Washington, Day 2

The morning of the conference wasn’t terribly exciting. It could have been, considering that a) we were supposed to have been at the AED Conference Center earlier to set up for the fair and b) we didn’t hustle, but it turned out not to matter - the conference started late. Our five-person gaggle even had time to stop at a Starbucks on the way for “breakfast.”

There was a bunch of stuff that happened - you can look at the agenda to see what went on. I managed to hash up the presentation of our water policy at the fair, and nobody actually went through my PowerPoint, but I got something out of it all. Not only did I get to tell some people about the policy, I also learned that tiered pricing for water has been implemented in Tucson and in Austin. (Later searching on the internet led to the discovery that Cary and Durham have such pricing systems as well.)

There were also three separate panels to which the attendees could at some point go. I chose “Policy 101.” I took some notes, but I won’t bore you (or I) with them. One of the panelists was interesting, though - she was a higher-up in the AFL-CIO’s policy branch. I talked with her about jobs and the environment a bit.

Towards the end of the conference it was revealed to us that the national Roosevelt Institution is splitting up into policy centers (as we have). There will be six, one of which was on energy and the environment. The organizers gave the attendees a chance to break up into these centers and strategize for the year ahead. Beforehand, a person relevant to each field spoke briefly. Ours was a man who had just testified before Congress about government subsidies for oil or something; anyways, his speech centered a lot on independence from oil. -- But, to get back on track, each center’s action plan would be voted on by the delegates, and the winners would get $1000 to work with.

In our center we ended up deciding to focus on encouraging conservation in the communities near our colleges. Our idea was to form a “Town Green Textbook” of these programs as a guide. This wouldn’t really work with water in Chapel Hill, of course, but we could probably do something in Raleigh, in Apex, or on the state level (even if a drought bill has passed). When it came down to a vote, we came close to winning, but the education center won in a run-off by five votes. It sucks that we didn’t get the money, but at least a lot of people like sustainability.

Later on there was a party for all the Roosevelters. It took place in a modestly spacious townhome in Georgetown. There was plenty of alcohol to be had, but, of course, none for me; nonetheless I got by decently through a little chit-chat. It even turned out that there was another UNC Roosvelter at the conference whose presence I “discovered” at the party. (There were also at least two people at the expo who had been to a Roosevelt conference in Athens, GA which I had attended in April.)

Something curious happened outside, though. Someone backed into someone else’s parking spot, and apparently some kind of trouble occurred - the driver of the offensive car was handcuffed. I’ll never know why, but he ended up being taken away in a squad car.

Overall, the expo was a good experience. I think it gave me some ideas about where to go with the environment, water, and public policy in the short term, and I may even have some long-term ideas about my distant future as well. In any case, soon you will hear about the thrilling events of Day Three - and they did seem thrilling for a bit. Stay tuned.

By the way, to get my visa for Japan, it looks like I have to go to a regional Japanese consulate. The one for our area of the country is in Atlanta, so it looks like this blog just expanded.