Model Senate
The AHS model senate was designed to simulate the U.S Senate. We had to take on the roles of specific senators and write, vote on, and amend bills. This was a super interesting process and I enjoyed it.
Speech: (This does not accurately represent my speech given in the senate. I called the opposing party weasels.)
There is no denying that the world is getting hotter. 2014 was the hottest year recorded. 2015 will be even hotter. Glaciers are melting, polar bears are dying, winters are too warm to kill pine beetles that prey on our trees. Carbon dioxide is filling the atmosphere, acting like a blanket. The major culprit is the burning of fossil fuels. Are we going to act to keep our planet from being destroyed? Is it time for the federal government to show global leadership? Do we need to accelerate the transition from a fossil fuel economy to a clean energy economy? All of this damage we are seeing is just from a 0.9 degree celsius increase. Scientists say that a 2 degree rise in temperature would be catastrophic to our ecosystems and human civilization. To prevent the 2 degrees celsius rise we must keep 80% of fossil fuel reserves in the ground and stop any leaks from abandoned and active natural gas wells. Our public reserves should be managed for public benefit, not private profit. Bill #2-2015 Presents these ideas of ending all new and non producing leases as well as capping and sealing all current, abandoned, and inactive well sites. This bill stops all new coal, oil, tar sands, fracked gas, and oil shale leases on federal land. It also stops all new leases on offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. The preventions of these leases would maintain what is left of the US public fuel reserves. All current natural gas wells will be tested for leaks and sealed accordingly as well as all non-producing and abandoned wells. Oil and gas companies will be compensated increasingly for every 20 wells successfully sealed or plugged. Sealing wells will keep all lost gas in the system therefore producing more fuel. This bill is a necessity for our future generations. Let’s Hold It All In!
Hold It All In Act
Be It Enacted By The Animas High School Model Congress
Preamble: Whereas the vast majority of global warming occurring over the past 50 years was due to human activities--primarily the burning of fossil fuels--and since the concentration of greenhouse gasses continue to rise--resulting in warming trends globally, and since global warming has already impacted industries of our economy, and since the impacts of global warming will be amplified by a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius--leading to droughts, rising sea levels, mass extinctions, heat waves, desertification, wildfires, acidifying oceans, significant economic disruption, and security threats--and since at least 80 percent of carbon from proven fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground to avoid exceeding a 2 degrees Celsius warming, and since the potential emissions resulting from extracting and burning all fossil fuels on Federal land and waters attribute to a significant percentage of the greenhouse gas emissions limit, and since prohibiting new leases for fossil fuels will prevent the release of 90 percent of the potential emissions from the Federal fossil fuels, and since capping/plugging all drills/wells will significantly decrease the concentrated amount of emitting greenhouse gases, and since industries will continue to profit off of all gas captured and saved,
SECTION 1: STOPPING NEW COAL, OIL, TAR SANDS, FRACKED GAS, AND OIL SHALE LEASES ON FEDERAL LAND.
“DEFINITIONS.—In the PROHIBITION subsections of Section 1 & Section 2:
“(A) NONPRODUCING LEASE.—The term ‘nonproducing lease’ means any lease under which any coal, oil, gas, oil shale, tar sands, or other fossil fuels approved in the lease contract has already been extracted.
“(B) REINSTATE.—The term ‘reinstate’ means the act of reinstating a lease under this Act after a violation of any term of the lease that resulted in suspension or cancellation of the lease.
“(C) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of the Interior.
PROHIBITION OF LEASES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall not conduct any lease sale, enter into any new lease, re-offer for lease any land covered by an expiring lease, or renew, reinstate, or extend any non-producing lease in existence on or before the date of enactment of this Act for onshore fossil fuels, including coal, oil, tar sands, oil shale, and gas on land subject to the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) that authorizes and governs leasing of public lands for development of deposits of coal, oil, gas and other hydrocarbons, sulfur, phosphate, potassium and sodium. Section 185 of this title contains provisions relating to granting of rights-of-ways over Federal lands for pipelines.
