{"id":15482,"date":"2020-02-28T20:38:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T04:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=15482"},"modified":"2020-02-28T20:38:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T04:38:03","slug":"philip-harding-advocated-for-the-hr763-bill-during-his-feb-18-lecture-on-sustainability-explaining-how-it-creates-jobs-and-supports-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/philip-harding-advocated-for-the-hr763-bill-during-his-feb-18-lecture-on-sustainability-explaining-how-it-creates-jobs-and-supports-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip Harding advocated for the HR763 Bill during his Feb. 18 lecture on sustainability, explaining how it creates jobs and supports innovation."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow\u00a0<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Philip Harding didn\u2019t come to Western to convince students to believe the research of climate scientists and he certainly didn\u2019t come to blame individuals for the climate crisis: he came to help students realize that individual practices, while helpful, are not enough to spur change, and that, instead, they should consider supporting the HR763 bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

A chemical engineer currently working as the Director of Technology and Sustainability for the Willamette Falls Paper Company, Harding spends his free time advocating for the bill as a member of the Citizens Climate Lobby both in Washington D.C. and at local universities, like he did at Western on Feb. 18.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because he works in manufacturing product development where his team is consistently trying to produce paper created from non-wood and recycled fiber, Harding says he recognizes that money is the central problem preventing change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really slow to get people to embrace (sustainability) \u2026 because of money,\u201d Harding said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, he believes that HR763 could provide a solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill, currently supported by over 80 legislators is \u201ca proposal that would charge a fee for fossil fuel usage based on what we think people would need to gradually and predictably adapt, upon which the fee would be refunded to the people,\u201d said Harding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Harding wants students to understand that pricing carbon isn\u2019t negative and that it actually creates jobs by changing companies perceptions and forcing them to invest in clean energy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Harding invited students to participate in a role-playing scenario where they were to imagine themselves as investment bankers should HR763 pass. Following student responses, Harding said that he predicts that bankers would invest in renewable energy companies, who would then expand and hire humans who would then be able to afford renewable energy products, creating a cycle that would be mutually beneficial.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Harding says that changing how we consume energy is a highly complicated issue that involves too many political fights. HR763, on the other hand, is a comprehensible solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harding encouraged students to call their representatives to show support for the bill, stating that \u201call you have to do is care and believe in doing something positive\u201d to make change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow\u00a0 | News Editor Philip Harding didn\u2019t come to Western to convince students to believe the research of climate scientists and he certainly didn\u2019t come to blame individuals for the climate crisis: he came to help students realize that individual practices, while helpful, are not enough to spur change, and that, instead, they should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":10024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}