Michael Brune to Speak About Strategic Solutions to America’s Energy Crisis

Author of “Coming Clean: Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal”

(Ojai, Calif. – February 23, 2009) “Strung out by high gas prices? Melting ice caps give you the sweats? Coming Clean is a roadmap to recovery, a smart, heartfelt guide to building a better world.” That’s from Rolling Stone writer Jeff Goodell, praising Rainforest Action Network executive director Michael Brune’s new book called Coming Clean: Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal. On March 25, 2009, at 7:00 p.m., the Ojai Valley Green Coalition’s “Ecology and Community Series” will feature Michael Brune, who will read from his book and start a conversation about the tangible and innovative actions we can take for a clean energy future. The event will be held at Chaparral Auditorium, 414 E. Ojai Avenue, with a $5.00 suggested donation. This gathering is part of Brune’s nationwide organizing tour to bring together diverse people and organizations to promote solutions to the energy crisis.

Michael’s book, Coming Clean: Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal, doesn’t just talk about climate change and our addiction to fossil fuels, and certainly doesn’t just say we need only to change light bulbs and vote every now and then to solve these problems. This is a book about systemic solutions, and more importantly, exactly how we can get those solutions implemented. Pulitzer Prize winner Ross Gelbspan calls it “a thoroughly engaging, reader-friendly analysis of our energy dilemma,” adding, “Brune’s empowering book tells us how to take back our future from the energy bullies leading us down a path to climate chaos.”

Michael Brune is the executive director of Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and a founding board member of Oil Change International, an organization dedicated to dissolving the political barriers to a clean energy transition. At age 26, Brune joined RAN to direct its campaign to convince Home Depot to stop selling wood from endangered forests. After a year of creative protests, celebrity activism, and shareholder advocacy, Home Depot agreed. Time magazine called it the top environmental story of 1999, and the announcement led to the protection of 5 million acres in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest. Under Brune’s leadership, RAN has successfully campaigned to change the environmental policies and practices of some of America’s largest corporations, including Citi, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Kinko’s, Boise, and Lowe’s. RAN has been referred to as “some of the savviest environmental agitators in the business” by the Wall St. Journal. For further information on the Ojai Valley Green Coalition, visit www.ojaivalleygreencoalition.org.