SC Grassroots Protest Cap and Trade

This past Saturday two amazing things happened:

1. Over 100 grassroots activists from a wide coalition of groups across South Carolina braved some seriously nasty weather to pull off simultaneous protests outside each of Senator Graham’s district offices against his support of cap and trade.

2. Sen. Graham withdrew his support of the new cap and trade bill he had teamed up with Senators Kerry and Lieberman to write.  Of course, Graham is avoiding the obvious (bills that raise energy costs and send jobs overseas tend to be kind of bad and a tad unpopular) and instead telling everyone who will listen that he’s miffed because it looks like the Senate will be taking up a hastily constructed immigration package first and not the economic nightmare he’s toiled on for months.  Graham still doesn’t get it, but we’ll take this monkey wrench in the cap and trade works either way.

It’s hard to put these two things down to pure coincidence.  The determined folks of South Carolina who won’t back down in their opposition to this terrible bill deserve our big thanks.

Despite the storms, there were groups at big as 35 in Rock Hill and 20 in Mount Pleasant.  Everyone reports that the coordinated protests garnered a lot of attention from passersby who honked their horns, and stopped to talk, learn more about the issue, and sign the No Cap and Trade Petition.  This is a great example of how you don’t need a huge crowd to make a big difference and shed some much needed light on an important issue.

Mount Pleasant, SC

Columbia, SC

Florence, SC

Greenville, SC


Pictures from the rest of the state will posted as they become available.