St. Pete spill protesters implore, 'Don't Oil Me Bro'

A loose coalition of environmental groups held a "Crude Awakening" rally in St. Petersburg this morning to protest the gulf oil spill and remember the 11 oil rig workers who died when the Deepwater Horizon exploded exactly one month ago.

"With each day the United States fails to take meaningful action and move words a clean energy future," said Dan Cannon an organizer for the Southern Energy Network, "dangerous, dirty energy continues to hurt our communities, your health, and our environment."

About 30 young adults gathered on a small beach at North Shore Park for the event.

They chanted, "Save our shores, clean energy now," observed a moment of silence after a clergyman read the names of all 11 victims, and expressed anger over the pollution that's still spreading uncontrollably across the gulf.

"Over the past few weeks we have witnessed the terrible effects of our dirty, dangerous reliance on outdated fossil fuels," said Shawana Feinman, vice president of the Student Environmental Association at the University of South Florida.

The protesters planted signs in the sand with messages including "Spills Kill," "Drill Here, Spill Here," "BP=Bad People," and "Don't Oil Me Bro."

The protesters included members of the Southern Energy Network, students from environmental groups at USF and Eckerd College, the Sierra Club, Repower Florida, Hands Across the Sand, Surfrider Foundation, Greenpeace and 1Sky.

The event was designed to build activism in a generation not known for it.

One convert is Courtney Parish, 19, a USF student in St. Petersburg .

"It feels awesome," Parish said. "I love the energy that people are bringing here and it's been so much fun standing here protesting here and uniting against something that could really hurt our environment."

Parish said she's already organizing another protest through her ties to USF student government.

The rally at North Shore Park was billed as one of more than 45 "Crude Awakening" events across the nation.

The group's long-term goal is reducing dependence on oil and coal. In the short term, it hopes to hold accountable whoever is responsible for the oil spill making its way from the Louisiana coast to the Florida Keys.

"Polluters must pay, not the people who have been hit hardest," said Cannon.

Efforts to persuade President Obama and other political leaders in Washington to embrace the outcry against oil drilling in the gulf go beyond traditional arguments about preserving the environment, members of the group said.

This time, it's about business, too.

"It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat," Cannon said. "A clean energy future is what America needs, it's what we need to invest in and I think our generation really understands that."