Students Give Their Take on How Well Congress Listens

Months of planning, negotiating, strategizing and training set the stage for the best orchestrated mass-lobby day in climate and youth activism history.

After 350 meetings between student activists and congressional representatives or their aides drew to a close last week, many of us within the movement began to wonder – what exactly did we accomplish?

Did our reps “get it?” What’s going to be the fallout for national climate policy, for the road to Copenhagen, for the role of youth in national energy justice issues?

In a few Capitol Hill offices, we were disappointed to discover, lawmakers and their aides seemed to know very little about even the basic facts of climate change.

First let’s hit the basics of Power Shift ’09 Lobby Day. Energy Action Coalition spent months setting up meetings with top officials, working with aides to coordinate schedules, and developing the materials for effective lobbying. They recruited hundreds of top-level organizers to lead Lobby Day Trainings for 5,000 of the students at Power Shift.

Because there was no legislation on the table yet to lobby for, the asks were simple and broad:

• Cut emissions 80% to 95% by 2050, and 30% to 45% by 2025
• Invest in 5 million new green jobs
• Take a leading role at the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 – and pass strong domestic legislation before then
• No coal, no nukes, no tar sands – only clean, renewable energy

I interviewed several Powershifters to learn about their experiences behind the thick wooden doors of Congress. What they had to say, honestly wasn’t what I expected.

Tommaso Boggia is a 22-year old Italian-born, California-educated activist and blogger. He works as a climate and energy organizer for Campus Progress, the Center for American Progress’ student branch. Despite his not-yet citizen status, he had several meetings on Lobby Day, including one with a staffer of Jim Risch, a Republican senator from Idaho.

Tommaso reported that during their discussion, the staffer expressed strong support for renewable energy (yay!) and nuclear (not so yay), and opposition to coal (super!).

One unfortunate revelation Tommaso noted was that “the staffer didn't really understand global warming – he said that it was still uncertain whether humans had anything to do with it.” For a congressional aide, even a conservative one, that registers as disappointing, if not pathetic.

It seems the “educate your representative” theme didn’t stop there. In a meeting with Rep. Cathy McMorris, a Republican from Washington state, sophomore Elena Gustafson from Whitman College in Walla Walla had an interesting story:

“She listened, but ultimately I don't know how much impact it had. She hadn't even heard of the IPCC reports, or at least that's the impression she gave, so some of the requests we were making were several steps ahead of where she seemed to be.”

What’s up with that? You’d have to live under a rock to be a public official and have no idea about the IPCC. Isn’t ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ just about mandatory background training for congress-people by now?

McMorris wasn't hostile, but she did express some concerns about moving “too quickly” on climate legislation, Elena said. She also had fears about Washington state getting unfairly burdened by climate legislation since they “already have a lot of hydro power.” I'm not sure I follow her logic, since coal-heavy states will be hit hardest.

John Smith, a junior from the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, was lucky to meet with Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar from his home state, along with a whopping 80 other Minnesota students. Klobuchar has been a champion on clean energy and climate issues, and as John reported,

“She said yes to our 'big ask' on the four lobbying points with no hesitation. It was exciting, and we certainly got her and her staff all jazzed up too with lots of cheering and applause.”

• 1
• 2
• next page »