“A Clean Energy Economy Forum hosted by the White House would have been unthinkable four years ago, so it was remarkable to watch the administration itself address youth on climate change yesterday. Young people have historically been absent from the political process, so I am honored to be alive during such an important time. It was amazing to watch Washington higher-ups yielding not to our wishes, but to our “demands”. I am currently working in Florida with students and youth leaders to pass a renewable energy investment fund at the University of Florida. We are excited to build off the momentum created by this historic forum, and we are thrilled to be part of the movement for sustainability on our campuses, in our communities, and in the world.”

Chris Cano, Outreach Coordinator for Gators for a Sustainable Campus at the University of Florida, hosted a live screening of the forum from his campus.

Yesterday the White House opened its doors to over 150 young people eager to share their views about the climate crisis and concerns about the administration’s lack of public advocacy on the matter.  Never before has the executive branch in our government expressed so much willingness to listen to and work with young people, especially on the monumental issue of ending the climate crisis.

This forum was the culmination of years of hard work by youth climate activists nationwide. Morgan Goodwin, a fellow of the Avaaz Action Factory in Washington D.C. and a seasoned climate activist himself, wrote a fantastic post that is well worth a read to get the picture of how incredibly successful the youth climate movement has been at building and exercising power, and how it finally culminated with the White House forum. Excitement about this meeting was profound, leading to restless sleep in some of the participants who capitalized on their restlessness by writing a hard hitting letter to President Obama urging immediate and bold action.

When the day of the forum finally came, the few students that were lucky enough to be able to attend in person made sure they wouldn’t be sitting in the White House alone. Between writing press releases for home-town newspapers and encouraging their friends to watch from home through the White House Live feed (as Campus Progress Organizing Grantee Chris Cano did), cabinet staff experienced the power of the youth climate movement first-hand. The Facebook live-comment feed was buzzing throughout the forum with comments and questions, every time that speakers paused, half the room had their hands raised.

The feeling in the room was electrifying and tense at the same time, with a constant back and forth between the participants’ excitement about being finally included in this conversation and the impatience felt because of the administration’s lack of bold and public commitment to solving this crisis. Nonetheless, a feeling of excitement and opportunity brought about by the cabinet member’s strong words of support and lists of under-the-radar accomplishments that are already starting to set the United States on the right path. For a more detailed account about what happened at the forum, check out Andy Bernstein’s post on the Head Count blog.

As Rachel Butler, the Climate Program Coordinator at SustainUS said, the youth climate movement and the administration agree on 80% of the issues. We agree about the need for a bold shift in our economy, ending subsidies on fossil fuels and begin strongly incentivizing the development and deployment of clean renewable sources of energy, helping americans emerge from the financial crisis by creating millions of good and healthy clean energy jobs, and putting a cap on carbon to regain global leadership and shift behavior.

What we don’t agree on are two main points: the role of coal and nuclear in our clean energy future and the commitment to a science based approach to ending the climate crisis. What is important to note is that these are the two issues that are most controversial in the Senate at the moment. Conservadems and moderate Republicans insist on the idea that there is no short term solution and that only coal plants with ‘Carbon Capture and Sequestration’ technology and Nuclear plants (which, if ever, will come online in 10 years at the earliest) can bring down our emissions. Without those two dangerous, expensive, and toxic technologies, they say, we cannot possibly reduce our emissions and it is therefore useless to set strong short term emissions reduction targets.

The people in the  youth clean energy movement know that to be false. We know that through conservation and efficiency alone we can achieve most of the emissions reductions that science demands in the short term and that we can make what is left by rapidly deploying existing renewable energy technology. We know that nuclear energy and the mythical Carbon Capture and Sequestration technology take too long to build and develop safely, are dirty from extraction to disposal and are are way too expensive compared to cleaner alternatives.

The thing that I hope the other young attendees know as well is that Secretary Chu, Salazar and Solis and Administrator Jackson agree with us on those points as well, despite their hesitancy and rhetoric. You could hear excitement in Secretary Chu’s voice when talking about energy efficiency, but when he spoke about the role that nukes and coal still have to play in the U.S. energy future all that transpired was resentment. These people are our allies through and through, they know the science and they know the impacts, but they are locked in a political system that forces them to appease toxic industries.

We can help free them from the shackles of King Coal. This forum was a great first step and opened the door for more collaboration between the White House and young activists. What it also did was demonstrate that the efforts and tactics we have used up to now have been extremely successful. As Jessy Tolkan (always the rebel rouser) explains, we must ratchet up our energy and our efforts to change the Senate just like we changed the White House. Four years ago, when I first started talking to my peers about the beautiful future we can build on clean energy, I never thought that the White House could be a place where honest and sincere conversations could take place. That change didn’t happen on its own, it happened thanks to millions of hours, sweat, and tears poured by progressive activists.

The White House extended a hand and demonstrated an unprecedented willingness to collaborate with us. We can’t let them down, we can’t let our brothers, sisters down because we missed this historic opportunity to work with some of the smartest people on the planet to build the world we have been fighting so hard for. Let’s continue the PowerShift!

P.S. Didn’t get to watch the forums live? You still can! Check them out at the White House Video archive here.