Thoughts and Background on the First Senate Climate Hearing

Crossposted from Funding Our Future, the Campus Progress blog promoting policy that provides economic opportunities for our generation.

What time did you wake up yesterday morning? I woke up at 5 AM to go down to the Dirksen Senate Office Building and attend the first hearing for the new climate bill. The bill, co-sponsored by Senator Kerry (D-MA) and Senator Boxer (D-CA), is called the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act – aka CEJAPA and is similar in many ways to the recently passed American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) in the House.

Along with other 10 young people, dressed in Halloween garbs or green t-shirts , we tried to get into the hearing room to show that young people are paying attention and are ready to hold our elected officials accountable. Unfortunately, due to corporate hired linestanders, we weren’t able to get in. Linestanders you ask? Yup, here is how it works:

Hearing rooms are small, especially considering that most seats go to Senate staffers (from offices of Senators who aren’t on the committee) and press. Most hearings are held with barely any ordinary citizen in the room, but some contentious ones – like recent healthcare, defense and climate hearings – fill up pretty quick. The few spots left are open on a first-come, first-serve basis meaning that people need to make sure to get there early if they care to have a seat in clear view of the senators and the CSPAN cameras.

Just like young people desperately want legislators to see them (and we make sure they do by wearing bright green t-shirts, holding hard hats on our laps, and holding small 8.5 by 11 signs), so do the lobbyists that bring so much money to their election coffers. 13 line-standers for corporate lobbyists were in line ahead of us, but there were only 9 seats were available in the room so we weren’t successful this time around. Young people waiting in line made a pretty big splash nonetheless by talking to Senators and press as they were making their way into the room.

After making sure that the young people who came from as far as Maryland were OK with going to the overflow room, I darted back to the office to listen to the hearing through the Committee website (more hearings are going on today and tomorrow, check them out here if you are interested).

The hearings were surprisingly interesting. For minute-to-minute summary, check out my live-blog about the opening remarks and about the testimonies.

Click here for three things that every person concerned about the climate crisis should know that came out of the hearing and four ways to take action!

About Tommaso

Tommaso Boggia is the Climate Advocacy Associate at Campus Progress, the Center for American Progress youth outreach program, and the PowerShift 09 Media and Communications Committee co-chair. Prior to joining the Center, Tommaso was the Sustainability Event Coordinator for his alma mater, UC Santa Cruz, where he received a degree in Sociology with an emphasis in environmental justice. He led numerous climate change campaigns on his campus, including one to offset 100% of UC Santa Cruz’s energy use and others implementing energy efficiency programs saving UC Santa Cruz over $30,000 in utility costs. Tommaso has worked extensively with student groups, including the California Public Interest Research Group, the Alliance to Save Energy's Green Campus Program, and the California Student Sustainability Coalition. When he's not working to make the world a greener place, Tommaso can be found riding around town on his Gary Fischer bicycle that gets infinity miles per gallon.