Although last week’s campus climate change conference, PowerShift West, has ended, the work has just begun.
PowerShift West rallied 580 students and acted as a kickoff event for student-led climate change initiatives. It offered a plethora of workshops, speakers and panels for the participating students.
During the meetings, native Oregon students interested in climate policy planning agreed to join together and lobby at their local government offices later in the month.
The Eugene group, led by University junior Moey Newbold, will be holding a “photo petition” today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the EMU lobby. Students who support climate change can get their photo taken with a 20-foot wind turbine prop. Newbold, along with seven others involved from multiple Oregon universities, will then take the photos to Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden’s offices on Nov. 20.
“We hope to show the Senators how many students are actually concerned about our national and international climate issues,” said Newbold.
The group is hoping for the senators to vote for and strengthen the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, a bill aiming to “create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy.” The bill is currently undergoing review by the finance committee.
Merkely is one of the senators backing this bill in the U.S. Senate.
“Under the mechanisms under this bill, we can far better reduce the overall level of pollution through the trading of allocations than we can by simply putting a rule on every single smokestack,” Merkley said.
Newbold said that timing is extremely important for the success of this bill. On Dec. 7, the international United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place in Copenhagen.
“It would be great to have the bill passed into law before this major conference,” said Newbold, who recently decided to attend this event. “That way, we can come in as a leader.”
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