I grew up on a farm in Upstate New York that was started by my Finnish immigrant family in the 1930s. It's been passed down through the generations and someday it will be my responsibility and privilege to steward that beautiful patch of field and forest that I will always call home. A special joy is to visit my parents every spring for maple syrup season -- gathering sap buckets, feeding the evaporator fire, and spending time with loved ones sipping beers chilled by the stream in the sugarbush. With these perennial joys, though, comes a sobering observation that our climate is undeniably changing. Late February once meant heavy snow falling on the maple trees. Now it often means unseasonably warm, rainy, almost muggy, weather -- something I'd normally expect in early April when we are bottling the finished product. This is why I've made climate advocacy my life's undertaking -- why I've worked to elect climate candidates, why I went to graduate school for energy regulation and law, and why I now lead a coalition of 100+ organizations pushing to responsibly develop renewable offshore wind energy that will get us off the volatile market of dirty fossil fuels and help us secure a livable future for our children and grandchildren.
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