SECTION 2: STOPPING NEW OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASES IN THE GULF OF MEXICO AND THE PACIFIC, ATLANTIC, AND ARCTIC OCEANS
“PROHIBITION OF LEASES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other law, the Secretary of the Interior shall not issue a new lease, renew, reinstate, or extend any non-producing lease, or issue any other authorization for the exploration, development, or production of oil, natural gas, or any other fossil fuel in--
“(A) the Arctic Ocean;
“(B) the Atlantic Ocean, including the Straits of Florida;
“(C) the Pacific Ocean;
“(D) the Gulf of Mexico; or
“(E) any other area of the outer Continental Shelf.”.
CANCELLATION OF EXISTING LEASES. PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall cancel any lease issued under section 8 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1337) on or before the date of enactment of this Act in the Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, or Chukchi Sea.
SECTION 3: TESTING AND SEALING ALL CURRENT NATURAL GAS WELLS FOR GREENHOUSE GAS LEAKS AND PLUGGING ALL ABANDONED AND NONPRODUCTIVE WELLS.
“DEFINITIONS.—In the following subsections:
“(A) INACTIVE WELL.—The term ‘inactive well’ refers to any non-producing or abandoned well.
“(B) NONPRODUCING.—The term ‘nonproducing’ refers to any oil or gas well that has already been extracted.
“(C) PLUG.—The term plug, when referring to natural gas and oil wells, means to plug wells with water-based slurries of cements, drilling mud and various cements customized with additives.
“INCENTIVIZING INDUSTRIAL PLUGGING VIA TAXES.—Withstanding the COMPENSATION FOR PLUGGED WELLS subsection, the Department of the Interior shall tax any abandoned or non-producing well not sufficiently plugged. The taxes will incentivize natural gas companies to effectively plug abandoned wells and wells nearing non-production.
“COMPENSATION FOR PLUGGED WELLS.— Notwithstanding any other provision of this bill or any other law, the Secretary of the Interior shall respectfully compensate drilling industries who have successfully plugged abandoned and nonproductive wells. For every 20 successfully plugged abandoned and nonproductive wells, compensation will be paid (and increase) to natural gas companies. Compensation will increase for every 20 wells successfully plugged, to create incentive for companies to effectively plug wells. By plugging wells correctly, future environmental issues, related to fluid or gas leakage, shall be avoided and thereby also preserve savings otherwise eroded by remediation or litigation costs.
SECTION 4: ENACTMENT CLAUSE
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 40 days after ratification.
Speech: (This does not accurately represent my speech given in the senate. I called the opposing party weasels.)
There is no denying that the world is getting hotter. 2014 was the hottest year recorded. 2015 will be even hotter. Glaciers are melting, polar bears are dying, winters are too warm to kill pine beetles that prey on our trees. Carbon dioxide is filling the atmosphere, acting like a blanket. The major culprit is the burning of fossil fuels. Are we going to act to keep our planet from being destroyed? Is it time for the federal government to show global leadership? Do we need to accelerate the transition from a fossil fuel economy to a clean energy economy? All of this damage we are seeing is just from a 0.9 degree celsius increase. Scientists say that a 2 degree rise in temperature would be catastrophic to our ecosystems and human civilization. To prevent the 2 degrees celsius rise we must keep 80% of fossil fuel reserves in the ground and stop any leaks from abandoned and active natural gas wells. Our public reserves should be managed for public benefit, not private profit. Bill #2-2015 Presents these ideas of ending all new and non producing leases as well as capping and sealing all current, abandoned, and inactive well sites. This bill stops all new coal, oil, tar sands, fracked gas, and oil shale leases on federal land. It also stops all new leases on offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic Oceans. The preventions of these leases would maintain what is left of the US public fuel reserves. All current natural gas wells will be tested for leaks and sealed accordingly as well as all non-producing and abandoned wells. Oil and gas companies will be compensated increasingly for every 20 wells successfully sealed or plugged. Sealing wells will keep all lost gas in the system therefore producing more fuel. This bill is a necessity for our future generations. Let’s Hold It All In!
