Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Internship- Portland, ME

Organization: Environment Maine

Job Title: Intern

Location: Portland, ME

Hours and Compensation: unpaid

Position Dates (if applicable): summer 2012

Application Deadline: April 13

Posted on: March 28

Organization Overview

If you want to spend the summer learning how to make a real impact on the decisions that affect the energy we use, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the places we love, apply for an internship with Environment Maine.

The need to confront our environmental challenges has never been clearer. While Maine has been a leader on the environment in the past, Gov. Paul LePage threatens to roll back 40 years of protections for our air, land, and water and undermine Maine’s shift to clean energy.

There’s no question that Maine has the technological know-how to meet 100 percent of our energy needs with clean, renewable energy. Wind turbines, solar panels, and sustainable biomass can power and heat our homes and businesses with clean, renewable energy. We can make high-performance energy efficient homes that generate their own clean power and dramatically reduce our energy consumption.

Unfortunately, Gov. LePage has said that his one of his top priorities for the 2012 legislative session is to get rid of Maine’s clean energy standard.

That’s where Environment Maine comes in. We’re working to block the governor’s plan and instead accelerate Maine’s shift to clean energy by putting an initiative on the 2013 ballot to expand clean energy in Maine. Clean energy is so important to our environment, health, and economy that the Maine people should decide our energy future. To qualify the measure for the ballot, Environment Maine organizers and volunteers collected nearly 30,000 signatures last fall.

Environment Maine’s mission is to research and advocate the policies and build and mobilize the public support necessary to make positive change for the environment.

Last year, our organizing and advocacy led the Maine Legislature to pass an Environment Maine-spearheaded bill to get Maine off oil. The bill, which sets ambitious goals to cut Maine’s oil use, became law without Gov. LePage’s signature.

Environment Maine is one of 29 state groups that make up Environment America, a national environmental advocacy group. With nearly 100 professional staff and 1 million members, activists and allies in the states and in Washington, D.C, we make the case and build the support necessary to overcome the opposition and win real results for the environment.

The results of our work nationwide include more solar and wind power in 29 states; policies to cut energy use in 22 states; state-wide caps on global warming pollution in six states and a regional cap on power plant pollution in 10 Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states; the nation’s first ever limits on global warming pollution from cars and trucks; bans on disposable plastic bags and Styrofoam containers; action to preserve, protect, or expand national parks from Acadia to Mt. Rainier, from the Grand Canyon to Glacier; bans on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf and along the Atlantic coast; and strong protections for waterways from the Puget Sound to the Great Lakes to the Chesapeake Bay.

Here in Maine it’s going to take a lot more work to shift Maine to clean energy, protect Maine’s North Woods, ban toxic BPA in infant formula cans and baby food jars, and make progress on many other important environmental challenges. That’s where you come in!

Description

Each semester, Environment Maine runs an internship program that gives students like you the opportunity to learn how to make a real impact on critical environmental issues. Interns research and analyze environmental problems and legislation, organize citizens and local organizations to build public pressure, generate media buzz through press releases and letters to the editor, and attend meetings with coalition partners and lawmakers.

Although Environment Maine internships are unpaid, students may receive academic credit from their college or university. Environment Maine will also participate in college work-study programs.

An internship with Environment Maine gives you the training and the experience you need to land a job in the environmental movement after graduation. As noted above, Environment Maine is one of 29 state groups that make up Environment America, a national environmental advocacy group. Each year, Environment America hires passionate, talented and committed recent college graduates to join our two-year Fellowship Program.

Responsibilities

You’ll work on one of the issues listed below.

• Clean Energy Internships: Repowering Maine with 100 percent clean, renewable energy is the most effective way to cut pollution, improve our energy security, and jump-start our economy. As an intern, you’ll help organize volunteers, expand our coalition, monitor action on energy in Congress, and generate media coverage to improve the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and block a proposal to bring tar sands oil from Canada to Portland, Maine.

• Preservation Internships: Acadia National Park is one of America’s most beautiful places, but the park is threatened by development within its boundaries. More than 1,000 acres of land within Acadia are privately owned, and the Park Service does not have the resources it needs to purchase the land when it comes up for sale. As an intern, you’ll help us build a groundswell of public support to convince Senator Olympia Snowe to make protecting Acadia a top priority before she retires this fall.

• Toxics Internship: Almost every day we read about a new, toxic threat in our households or environment. Maine scientists have identified more than 1,700 chemicals as already proven harmful to children. These chemicals are associated with a wide range of health problems, such as developmental problems, reproductive problems, obesity, and cancer. Environment Maine is working to replace dangerous chemicals with safer alternatives, phasing out toxins that accumulate in wildlife and in our bodies. As an intern, you’ll work to build support for a citizen’s petition to expand Maine’s ban on BPA to infant formula cans and baby food jars and to convince Maine’s U.S. Senators to support strong federal action.

Qualifications

We are looking for current college students who care about our environment and are driven to preserve it for the future. We look for strong leadership skills, academic excellence, problem solving ability, top-notch written and verbal skills, eagerness to learn, and a sense of humor. We have a great training program, so no prior organizing experience is necessary, although if you have some that’s great!

How to Apply:

To learn more and apply online, visit www.environmentmaine.org/jobs or send your resume and cover letter directly to [email protected].