 "Photo: Courtesy MassPIRG")
Several University of Massachusetts students attended Power Shift 2007, a national rally in Washington, D.C., on Monday to lobby for a new bill that should help reduce the effects of global warming.
UMass students, representing the Massachusetts public interest research group (MassPIRG), numbered 25 out of the roughly 6,000 students who took part in the event. Students from more than 500 colleges and 300 congressional districts were in attendance.
The rally was part of the first national youth conference for global warming awareness and marked the largest global warming conference in the history of the United States. Organizers hoped the rally would focus the attention of Congress and current U.S. presidential candidates on the issue of global warming.
"It is widely accepted that the next U.S. president must make global warming a priority for us to solve the crisis before we reach a point of no return," read the organization's Web site. "With youth voting rates on the rise, we have the opportunity to drastically affect the 2008 presidential election and ensure our next president puts us on a path to stopping climate change."
UMass junior Corey Hodges described the event as "in their [Congress's] face," delivering the simple message: "this is what we want; this is what we need." Hodges thought Power Shift will have an enormous impact on Congress's decision on the bill.
The trip to Washington was funded by MassPIRG, the Office of Community Service Learning, the UMass Department of Natural Resources and the UMass Alumni Association.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey and human rights activist Van Jones were among those who came out to speak during the event.
The proposed bill supported by Power Shift would cut the amount of U.S.-produced emissions an estimated 80 percent by 2050.
According to Hodges, the first goal of this bill is to create five million "green jobs" by 2020. The bill would cut subsidies from oil and coal companies, allow the workers to move to jobs working with renewable resources such as solar and wind power and aim to eliminate coal completely as a power source.
The next component of the bill would increase fuel efficiency. The average fuel efficiency rate is currently 27 miles per gallon (mpg) for cars, and 21 mpg for trucks. The bill sets out to create a standard minimum of 35 mpg for all vehicles.
According to the student PIRG Web site, the bill would require a new renewable electricity standard. At least 15 percent of the resources used by all power companies must be renewable resources by the year 2020. This excludes nuclear waste, municipal solid waste or other non-organic wastes. Additionally, subsidies would be cut for liquid coal and nuclear energy.
Lucas Correia can be reached at ljcorrei@student.umass.edu.
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