Antics from this morning's senate hearing, courtesy of the Avaaz Action Factory:
This morning, half a dozen youth in strongmen costumes showed up to pump iron and flex their climate bill "muscles" in Dirksen 406. Why? Because the first post-ACES Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on climate legislation took place there at 10 am today.
I was surprised to see such a clever ploy espousing that Congress must pass a stronger climate bill than the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday, June 26th.
And, if the muscle suits didn’t allude to the issue enough, each muscleman wore a t-shirt with "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" on them. The popular song by Daft Punk, later remade by Kanye West, correlated with the more specific asks of harder oversight on coal plants, better renewable portfolio standard and investments in international adaptation, faster emissions reduction targets and, more generally, stronger leadership and a stronger bill.
This action was also paired up with a series of deliveries to the offices of the Environment and Public Works Committee members. Later in the afternoon, the same strongmen traveled from office to office, delivering custom designed 5lb weights all encouraging the Senators to bulk up the meat of the climate bill and "lose 40% of carbon emission fat." The 5lb dumbbells themselves represented the 5-5-5% targets for the international provisions in the bill. The dumbbells also had best exercising practices and even recommended that Congress "consult its personal trainer, the EPA, periodically to keep on track with the science."
Unfortunately, you'll need to go elsewhere to find coverage of the hearing itself, because it was very crowded. The paid line-sitters were there at 5:30am and help the spots in line for all the lobbyists. So our group stood outside and talked to the press and the staffers walking by.
So in closing, I want to leave you with this gem that the Action Factory produced:
Obama To Copenhagen [Full Trailer] from joshgraupera on Vimeo.