Building Political Power

The Will Steger Foundation was a proud partner in the Forward on Climate rally held in Washington DC on Feb 2013. We sent four delegates from our YEA! MN high school program, including this blog’s author, with the unwavering belief that even youth too young to vote have a powerful role to play in the climate movement.

Ever since I had first heard Bill McKibben mention the event that would become the Forward on Climate Rally at his Do The Math tour stop in Minneapolis last November, it lingered in the back of my head as something I wanted to be a part of. An opportunity for tens of thousands of citizens with a common concern for the climate to come together in our nation’s capital doesn’t come along every day. And with a critical decision about the Keystone XL oil pipeline hanging in the balance, it was especially vital that people of all ages and backgrounds turn out to demonstrate their opposition in solidarity. Other young people I talked to also indicated restless wishes of attending the rally, which gave me the impression that Forward on Climate was something bigger that had the potential to be a truly significant, even historic, event. With this in mind, I was unbelievably excited to be given the opportunity to travel to Washington DC with Youth Environmental Activists Minnesota (YEA! MN - a program of the Will Steger Foundation), an experience that proved to be both challenging and inspiring in a number of vivid ways.

By now, hopefully you've heard about the environmental attacks coming from Virginia's state capitol this session. From Governor McDonnell's transportation bill aimed at deincentivizing more efficient cars like hybrid and electric vehicles, to the backroom deals between Dominion and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to kill clean energy in Virginia, we've got a lot to stand up for.

When signs aren't allowed, demonstrations need permits, and your legislators aren't hearing what you have to say, sometimes the only thing you can do is dance. And that's what dozens of students did in Richmond today, as they stormed the State Capitol with a flash mob.

Every year, the Virginia General Assembly convenes in January to debate and vote on a multitude of issues, ranging from transportation to social issues. But this year, students came together to make sure that their issue was put first and their message clear: We want real steps toward wind and solar, and we want it now.

On Thursday, January 10th, over a dozen students took a trip to the General Assembly in Richmond to sit in on the first meeting of the Commerce & Labor committee. They bore large, bright green stickers asking their representatives to "Fix the RPS: Wind & Solar!"