U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders visited WUHS on Wednesday, January 4th to talk about the solar panels he helped get put on the school roof and to answer other questions about the challenges facing our nation.
Sanders helped WUHS receive a federal grant for the 44 solar panels on the school roof. Nine other schools also received the $50,000 grant to purchase and install solar panels. The solar panels were installed in the spring of 2011 and are supposed to provide the school with 14,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. So far, the solar panels have produced over 8000 kilowatt hours of electricity.
The meeting began with students giving facts about the schools new solar panels and then Sanders got up to speak. He began his part of the meeting by saying, “I am a big believer that we must change our energy sources.” The Senator then proceeded to talk about the school’s new solar panels, global warming, and energy issues in general.
Sanders complemented Earth Beat for writing many persuasive grant letters to help WUHS get the solar panels. He then turned his focus to global warming. “You can’t say Hurricane Irene was caused by global warming,” he said. Sanders also talked about the impact of global warming and what can be done to slow it down, such as increased energy efficiency.
“The good news for us Vermonters is this state is leading the nation in energy efficiency,” Sanders told the students. He also said Vermont power companies produce less power than they used to and many new jobs could be created through increased energy efficiency. He touched on wind power and said it was growing in use nationally and internationally.
Senator Sanders also answered questions about many other issues including, the Iraq War, the federal budget, the national debt, entitlement programs and even managed to include a jab at Fox News.
Sanders summed up his view of global warming as, “The challenge of our time.”