He's baaack!

Van Jones at Powershift: "We Can't Afford for Poor People Not to Have Solar Panels"

Van Jones is one of the most exciting and effective green leaders in the nation -- and it's precisely because his message, that fighting for clean energy, social justice, and job growth is best done in unison, stands to rouse wide swathes of the nation to the cause. He's already made a powerful impact, first by working to bring good jobs to neglected urban areas, then by penning a bestselling book on the green collar economy, and finally, by joining the Obama administration as its green jobs adviser. Of course, someone with such an effective, powerful message was bound to stir the ire of corporatist conservatives, who lead a smear campaign that ended in his ouster from the White House. Since then, Jones has laid low. So it raised some optimistic eyebrows when he was given billing as a keynote speaker at this year's Powershift (a gathering of 10,000 students and young leaders in the clean energy movement).


Jones had a few inspiring words for the youth at Powershift. And the first were: "I'm baaaaaaack!"


Jones also made some emphatic calls for the students to reinvigorate activism. One line in particular caused a stir: "if you have a smart phone, you have more computing power than the US government had when it put man on the moon.Stop using them as toys, and start sing them as tools to change American ... You have to make a decision not to wake your turn."

Very glad to see he is back. hey Beck, what do you have to say about Jones' speech?