The jury is out on what our energy environment will look like in Ohio 30 years from now. But first-year
Metro Early College High School students have some recommendations for energy policies going forward.
On March 16, eight Metro students representing 60 project participants presented their suggestions to a Columbus audience of educators, researchers and energy and environmental experts.
Their ideas were both creative and diverse. How about a law requiring new apartment buildings to install green roofs (think of a roof covered with vegetation to provide better insulation, put oxygen back into the environment and reduce water runoff)? Or, how about a tax on all coal companies in Ohio based on carbon emissions, using the money to support clean coal research?
The project, called "The Future of Energy in Ohio" -- which tackled everything from wind and solar power, to nuclear waste, to alternative fuels used in transportation -- was the culmination of a
Keystone Center-facilitated Youth Policy Summit last October. The Colorado-based Keystone focuses both on national policy issues and educational outreach.
Each group of students was asked what should be done, and by whom, to bring changes necessary to meet Ohio's growing energy demands -- while also growing the workforce and limiting emission of greenhouse gases. They were required to consider three timeframes: 4-8 years, 10-20 years and up to 50 years.
They then had to consider political, social and environmental ramifications of the problem, as well as technological change, the legal landscape and education and workforce development. That included a need to assess stakeholder that could be helpful in enacting new energy policies or that might oppose their recommendations.
The presentations on March 16 concluded with tough questioning by some of the audience members. Still, attendees seemed impressed by what they had heard, and encouraged that these STEM students were thinking about the future.
"Energy policy goes in cycles," said Marty Toomajian, President, Energy, Environment and Material Sciences Global Business at Battelle. "Some progress is made, and then maybe ten years go by in which nothing gets done. It's important we get started on it."
Christa Miller, one of three Metro faculty members who worked with the students on their research and recommendations, noted that the project is one that typically would be assigned to juniors or seniors.
"We did it with first-years."
Source: March 16 Youth Policy Summit presentations
Writer: Gene Monteith