 "Photo: Jeffrey McWhorter, Daily Texan Staff")
Members of an activist group walked from office to office Wednesday, urging state officials to act on environmental issues.
Wearing green hard hats, four members of the nationwide campaign, Power Vote, presented cards of congratulations to the offices of Rep. Lloyd Doggett and Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. The cards thanked the officials for supporting renewable energy and reminded them that the nation’s youth plan to hold them accountable.
“We’re not for any candidate in particular,” said organizer Dan Cannon. “We’re going to pressure them all.”
The Energy Action Coalition, a nonpartisan environmental activist group, organized the campaign, which gathered pledges from young voters across the nation working to improve the environment.
“We are hoping to show our reps that the youth do care about this,” Cannon said. “This is a national movement, not just something that Texas voters care about. We just want clean energy to be a priority.”
Cannon said the pledge drew 4,000 youth signatures in Austin and 350,000 signatures nationwide.
Cannon and Praween Dayananda, who both work for the National Wildlife Federation, along with government sophomore Patrick Meaney and biology senior Laura Simpson visited the offices of state officials in the J.J. Pickle Federal Building and the Chase Tower. The group asked representatives of the officials to support legislation to cut emissions by 80 percent by 2020, place a moratorium on coal and nuclear plants and create 5 million green jobs over the next 10 years.
Jean Warneke, spokeswoman for Doggett, said the group approached the issue in the best possible way.
“They addressed the issue the way it should be addressed,” she said. “They’re not out there holding placards.”
Warneke said she is unsure to what extent Doggett can help with these changes. She added that Doggett has helped introduce the Climate Matters Act, which aims to bolster green technology and jobs.
Simpson said she hopes the legislators listen to young voices.
“I think that students signed our pledge because it’s become more apparent that something needs to be done,” she said.
Simpson added that students are encouraged to travel to Washington, D.C. next spring to pressure Congress at Power Shift, a conference at which 10,000 students are expected to participate.
“This is a global problem,” Cannon said. “Climate change is happening globally. The U.S. needs to step up and help solve this problem.”
