Recent graduates Evan Weber ’13 and Matt Lichtash ’13, in collaboration with former Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies Michael Dorsey, recently released a report titled “The Plan: How the U.S. Can Help Stabilize the Climate and Create a Clean Energy Future.” Through a variety of initiatives, “The Plan” aims to reduce fossil fuel emissions 30-50 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, with the eventual goal of making the U.S. carbon-neutral by 2050.

These suggestions include implementing a comprehensive greenhouse gas fee, scrapping fossil fuel subsidies, investing in public transportation, and creating a National Green Bank. “The Plan” also calls on President Barack Obama to reject fossil fuel export projects that would significantly contribute to greenhouse gas pollution and to create a Presidential Commission in order to gain critical feedback and plan for future energy policy decisions.

“This project was born out of the College of the Environment’s Think Tank, where Dr. Michael Dorsey and I were fellows last year,” Weber wrote in an email to The Argus. “Dr. Dorsey, I, and some others were brainstorming for a piece on environmental justice and green energy, and Dr. Dorsey pretty much just said, ‘I think the greatest thing we can do for global environmental justice with regards to green energy is write a U.S. energy plan and get [President Obama] to get behind it. The United States has no energy plan.’”

Weber, Dorsey, and Lichtash decided to pursue this project after graduation after receiving a grant from the University’s Green Fund to support their summer research and authorship. Zander Nassikas ’14, a Green Fund Committee member, commented on what motivated the organization to channel approximately 10 percent of its annual budget into funding “The Plan.”

“Most projects we fund are finite in [their] beginning and end in that they’re local and specific to Wesleyan,” Nassikas said. “This idea that Matt and Evan had was to take sustainability and apply it to national policy at large…which is something that we thought was really cool. This has the potential to have a bigger impact than almost any project we’ve ever funded.”

Brent Packer ’15, another Green Fund Committee member, also stressed the ability of “The Plan” to raise the University’s profile on the national environmental policy stage, noting that Lichtash and Weber will host an on-campus conference on the matter as “The Plan” gains traction.

“We viewed their proposal as an investment in the Wesleyan sustainability movement’s future,” Packer said. “‘The Plan’ is an opportunity to thrust Wesleyan into the national climate policy conversation.”

Director of the College of the Environment Barry Chernoff also expressed his support for “The Plan.”

“I like it because they’re really trying to grab the bull by the horns,” Chernoff said. “‘The Plan’ shows that climate change is also a justice phenomenon, and it’s going to disproportionately affect people based on socioeconomic background, whether it’s within the United States or between the developed and developing world. So I think it’s really critical what they’re doing.”

Lichtash expressed his frustration with Obama’s Climate Action Plan, which he views as an entirely inadequate solution to the climate change problem.

“The Climate Action Plan is literally a half measure,” Lichtash wrote in an email to The Argus. “President Obama’s policies, at best, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 17 [percent] below 2005 levels by 2020, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we need between a 36-49 [percent] cut below 2005 levels by 2020, and an 80 [percent] to 95 [percent] reduction by 2050. ‘The Plan,’ at the minimum, reduces U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 30-54 [percent] from 2005 levels by 2020, and achieves carbon neutrality by 2050.”

Weber emphasized that “The Plan” allows for emissions reductions without employing measures that could have a catastrophic effect on the environment.

“Embedded within these lackluster emissions reductions is the fact that [Obama’s] Climate Action Plan relies too heavily on risky technologies and fuel sources like natural gas, nuclear power, carbon capture and sequestration, and offshore drilling,” Weber wrote. “It also doesn’t do enough to ensure that we are not contributing to emissions increases in other countries while our emissions go down.”

Lichtash emphasized the sheer necessity of “The Plan” given the current state of the environment.

“I don’t see this proposal as radical,” Lichtash stated. “Fundamentally altering our climate for generations to come is the real radical proposal. It’s like saying that applying the emergency brakes to a runaway train headed for a cliff is radical because it’s going to change the current speed of the train.”

Weber echoed Lichtash’s views.

“One of the reasons the climate change fight has been so tough is that people don’t know what the solutions are for how we can get out of this mess,” Weber stated. “[W]e need to be calling for the best and boldest solutions and fighting to implement them instead of proposing half-baked measures that won’t get us to where we need to be. People need to [hear] about the real solutions, why the proposed measures won’t cut it, and then hold our leaders accountable for representing us. That’s how we win.”

While acknowledging the work required for “The Plan” to play a key role in influencing U.S. environmental policy, Lichtash stressed the influence that public support will have on the reception of “The Plan.”

“[‘The Plan’] definitely will face obstacles,” he wrote. “We need grassroots support behind us to overcome the likely barrage of attacks from fossil fuel interests and other anti-environmental groups. The entrenched interests may have the money on their side, but if enough people speak out using sound science, there’s nothing that can stop us. It’s all about public support.”

Weber and Lichtash are currently working on a congressional briefing for the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, as well as building a constituency to approach the White House through the Council on Environmental Quality.

“We’re going on radio shows, publishing blog posts and op-eds, and sharing with friends and family on social media,” Lichtash said. “We’re not leaving any stones unturned. It’s really a numbers game, and you have to try everything until one day you have that breakthrough moment that brings ‘The Plan’ to the next level.”

The pair also stressed the need for support from the University community.

“Donations to our fundraising campaign on Indiegogo will be crucial, but even more so will be the spread of our ideas,” Lichtash stated. “Everyone should speak up about this issue, because it’s going to affect all of us, our children, and our grandchildren.”