By Samuel Rubenfeld
Students on both sides of the political spectrum took part in summits in Washington during the weekend. More than 40 University students were among the 12,000 attending Power Shift ’09, a three-day conference devoted to pushing green energy initiatives both at home and through Congress. Energy Action Coalition (EAC), a consortium of environmentalist and progressive interest groups and the ones who organized the event, is attempting to eliminate the use of coal for energy purposes and advocating for money for green jobs and an environmentally sustainable economy.
The summit included panel discussions, organizing workshops, speeches from key lawmakers and environmental leaders, and musical entertainment, including The Roots and Santigold.
One of the goals of the organizing workshops was to be able to teach children, and young adults, how to live a more environmentally friendly life. “If they [kids] are taught at a young age, they’ll make better decisions in the future,” said Jennifer Petronzin, a freshman elementary education major.
Young people are traditionally known as bit players in the political process, but Jessy Tolkan, EAC’s executive director, says the environmental movement is inspiring them to become more politically active.
“If there ever was a generation up to the challenge, it is this generation,” she said during her keynote address Saturday night.
The conference’s capstone event was a rally on the West Lawn of the Capitol and a “lobby day” that had the students splitting up and meeting with 378 lawmakers or their staffs on Monday.
“We had schedulers literally fighting over the biggest rooms in the legislative buildings,” Tolkan said.
Laura Comer, a junior political science major who is interning at EAC for the semester and led the scheduling effort for the “lobby day,” said setting up the meetings had its frustrations.
“It was the largest constituent meeting day ever held for some of the lawmakers, so it was a struggle to accommodate the size of some of the meetings,” she said.
Many University students met with Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola), the University’s local member of Congress.
Ryan Young, a sophomore political science major who organized the University’s delegation, said he not only looked forward to meeting McCarthy here, but he also wanted to spend time at her Long Island office in Garden City.
“We have been trained about what we can bring back to our community,” he said.
The rally, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was scheduled to keynote, but her flight from home was cancelled due to the large snowfall, instead heard from Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is the assistant to the Speaker, and from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., among others.
The lobby day and rally at the Capitol came the same day as a protest at the Capitol Power Plant, which heats and cools the Senate using coal, by Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) joined Pelosi in calling for the plant to use natural gas instead of coal power.
Twelve University students, including Anna Rawlins, a dance and political science double-major, attended the separate protest.
“There are alternatives to fossil fuels that are cheaper and cleaner than those our country is using,” she said.
The other side of the spectrum had their own conference this past weekend: CPAC, or the Conservative Political Action Conference.
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Eight students, led by Hofstra GOP President Sean Nabi, headed down to the Omni-Shoreham Hotel in Washington to hear from speakers like former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and talk radio stalwart Rush Limbaugh.
“It was re-energizing, dealing with horrible results from the election,” Nabi said.
He added that it was a welcome relief being away from the University, where he said he has been feeling intimidation from faculty since the presidential election. “I’m getting Hofstra professors telling me ‘Tough luck, you lost. Deal with it,'” he said, refusing to name the faculty haranguing him.
Nabi lamented the fact that his party nominated John McCain, saying he wasn’t conservative enough for Republican voters to support him. “If we would have run someone like Mitt Romney who stands on conservative principles there might have been different results,” he said.