Citizens' Climate Radio Episode 82: Are Lobbyists Evil? 

Average Rating:

Listen now!

In this month’s episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio, Peterson Toscano and Ruth Abraham feature four high school students who reveal the secret world of teenage lobbying. Brionna Dulay, Saachi Sharma, Cole Cochrane, and Anna Xies all volunteer for Citizens’ Climate Lobby. We asked them, “Are lobbyists evil?” b0ac77ceed4d86b9943f9c3bf77789a5-huge-ru

Brionna Dulay is a high school senior in Washington State who discovered a passion for climate advocacy after she witnessed severe flooding in her community. As a Punjabi-American, Brionna recognized the lack of her community’s representation in climate advocacy and climate change’s disproportionate effects on minority communities. This has pushed Brionna to speak to U.S. senators and representatives along with local, regional, and state members of congress. 

Saachi Sharma, also from Washington State, has been involved with Citizens’ Climate Lobby since middle school, and she is now a high school junior. She believes that the work done by today’s youth helps make the world a better place, and says, “There’s really no age for when you can start being more climate-conscious.” 

Cole Cochrane started his advocacy at 11 years old as a volunteer on campaigns for local candidates. Cole is now a senior in high school and has co-founded a nonprofit organization called Maine Youth Action, where he serves as the Policy Director. Maine Youth Action aims to empower youth in politics and have their voices heard in critical areas like climate action.

Anna Xies lived in China until she was 11 years old and is now a senior in high school in Washington State. Anna is the statewide leader of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Youth and previously worked on team recruitment. Anna was struck by the positive feedback from new team members, who told her that CCL has changed their lives and given them more confidence in their public speaking and in the future of our planet. 

So are lobbyists evil? Anna says, “I don’t think lobbying is inherently evil. I think when you get a lot of money involved with it, it gets a little bit corrupt at times”.

We decided to call a professional lobbyist to find out more. 

Ben Pendergrass has worked in Washington, D.C., for over 14 years as a Congressional staffer and a government relations professional. He is CCL’s Vice President of Government Affairs and works to advance the policy goals of CCL in Congress. Ben gave us the inside scoop on professional lobbying and had some advice for youth lobbyists. Ben suggests that “being informed, being polite, and really connecting the issues back to the state or district is always very important.” Dig Deeper

Good News Story

40fa0edb9890fd4ed29c17f7219a74d3-huge-li
Citizens’ Climate Radio Intern, Lila Powell, tells us about two young climate advocates’ successes in sustainability. Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz were students at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. While sipping wine in their backyard, Franziska and Max pondered the future of the glass bottle it came in since NOLA doesn’t have a government-funded glass recycling program. Tune in to hear how they turned this issue into a happy tale for their whole community.

Transcript

Click here to view a full transcript of this episode. 

NEW! Listener Survey

We want to hear your feedback about this episode. After you listen, feel free to fill in this short survey. Your feedback will help us as we make new decisions about the content, guests, and style of the show. You can fill it out anonymously and answer whichever questions you like. 

You can hear Citizens’ Climate Radio on:

Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group or on Twitter at @CitizensCRadio.

Posted by Brett Cease on Mar 24, 2023 8:41 AM America/Los_Angeles

Share this

Share:

Recent Posts

May 28, 2025 Last Thursday, the House of Representatives passed its version of the budget reconciliation bill, which dramatically slashes America’s clean energy tax credits. As CCL’s Executive Director Rachel Kerestes expressed in a statement , we are deeply disappointed to see this result. This is a tough moment. Over the last six months, CCL ... more
Posted by Flannery Winchester on CCL Community Bulletin May 28, 2025 3:58 PM PDT
May 21, 2025 Republicans in Congress are pushing hard to advance their budget reconciliation bill through the relevant committees and bring it to the House floor for a vote. The House vote could happen as early as today. As we shared last week, the current version of the bill makes drastic changes to America’s clean energy tax credits that will be bad for ... more
Posted by Flannery Winchester on CCL Community Bulletin May 26, 2025 9:18 PM PDT
May 14, 2025 This week, the House Ways and Means Committee released and marked up its portion of the budget reconciliation bill. After an hours-long overnight meeting, they passed their portion of the bill this morning. As a reminder, House Ways and Means is the committee we’ve been watching — and lobbying — most closely this spring to protect America’s ... more
Posted by Flannery Winchester on CCL Community Bulletin May 20, 2025 9:48 AM PDT
May 7, 2025 As the budget reconciliation process continues, with House committees beginning to release and vote on their draft portions of the bill, more and more lawmakers are speaking up on the fate of the clean energy tax credits. Last Thursday, a new support letter emerged from 26 House Republicans. They named a few specific tax credits (45U, 45Y, ... more
Posted by Flannery Winchester on CCL Community Bulletin May 12, 2025 11:34 AM PDT