Well, I finally have internet again, and I’d like to give my summary of the hearing yesterday.

While the hearing on allocations was largely a time for opponents of ACESA who sit on the E&C subcommittee on Energy and the Environment to air their grievances with a cap-and-trade system, there were a number of positive outcomes along the way yesterday!

First of all, as Peebles noted, we had around 30 young people standing in line on Capitol Hill at 6am for a subcommittee hearing- if that doesn’t scream “passion,” I don’t know what does. The excitement young people are demonstrating for this piece of legislation is enormous, and speaks volumes to the urgency of the issues of global climate change, alternative energy, and renewing the economy.

All of the young people who patiently waited in line were able to get in the hearing room! Our presence was felt in our age and our diversity, and our message was clear: we wore green hard hats and t shirts that read “Free Allocations Hurt Future Generations” and “100% Auction”

During the hearing members of congress spoke to each other and those industry representatives and economists testifying on the panel about the economic disaster a cap-and-trade would bring to American families, about the jobs that would be lost if we were to cut carbon dioxide emmissions, etc. However, they also spoke pearls of truth- Rep. Barton (TX) stated that any solution to global warming needed to be fair- with 100% auction of pollution credits and conrols of CO2 directed at point source polluters. Rep. Dingell (MI) and others used the phrase “a moral imperative” to describe the scope of the issue at hand. There are pieces of this problem the committee understands- and they need the voices of “irate and tireless” (as John Adams once said) youth to ensure the solutions are bold and fair!

The bottom line- no congressional representative stood up in the hearing room and declared the Powershift platform law yesterday. BUT, the 15 or so congressional representatives present in the hearing room absolutely saw the 30 or so young people crowded in the hearing with passion and dedication, and took note. Our presence was noticed, and that matters.

As ACESA moves towards a floor vote in the House of Representatives in the coming weeks, we should remember that- showing up, even without our pockets lined with funds like the energy lobbyists- is imperative. As George Bernard Shaw famously declared, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu!” So, moving forward- let’s be at the table, in the halls, the gallery of The House, the Capitol Steps…pushing ever harder for a clean energy future!

It’s no wonder that European activists are outright dismissing market mechanisms as a solution to climate change after seeing it in practice for nearly a decade: it is a system that is marked by fraud and market manipulation. It continues to put our future in the hands of parties who are only interested in never ending growth of profits. Failing to grapple with fundamental issues such as these only doom us to a more bleak and frightening future.