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This afternoon, hundreds of youth leaders took to the streets in Albany to issue a critical demand to Governor Cuomo: ban fracking and lead ambitiously towards a clean energy economy.

As we marched, our chants boomed throughout the capitol building: “We are unstoppable, another world is possible!”

We delivered a letter to Governor Cuomo, signed by 18 national and local youth-led environmental organizations, and presented him with a petition from thousands of young people to declare that youth voters are rising up to ban fracking, and call on on the Governor to rise to the moment.

Power Shift New York kicked-off last night, and it was incredible! Co-hosted by Occupy Albany, we had incredible speakers and activists set the stage for the weekend, including Josh Fox of Gasland, Bill McKibben of 350.org, Wenonah Hauter of Food & Water Watch, and Josh Kahn Russell of the Tar Sands Action and more!

We have our work cut out for us, but we also have incredible energy here. As Josh Fox said there's "100,000 gas wells proposed for New York," and Bill McKibben said "this Power Shift is one of the most important because we have to save the Adirondacks and so much more." Check out the Storify story below to see all the highlights through tweets, photos and more. Sneak peak: Bill McKibben playing beach volleyball, and this great article in the Albany Time Union!

If you're reading from afar, sign our petition to Governor Cuomo to say NO fracking, YES green economy, we're delivering it through our action on Monday!

This past year, the youth movement has erupted with creativity and power. I’ve had the honor of riding this wave, from marches to sit-ins to banner drops and more. With Google Hangout and Twitter, how could we not spread the love of what I’ve been calling #operationsupport? Now, when I leave the cold, hard confines of the American judicial system, I don’t just get passive-aggressive emails from my Grandpa but dozens of thank you texts, Facebook tags and blog posts all in the name of solidarity.

Right now I’m fortunate enough to be actions coordinator for both the Greenpeace Student Network and the Green Umbrella, so solidarity and creativity is my gig. I get to support fellow activists across the country and throughout New York State as we collectively take on the fossil fuel industry.

Just two weeks ago, I wrote a blog about the voting down of Senator Hoeven’s amendment to the Transportation Bill, an amendment that would have overridden President Obama’s initial rule of denying the ENTIRE Keystone XL Pipeline. Last Thursday Obama stood in front of a bigillion pieces of pipe in Cushing OK pushing for quicker processes of the southern extension. But I’m not even going to touch on that. We have bigger fish to fry… or tofu if that’s more your style. We have a bully on our hands.

Last week something else happened. One of our own (one of my favorites), Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, a constant environmental advocate in the Senate, was verbally attacked by Representative Bob Turner. Turner came out and said that Gillibrand was “out of touch with mainstream America” because of her recent vote on the Transportation Bill. He also challenged her to flip her stance and follow his poor direction. Let’s show how out of touch with mainstream America Sen. Gillibrand is.

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