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| 2/20/2009 3:18:00
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Jesse
Moger | | Lanesboro woman to lobby
Washington on climate policy
By
Jesse Moger
MINNEAPOLIS - Jesse Moger of Lanesboro
will be one 150 young people from the Twin Cities who
will pile into buses and join the 10,000 young leaders
nationwide Feb. 27 - March 2 in Washington, D.C. for
Power Shift '09. They will call on President Obama and
Congress to pass bold climate and energy policies that
dramatically reduce carbon emissions, create millions of
green jobs, transition toward a clean energy future, and
reengage as a leader in the global community.
The
Power Shift '09 summit will include workshops, speakers
and musicians. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi is
scheduled as one of the speakers. The summit will close
with a Lobby Day Monday, March 2, where participants
meet with elected officials at the Capitol and put
forward their ideas on climate action.
"I'm
hoping to take that national-movement inspiration and
move it straight into getting involved with local
government," said Jessica Moger, a student at the
University of Minnesota. "We hope to lobby the Minnesota
Legislature to consider clean car
legislation."
Moger, a graduate of Fillmore
Central and a sophomore majoring in Political Science,
has been active with Minnesota Public Interest Research
Group (MPIRG). Her work is focused on the state's Clean
Cars bill, which requires manufacturers to adopt
standards that would reduce pollution from cars by 30-
percent.
Corrie Weikle of Minneapolis Community
and Technical College is also eager for the
"inspiration" of Power Shift, when young people
collaborate and bring ideas back to their
hometowns.
Weikle first took interest in clean
energy in response to contamination in her childhood
lake. She grew up swimming in it, fishing in it, and
eating the fish. When she looked up its water quality
online, she found that it did not meet the basic
standards.
"It blew my mind that we can treat our
environment like that," Weikle said. "I think it's a
give and take relationship."
She has since become
a fellow at the Sierra Club and pushes for
sustainability measures at Minneapolis Community and
Technical College. She is the only student on the
school's Board of Climate Commitment; she is in
communication with the cafeteria to use fewer and more
eco-friendly plastic; she is helping the school fulfill
goals from a McKinstry analysis; and she is vice
president of the school's environmental activism club,
Three Legged Frog.
Corey Polan has also been
active on his campus, at the University of Minnesota.
Among his many projects, he is pushing for the school to
designate an area for students to ditch their belongings
at the end of the semester, which would have otherwise
been thrown out. Then, he can arrange for them to be
donated.
"It kind of seems like a no-brainer to
me that something like this should be in place," Polan
said.
Moger, Weikle and Polan will join students
from other campuses, including Hamline and Macalester
colleges in Washington.
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