Pennsylvania has the opportunity to move away from the escalating costs, insecurity, and negative environmental and economic impacts of energy dependence on foreign, fossil fuel based, and energy-hogging sources of electricity and fuel. Governor Rendell proposed the Energy Independence Strategy in February 2007, and the package is currently under serious consideration in the General Assembly.

In this podcast, PennFuture's Heather Sage speaks with PennFuture President and CEO John Hanger about the critical need for immediate action on the Energy Independence Strategy. John is a former member of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission, and is an expert on energy policy and renewable energy. He describes the many benefits of the $850 million proposed package-- benefits for consumers from energy conservation savings, rebates, and improved local economies, benefits for the business sector in the form of new jobs, grants and loans for renewable energy development and high-tech research, and benefits for our health and environment in the form of less air pollution and far fewer emissions of heat-trapping gases that are causing global warming.

If you care about solar and wind energy, keeping soaring energy prices in check, stimulating the local economy, stopping global warming, saving money, cutting our addiction to oil... then you care about the Energy Independence Strategy.

We urgently need to send the message to our state elected officials that the public demands energy independence by Independence Day! Tell them not to come home without passing the Energy Independence Strategy. Visit our Web site TODAY to learn more about the legislation, how you can take action to support it, and to declare your energy independence.

Have you ever stopped to consider how your morning shower or that water bottle you carry may be negatively affecting your health? Daily exposures to toxins and chemicals in the most unexpected of places can be adding to your risk of disease or illness. The number of chemicals we encounter during daily routines, from the plastics to cosmetics to diesel exhaust to air fresheners to cleaning products (to name only a few), form the toxic and chemical soup humans we expose ourselves and our children to each day.

In this podcast, PennFuture's Christine Knapp attends the Urban Sustainability Forum on health: Human Ecology and the Urban Environment. Christine talks with both of the forum's presenters, each playing important roles in raising awareness about linkages between environment and health, and in pursuing ways to curb exposures to risks from such substances. Dr. Julie Becker is the founder of the Women's Health and Environmental Network and Dr. Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, DrPH, is the director of the National Center for Environmental Health. Both discuss how we can live healthier, through simple (but important) choices, in urban environments. But their advice holds true for any environment.

You can learn more about the connections between our health and the environment in which we live by visiting the Collaborative on Health and the Environment site. There you will find a host of resources from partners around the country. There is even a Pennsylvania working group (CHE-Penn) that you can join to get more involved on a local level. PennFuture has been a proud working partner of CHE-Penn since its inception.

To learn more about our initiatives to protect our health and our environment, visit our Web site. We welcome your involvement in PennFuture as a member! To support our work, click here.

PennFuture is extremely lucky to have so many outstanding members, donors, partners, and volunteers. They hail from every corner of the state and well beyond. Working together, we are able to continue our successful work to ensure that every environmental victory grows our economy.

And who better to help us work toward a just future where nature, our environment, and the economy thrive than future leaders? Summer brings many fresh new faces to the offices of PennFuture, as young people looking to gain real-world experiences working in the environmental field volunteer their time, skills, energy, and creativity in our four locations around the state.

In this podcast, current PennFuture interns interview one another and a couple veterans to get some insights about why they became interested in the organization and our work, and what they did and learned while they were here. It's a fascinating journey into the world of twenty-somethings, and we hope quite a plug for how rewarding it is to contribute to the mission at PennFuture.

We were a little geographically biased in this podcast, talking only to interns who are working or have worked in our Pittsburgh office. But kudos to each and every one of the many student volunteers and interns we are working with now and have worked with in the past. Drop us a line if we haven't heard from you in awhile!

If you have an interest in volunteering or interning at PennFuture, we welcome your support. Contact our Director of Outreach Heather Sage at: sage (at) pennfuture (dot) org, or visit our Web site to locate a staff person focused on your specific area of interest. You can also take a look at our Jobs Board, where we post opportunities for employment at PennFuture and elsewhere. We welcome your support as a new member of PennFuture! And remember, citizen action really does work, so check out our Action Center and brand new "Legislation to Watch" section of our site to find out more about how you can affect Pennsylvania policies.

PennFuture intern Megan Landfried recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. Before she dashed off to accept her first full-time position this summer, she spent some time on campus exploring with fellow students their work on environmental issues. In this podcast, Megan talks with a few students from Pitt's chapter of Free the Planet, a student-based organization with chapters nationwide.

Pitt's Free the Planet chapter has mounted a wide variety of environmental campaigns, ranging from the very local (Swapapalooza, a used clothing swap on campus) to the global (fair trade and global warming). This student group also works collaboratively with other student groups on campus, the administration, local non-profits, and other chapters nationally.

Listen in for inspiring stories from young people who are dedicating themselves toward educating and motivating their peers to take action.

To learn more about ways you can get involved in PennFuture as an intern, volunteer, or member, visit our Web site, or contact us at podcast (at) pennfuture (dot) org. We welcome your comments and support!