Oregon State Public Interest Research Group Gives Students Oppurtunity to Earn Money While Saving the Enviroment

Knocking for Dollars

For Tim Stakes fighting global warming is more than just preventing the greatest environmental disaster of our time, it is also his job.

As Citizen Outreach Director for the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group's (OSPIRG) Eugene office, Stakes is playing a key role in building support for a bill that would require that 25 percent of Oregon's electricity be generated from renewable energy sources by the year 2025.

To build grassroots support for the Clean Energy Standard bill OSPIRG plans to pass out 36,000 brochures and gather 32,000 signatures. To reach those numbers OSPIRG is hiring students to canvass neighborhoods door to door to build support for the energy bill and raising funds for the campaign effort. Canvassers have the opportunity to make between $275 and $500 a week. Pay is based on meeting performance goals. "They (canvassers) have the opportunity to start making a lot more than the base right away," Stakes said.

Door to door campaigning is an effective way of countering the message put out by industry that man does not cause global warming Stakes said. "You have so many powerful special interest like oil companies spreading misinformation."

Eugene resident Babette Jones agrees. Jones wrote OSPIRG a check after Stakes canvassed her house and explained the potential effects of global warming on Oregon and how the Clean Energy Standard will "reduce pollutants by 25 percent."

"I get things in the mail and set them aside and never getting get around to reading them," Jones said. "I contribute more because they come my door. I'm not an activist but they do important work."

According to Stakes, only one percent of Oregon's energy needs are currently met by renewable energy sources. A fact he finds ironic considering the largest wind farm in the country, the 24 megawatt Klondike Wind Energy Facility , is located in Sherman County, in eastern Oregon and one of the largest builders of wind farms, PPM Energy, calls Portland home.