On Monday, October 19, Earthkeepers held a town hall event featuring three local candidates running for various positions: Nicholas Betts, Democratic candidate for Virginia District 6 of the House of Representatives, Laura Dent, Democratic candidate for Harrisonburg City Council, and Charles Hendricks, Democratic candidate for Harrisonburg City council.

Earthkeepers co-president Phillip Krabill highlighted two main purposes for this town hall: “One [issue] that we thought was important in an election year was environmental policy… we were fortunate enough to have three candidates who were all very knowledgeable and opinionated on specifically this plank in their platform. The second reason…was to get students to engage with politics.”

Krabill realizes the difficulty to “get energized from the stressful and polarizing nature of the presidential election,” but states that it is “also important to consider that smaller elections can also have a real impact on our communities.” 

Earthkeepers co-president Jake Myers echoed these sentiments, saying that he “was looking for ways to engage in local politics in [his] hometown, and coming [to EMU], it seemed like Earthkeepers would be a great way to encourage engagement on campus.”

They wanted to have an event that would promote civic engagement and highlight a variety of approaches candidates are taking to tackle the climate crisis.

Nicholas Betts emphasized the importance of incentives in terms of getting businesses and the general community to adopt more sustainable practices. Betts repeatedly emphasized investing in the “jobs of the future.” These are green energy jobs that are longer-lasting than those in fossil fuels and will be beneficial to the earth rather than a detriment. One of the main incentives he proposed was cutting taxes for companies to encourage them to adopt and expand upon investments into green energy, but he expressed that he wants to work across party lines to make it about building better businesses, which is something he believes we can all agree on. 

Laura Dent split her plans for Harrisonburg specifically into three parts: energy, transportation and what she called “the magic device.” Dent plans to demand renewable energy from electricity companies as this is currently an unused provision of which city council has yet to take advantage. She supports the 50 by 25 initiative (50% renewable energy by 2025) and the Virginia Clean Economy Act which “insists” on being fossil fuel free by 2050. With transportation, Dent proposes upgrading the current diesel buses in Harrisonburg to a newer model that would drastically reduce carbon emissions. Specifically, she would rather see hybrid buses rather than buses that would require large amounts of infrastructure building in terms of overhead wiring. Finally, her magic device is trees! Dent proposes to plant trees downtown to not only clean the air but also improve overall beauty.

Charles Hendricks comes at the issue of building more sustainability from an architectural standpoint, and he states the initial struggle of finding fellow architects and builders who would take on the challenge of building more sustainable buildings. He agreed with Mr. Betts’ idea of incentivizing a lot of practices as that is the only way that some companies would even consider implementing them. Hendricks points out that it would “take five earths to live like we do in Harrisonburg,” and this brings an “ethical dilemma” that forces each of us to recognize how our lifestyles affect the rest of the world. Hendricks proposed as an initial step to create an “environmental performance standard for new buildings” as this would insist that buildings be built from the beginning to be more efficient, and he describes that several buildings that are efficient save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs.

Krabill stated that this town hall “was a very unique opportunity for students to interact directly with their politicians, something that doesn’t happen very often.” Now, more than ever, communication, especially with those in positions of power, is incredibly important. Contact either Phillip or Jake about future Earthkeepers events, and continue to educate yourselves on what is going on with the environment. 

If you liked what you heard with these candidates and have not yet voted, election day is November 3.