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Young want a green future

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By LYNDSEY SCOFIELD

Special To The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 9, 2009

The next generation is ready. Will our leaders lead us?

With an abundance of sunshine, biomass, and energy efficiency opportunities, Florida has much to gain in the transition to a truly clean, just and sustainable energy future. However, the powerful interests of the utility industry are working hard in Tallahassee to ensure that our state maintains the status quo.

For the youth of this great state, the status quo is no longer acceptable. To us, the status quo represents an unjust system that disregards public health, dramatically alters our climate and reinforces our dependence on hostile regions of the world to meet our energy needs.

Even worse, the status quo will not lift the burden of our current economic situation but will instead deepen and perpetuate it.

In November we showed the nation that we care about our future by turning out in record numbers to vote. Now we're showing that we're serious about holding our leaders accountable at both the state and federal level.

In February I was one of almost 300 from Florida and 12,000 from across the nation who traveled to Washington, D.C., for Power Shift, the largest youth conference and lobby day on energy and climate change issues in history. We had the opportunity to meet with some of our representatives to tell them about the kind of future we envision, which includes a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, investments in clean and renewable energy sources and green job trainings that will equip America's workforce with the skills needed to rebuild our domestic economy.

But while the federal government is finally moving forward with bold, comprehensive energy legislation, Florida continues to fall back on the same outdated proposals.

Just last week, the Senate committee on Communications, Energy and Public Utilities passed a bill that includes a Clean Energy Portfolio Standard (CEPS) calling for utility companies to meet a goal of 20 percent by 2021 for power generation that does not produce greenhouse gases. Ordinarily, this type of bill is referred to as a Renewable Portfolio Standard, and 31 other states have already implemented them. In Florida's case, the CEPS is a compromise that allows the utility companies to meet their 20 percent goal with so-called "clean" coal and nuclear, neither of which are renewable, and neither of which should be considered clean.

If we pursue this path, the Florida Legislature is blocking the sort of economic development our state really needs. In our state, we are facing a budget shortfall, rising foreclosures and one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Yet the options being supported by our legislators are precisely those that cost the most and produce the least number of jobs. According to Navigant Consulting, Inc., every megawatt of electricity produced by solar results in 15 to 30 jobs, while the same amount of electricity generated from nuclear results in only 0.4 to 0.9 jobs.

Equipped with knowledge and a sense of empowerment from our experiences at Power Shift, we have been organizing in our communities, building more awareness on campus and bringing the message to our leaders at the state capital.

From rallying in Tallahassee to planning an Energy Action Week in the Tampa community, we are making sure that the youth voice is heard and the economic interests of Florida's families are considered above the interests of industry. Join us.

Lyndsey Scofield is a senior environmental science and policy major at the University of South Florida and president of the Student Environmental Association.

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