Green Day+NRDC: Moving America Beyond Oil

We're all aware that celebrity spokespersons can be problematic: just look at the brouhaha that erupted recently over the private plane trips of otherwise green famous folk like George Clooney and Julia Roberts (make sure to read Michael and Rebecca's discussion). Yet it's hard to think of a better way to spread the word -- few have the megaphone of these folks (and one might even argue that they can offset those private plane trips by encouraging action in others... but I digress...). So, I was pleased to see that the National Resources Defense Council had teamed up with pop-punk band Green Day for its "Moving America Beyond Oil" campaign.

While it looks like this is a nascent partnership (no updates yet), the campaign site already has a number of action items listed. One of the coming soon features is a "Your Say" tool for users to add their own tips to the site -- this could become a hot spot for interaction and motivation beyond the star appeal. Still, GD's been politically and socially active in the past (and you sure don't get much better politically-aware music than American Idiot), so they also bring a level of credibility to this that many other musicians would lack on the surface.

I wish both groups luck on this campaign, and foresee updates here -- this is too cool to ignore... I do hope they eventually expand beyond the automobile as their main focus, as we desperately need more promotion of green electricity-generating options. Biofuels have captured the imagination of many, and that's not a bad thing, but they're not going to offset greatly all the new coal plants coming online...

Categories: greenday, nrdc, oil, biofuels, globalwarming, video, campaign, activism, us