J u s t C l o u d s

As the youth environmental movement gains momentum prior to COP15,  The White House  announced just the Wednesday before Thanksgiving that they would host a Youth and Clean Energy Forum with youth environmental leaders on Dec 2, 2009. The act in and of itself is a great victory for the youth environmental movement. Achieving such type of open dialogue was a heavier task during the Bush administration especially considering the fact that Bush did not acknowledge climate change until the last 2 years of his term. The fact that the Obama administration put this forum together is a great step forward.

100 youth leaders meet with White House Senior staff to discuss Climate Change

As a prominent youth environmental justice leader with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization in Chicago, I was one of 100 youth leaders invited to participate in the forum. At first, I thought the forum was just going to be a speil session with little time to ask questions. Well, the forum exceeded my expectations even though President Obama did not attend the forum. Those present at the forum included Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy; Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor; Lisa Jackson, Administrator  of Environmental Protection Agency; Nancy Sutley ,Chair of Council on Environmental Quality; Jon Carson, Chief of Staff for Council on Environmental Quality; Carol Browner, Director of White House Office of Energy and Climate Change. The forum was broken down into two parts: 1) panel with Q&A session. 2) Working groups with senior level staff. 

During the panel with Q&A, Steven Chu spoke about his views on where the U.S. stands with Climate Change. He stated that he does not see the U.S. “turning it’s back on coal” when there is such a high energy demand and many people would lose their jobs. This comment turned off most of the youth who work actively to reach a common goal: transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. Steven Chu took a few questions after his speech and then left. Lisa Jackson and Hilda Solis then came into the room, introduced themselves and took questions.

With Steven Chu’s coal comment in mind and my intentions to ask Lisa Jackson a question in regards to environmental disparities and exposure to hazards, I raised my hand up high in the air. Luckily, I was sitting in the second row of the room and got called on for the second question. To begin, I thanked Lisa Jackson for leading EPA into filing a lawsuit against Midwest Generation, the owner of six coal power plants in Illinois with two of those located in Chicago’s predominantly Mexican-American neighborhoods. I proceeded with the question “Steven Chu mentioned earlier that he does not see the U.S. turning it’s back on coal. Is the use of coal more important than protecting the health of communities living in close proximity to coal mining sites and coal power plants? ” To that Lisa Jackson responded, “Oh no, no. That is my job, to make sure that emissions do not harm environment and the people.” She continued stating that the transitions from fossil fuels to renewable sources is not an easy one but that we must work towards that direction. As the panel continued, Lisa Jackson stated that she would like to see a legally binding agreement in Copenhagen.

During the working group session, my group worked with staff from the Department of Energy. It was a productive working group session with a conversation about maintaining open communication as well as discussing the science behind 350ppm as being the amount of CO2 the earth can handle and maintain itself stable as opposed to 450ppm or 550ppm. Surely, getting to 350ppm is no easy task. What is needed is a strong commitment to stop permitting mountain top removal and the construction of new coal power plants among other emitters of CO2.

The conversation went further in depth when expressing our concern for the continuation of nuclear and coal technologies as supported by Department of Energy. The youth present at the forum unanimously agreed that we can no longer continue with nuclear and coal technologies. We demanded to create a feasible timeline/vision to transition to renewable sources of energy ideally by 2050. We also went into depth with the coal discussion in regards to environmental justice. One of the youth leaders in my group was from Appalachia and he described the health issues related to coal mining and dumping of coal waste in local rivers, which are in close proximity to low-income white communities. I then took the opportunity to highlight the coal cycle and how it affects Americans each day whether it is from the extraction process or burning process. Right now, the government is very focused on “clean coal” since it does not emit green house gasses into the atmosphere. However, with clean coal we still have to mine the coal and thus continue oppressing these communities affected by black lung disease among other respiratory illnesses.  Our working group concluded with the suggestion to create a youth clean energy advisory council to have open communication with the White House and be present at the policy table.

As youth, we helped elect President Obama and we will support him in taking stronger actions to address Climate Change internationally and domestically. Why continue depending on coal through “clean coal”? That is a short-term fix. We have no time for short-term fixes. We need to invest our time in developing long-term fixes. We acknowledge the White House cannot act on it’s own and are willing to help pressure the House and Senate to create a stronger Climate bill as well. We are ready to establish a time line and follow it! The question remains: “President Obama, are you willing to take bigger step forward and help start that transition?”  Several White House cabinet members and staff will attend COP15.

Overall, a very productive meeting in terms of expressing our concerns openly and dialoguing with staff. Let’s hope the White House keeps in communication with us and gets a White House youth clean energy advisory board started.

I’ll keep you posted.