOUND ENERGY BY:

• Working to restore Georgia's federal funding for radiation monitoring programs, including assisting in the successful passage of a legislative resolution highlighting the security needs and public urgency for funding restoration.
  
• Educating citizens, community leaders, and policy makers on the security, economic and health risks of plutonium fuel and nuclear power through earned media and public comments.
  
• Working with authorities to improve safety regulations at nuclear power plants and raise awareness with other organizations over security vulnerabilities at plants throughout the Southeast.
  
• Advocating for safe energy policies that discourage nuclear proliferation in a variety of federal and state level regulatory agencies and other public forums.