350 Ohio Field Organizer, Danny Berchenko, had the following to say about their trip to the Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner's district office Thursday afternoon.

It's become clear that Speaker of the House, John Boehner, is more interested in filling his pockets with dirty energy's money than in representing his constituents and ensuring ecological and economic security for Americans (and the rest of the planet). So yesterday morning, a group of twenty citizen referees braved the cold and rain to pay his district office in West Chester, Ohio a visit and call foul on his dirty dealings. The office, which is supposed to be open Monday-Friday during normal business hours, was mysteriously closed with no explanation on the door or their answering machine as to why. I guess the Speaker doesn't like being called out for blatant corruption.

Rep. Boehner has taken over 1.1 million dollars from the fossil fuel industry and in turn fights tooth and nail for their interests and against the interests of the American people and the planet. The Speaker invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Big Oil companies involved with dirty Tar Sands extraction. He then held the payroll tax extension hostage to expedition of the Keystone XL pipeline decision, and is threatening to hold it hostage again to the pipeline’s approval. Holding solutions to the climate crisis and relief for the struggling middle class hostage in order to advance his own financial interests is an egregious abuse of the Speaker’s power.

So climate and Occupy activists teamed up in West Chester yesterday to blow the whistle on the Speaker’s corruption. It’s a natural fit for our movements to work together. Occupy is out to end corporate domination of our public policy-making process and obstruction of our democratic rights; to create a level playing-field where we the people have a say in our economic, political, and cultural destiny. The climate movement has long had to deal with obstruction of solutions to one of the greatest threats humanity (and all other living species on the planet) has ever faced, by the wealthiest and most powerful industry on Earth. Our struggles are one: end the collusion and corruption that has essentially replaced American democracy with American oligarchy. Establish true democracy in which the voices of the 99% calling for economic justice are heard over the checks flying into representatives pockets from Goldman Sachs, and the voices of 99% of the world’s scientists calling for an emergency response to the climate crisis are heard over the bribes from fossil fuel industry lobbyists.

UPDATE: This campaign is now out in French, German, and Spanish as well.

SOLIDARITY ACTION: Help communities in Kosovo overcome a proposed coal plant beign pushed by the World Bank and the United States State Department: http://www.350.org/kosovo

We're harnessing the power of this movement to stop a proposed coal plant in Kosovo. And it’s not just any coal, it is lignite coal, the dirtiest kind. We need to support the people of Kosovo in their struggle to move beyond coal and enter a new phase of development based on clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Kosovo is a tiny country in the Balkans that sits on the fifth largest reserve of lignite coal in the world. It doesn’t quite match the scale of Canada’s tar sands in terms of total carbon, but for a country as small as Kosovo, the proposed coal plant there, being pushed by the United States government and World Bank, is most definitely their version of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Right now we have just a one week opening to try and dissuade the World Bank from going ahead with the proposed coal plant. Already the movement calling for alternative energy solutions on the ground in Kosovo has been gaining steam, and it is aided by new reports detailing the clean, more affordable alternatives available to Kosovo. Unfortunately the World Bank and the US State Department have not sufficiently considered those alternatives and are bent on burning this dirty coal. That’s where we come in.

Click here to send a message to the World Bank telling them to back off coal in Kosovo.

This week is critical because right now an “expert panel” from the World Bank is reviewing the proposal and assessing whether to move forward with the financing and planning process for the plant. They are due to report their assessment next week, and it’s essential they get the message that our movement is prepared to stand together with the community there fighting for alternatives to coal. We need to raise the alarm on Kosovo’s carbon bomb now.

Click here to add your voice calling for no new coal in Kosovo today: www.350.org/kosovo

The victory over the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrated the power of standing in solidarity across the globe against climate injustice. The struggle was led by local communities in Canada and the United States along with hundreds of North Americans willing to put their bodies on the line and go to jail for the cause. But we all have a stake in keeping Canada’s tar sands oil in the ground, and we effectively added our voices together, through petitions, photos, sharing articles and updates online, visiting US embassies, and more. We have tremendous power when we act together.

This week we’re standing with Kosovo. Next week or next month it could be anywhere else on the planet. Many of you are involved in your own local climate struggles: fighting fossil fuel projects, creating local solutions, and advocating for new policies that will move your city or country beyond fossil fuels all together. 350.org exists to help catalyze, coordinate, and connect these efforts. And when there are critical moments when this global movement can unite around a common cause -- whether it be stopping the Keystone XL pipeline or pushing to phase out fossil fuel subsidies -- we will. 

One thing’s for sure: the struggle for climate solutions is going to require that we all work locally in our own communities, and that we stand together globally when we can. Right now, for Kosovo, we can. Please sign on today. 

In solidarity,

Will and the 350.org team

P.S. To build a global groundswell against Kosovo's Keystone, we need to spread the word far and wide -- can you take a second to share the action with a couple of clicks on Facebook and Twitter? Many thanks in advance.