West Lafayette students advocate for climate legislation at Statehouse

Noe Padilla, Lafayette Journal & Courier
·2 min read
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Rahul Durai, West Lafayette high school student and member of Confront the Climate Crisis, and Ashlyn Walker, Carmel high school student and member of Confront the Climate Crisis, speak to an audience gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to highlight the importance of Senate Bill 335, which would create a statewide climate solutions task force, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — On Wednesday, dozens of West Lafayette students gathered in the Indiana Statehouse to advocate for climate legislation they hoped would be selected for a hearing in a committee session.

Students from the Confront the Climate Crisis held a rally in support of Senate Bill 335, which would create a statewide climate solutions task force. This year’s bill was introduced by Sen. Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington).

This bill builds off of the lesson learned from last year’s legislation, SB 255, which was introduced by Sen. Ron Alting (R-Lafayette) during the 2022 legislative session. That bill didn’t receive a hearing due to several issues raised by legislators.

Rahul Durai, West Lafayette high school student and member of Confront the Climate Crisis, and Ashlyn Walker, Carmel high school student and member of Confront the Climate Crisis, speak to an audience gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to highlight the importance of Senate Bill 335, which would create a statewide climate solutions task force, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Indianapolis.

“It’s not as broad as last year was. It’s showing a blueprint to our legislators of what Indiana climate action can look like,” said Rahul Durai, West Lafayette high school student and member of Confront the Climate Crisis.

“There are some differences of the membership of the task force because we got feedback from legislators. They want more legislators on the task force, so we made that change. And the content of the bill, the study topics for the task force, are orientated more as specific climate policy solutions that Indiana could implement.”

In hopes of addressing many of the concerns raised by legislators, the task force would tackle a variety of issues from establishing a statewide climate action plan, funding for zero-emissions vehicles, investing in solar energy and creating climate study plans aimed at different industries within the state.

Sen. Shelli Yoder (Bloomington), speaks to an audience gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to highlight the importance of Senate Bill 335, which would create a statewide climate solutions task force, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Indianapolis.
Sen. Shelli Yoder (Bloomington), speaks to an audience gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to highlight the importance of Senate Bill 335, which would create a statewide climate solutions task force, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Indianapolis.

Sen. Yoder, who introduced this year’s climate change task force bill, said she believes that the added changes to this bill will greatly increase its chances of being heard by a committee.

“We realized that in the time until the next legislative session, we have so much opportunity to work on getting the bill introduced again and build even more support for it,” Durai said.

“And there’s all these feelings of giving up when it feels like it’s so hard to achieve something, but the key to legislative advocacy is persistence. That’s something a lot of legislators have told us, so that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

Indiana Rep. Chris Campbell (West Lafayette), speaks to an audience gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to highlight the importance of Senate Bill 335, which would create a statewide climate solutions task force, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Indianapolis.
Indiana Rep. Chris Campbell (West Lafayette), speaks to an audience gathered at the Indiana Statehouse to highlight the importance of Senate Bill 335, which would create a statewide climate solutions task force, on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, in Indianapolis.

Rep. Chris Campbell (D-West Lafayette), co-author of a similar piece of legislation in the House, House Bill 1453, believes that there will be more support for the bill in the Senate. Authored by fellow Democrat, Rep. Tonya Pfaff, HB1453 would establish a climate solutions task force to review sustainable and clean energy solutions and would require the task force to issue a report to the General Assembly and the governor by Nov. 1, 2024.

Noe Padilla is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email him at Npadilla@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter at 1NoePadilla.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: West Lafayette students advocate for climate legislation at Statehouse