As the new intern for the Iowa Global Warming Campaign, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I started. After the events of my first week, though, the only word I can really come up with is wow. I’m a student at Drake and though the University has offered me countless opportunities, those that I’ve had just this week with ELPC’s Iowa Global Warming Campaign have been both unique and exciting to say the least. Iowa Global Warming is really leading the way in so many different areas that I’m just excited to be involved.
The highlight of the week was, of course, our office opening on Wednesday night. The office was packed with a variety of people including ELPC staff, elected officials and their representatives, members of other environmental organizations, students, and people who just wanted to know more about what we’re doing. News and ideas were exchanged over food and drink and then we all had the honor to hear from Mayor Frank Cownie, Governor Culver’s chief legal counsel and deputy chief of staff for policy and legal Jim Larew, and ELPC executive director Howard Learner.
Just being in the same room with these individuals and able to hear their ideas in such an intimate setting was an experience in itself. Mayor Cownie began with an emphasis on Iowa’s opportunity to lead the rest of the country in energy efficiency. Branching off from this, Jim Larew entertained listeners with a story about his first experience with promoting rail service and went on to discuss the importance of the ELPC’s new push for passenger rail. Howard Learner finished off with an overview of what ELPC is hoping to accomplish in Iowa, including pushing for clean energy legislation and securing funding for the proposed rail service between Chicago and Iowa City.
The night really served as a medium for the fostering of current ideas and the creation of new ones. As a young person, it was inspiring to be surrounded by so many motivated and optimistic people with whom I would usually not have the opportunity to engage in discussion. That is really what the Iowa Global Warming Campaign is about: creating public discussion and moving policy solutions forward. In fact, we were the first to work on building broad public support for passenger rail service across Iowa.
In a couple of weeks, we’ll have our first meeting of individuals from our activist evening who want to work on getting the project underway. The group is made up entirely of average citizens who are interested in making change where they live. Many of these are Drake students and we’re working on getting in touch with students from all over Iowa to help us in motivating their schools to sign on to rail. Still, despite its importance, rail is not our only focus. We’re still working on getting renewable energy standards as well as other energy efficiency legislation passed.
I couldn’t have asked for more in my first week at Iowa Global Warming. Stay posted next week for more updates on what we’re working on and what is going on in Iowa and across the country.
-Laura
