From: Julie Lowe
Columbus
We have adult lawmakers wasting precious time about what is fair in Indiana youth sports and worrying that it might reduce chances of college scholarships when more importantly, the future of our youth is climate chaos.
Too few lawmakers care about the actual hardships that all our children will face as the weather and climate wreak havoc on their futures. This is the most important time of our lives, and we need lawmakers to make better decisions as a body, as the elected leaders of our state and our future. Do the work and hear the bills on what kind of energy our state should be building right now, not 10 years from now, or 50 years, but right now.
The first session of 2022 in the Indiana General Assembly filled me with hope as a group of high school students from Lafayette wrote legislation and worked tirelessly communicating with state representatives and Indiana senators all while being full-time high school students. The Confront the Climate Crisis youth group encouraged lawmakers to support Senate Bill 255 and House Bill 1287 calling for a bipartisan commission on climate change or a task force that would research energy and utilities and other important areas that need attention such as agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation.
This would allow the state of Indiana to begin to plan for the dramatic climate change that we are experiencing now. Our Indiana legislators didn’t get the chance to vote for either bill because neither were allowed to even be heard. Sen. Mark Messmer R-Jasper, chairman of the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee, refused to allow this opportunity to come before the committee to be heard, essentially killing it.
Now is the time to make critical decisions to improve the future of our youth. They are the ones who will grow up and inherit the state and deal with the future the Indiana General Assembly is leaving for them. Indiana legislators, do the work that your office requires of you, represent the people of Indiana, not your own special interests. Hear important environmental and climate legislation and let the votes fall where they may as our nation’s forefathers intended.
