Powershift 2009

Hello everyone! I just got back from Spring break and I have a couple of exciting things to share with you! I’ll start where I left off a couple of weeks ago!

On the night of Thursday February 27th, nearly 50 Transylvania students, myself included, endured a 10 hour night commute to converge with 170 other young Kentuckians and nearly 12,000 other American youth for Powershift ’09 in Washington D.C.

Me at the Rally!

Organized by the Energy Action Coalition, a coalition of environmental organizations from across the country, Powershift ’09, allowed young people concerned with reversing climate change to educate themselves about environmental issues, rally on Capitol Hill, and participate in lobbying to convince their legislators to support climate change legislation. Gathering at the Washington Convention Center in the heart of Washington D.C., we got to choose from nearly 200 workshops and panel discussions to attend such as, “Trash, Incinerators, and other dirty stuff,” “Creative Activism,” “The Story of Coal, Past, Present and Future” and “Green Building: Energy Efficiency.” We also heard keynote speakers such as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, “Green-Collar Economy” pioneers Van Jones and Majora Carter and important student activists including Transylvania’s own Marcie Smith. Also, Santigold and The Roots played concerts on Friday and Saturday, which was completely rad.

At the Rally!

After receiving 2 days of issues education and training in the techniques of lobbying, Powershift’s 12,000 attendees, donning green hardhats to symbolize support for a green-collar workforce, trekked through the 4 inches of snow, which had fallen the night before, to the Capitol for a historic rally in support of a clean energy economy. After the rally, the green hardhats flooded congressional buildings, and students met in groups with their local representatives and senators to lobby for climate change legislation. Powershifters collectively called for such things as the implementation of 5 million new green jobs, an 80-95% reduction of carbon emissions by 2050, and a moratorium on new coal fired power plants.

Having attended Powershift in 2007 as well, I was so thrilled that Transylvania would help support our going again this year. All my professors completely understood my missing class, and even encouraged it, as this event was so monumental. Talking to some of the other Kentucky schools who had loads of difficulty finding funding and getting people to participate reiterated my appreciation of Transy, a school that continually finds ways to support its students in any way it can!