Hold It All In Act
Be It Enacted By The Animas High School Model Congress
Preamble: Whereas the vast majority of global warming occurring over the past 50 years was due to human activities--primarily the burning of fossil fuels--and since the concentration of greenhouse gasses continue to rise--resulting in warming trends globally, and since global warming has already impacted industries of our economy, and since the impacts of global warming will be amplified by a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius--leading to droughts, rising sea levels, mass extinctions, heat waves, desertification, wildfires, acidifying oceans, significant economic disruption, and security threats--and since at least 80 percent of carbon from proven fossil fuel reserves must be kept in the ground to avoid exceeding a 2 degrees Celsius warming, and since the potential emissions resulting from extracting and burning all fossil fuels on Federal land and waters attribute to a significant percentage of the greenhouse gas emissions limit, and since prohibiting new leases for fossil fuels will prevent the release of 90 percent of the potential emissions from the Federal fossil fuels, and since capping/plugging all drills/wells will significantly decrease the concentrated amount of emitting greenhouse gases, and since industries will continue to profit off of all gas captured and saved,
SECTION 1: STOPPING NEW COAL, OIL, TAR SANDS, FRACKED GAS, AND OIL SHALE LEASES ON FEDERAL LAND.
“DEFINITIONS.—In the PROHIBITION subsections of Section 1 & Section 2:
“(A) NONPRODUCING LEASE.—The term ‘nonproducing lease’ means any lease under which any coal, oil, gas, oil shale, tar sands, or other fossil fuels approved in the lease contract has already been extracted.
“(B) REINSTATE.—The term ‘reinstate’ means the act of reinstating a lease under this Act after a violation of any term of the lease that resulted in suspension or cancellation of the lease.
“(C) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of the Interior.
PROHIBITION OF LEASES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall not conduct any lease sale, enter into any new lease, re-offer for lease any land covered by an expiring lease, or renew, reinstate, or extend any non-producing lease in existence on or before the date of enactment of this Act for onshore fossil fuels, including coal, oil, tar sands, oil shale, and gas on land subject to the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) that authorizes and governs leasing of public lands for development of deposits of coal, oil, gas and other hydrocarbons, sulfur, phosphate, potassium and sodium. Section 185 of this title contains provisions relating to granting of rights-of-ways over Federal lands for pipelines.
SECTION 2: STOPPING NEW OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASES IN THE GULF OF MEXICO AND THE PACIFIC, ATLANTIC, AND ARCTIC OCEANS
“PROHIBITION OF LEASES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other law, the Secretary of the Interior shall not issue a new lease, renew, reinstate, or extend any non-producing lease, or issue any other authorization for the exploration, development, or production of oil, natural gas, or any other fossil fuel in--
“(A) the Arctic Ocean;
“(B) the Atlantic Ocean, including the Straits of Florida;
“(C) the Pacific Ocean;
“(D) the Gulf of Mexico; or
“(E) any other area of the outer Continental Shelf.”.
CANCELLATION OF EXISTING LEASES. PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall cancel any lease issued under section 8 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1337) on or before the date of enactment of this Act in the Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, or Chukchi Sea.
SECTION 3: TESTING AND SEALING ALL CURRENT NATURAL GAS WELLS FOR GREENHOUSE GAS LEAKS AND PLUGGING ALL ABANDONED AND NONPRODUCTIVE WELLS.
“DEFINITIONS.—In the following subsections:
“(A) INACTIVE WELL.—The term ‘inactive well’ refers to any non-producing or abandoned well.
“(B) NONPRODUCING.—The term ‘nonproducing’ refers to any oil or gas well that has already been extracted.
“(C) PLUG.—The term plug, when referring to natural gas and oil wells, means to plug wells with water-based slurries of cements, drilling mud and various cements customized with additives.
“INCENTIVIZING INDUSTRIAL PLUGGING VIA TAXES.—Withstanding the COMPENSATION FOR PLUGGED WELLS subsection, the Department of the Interior shall tax any abandoned or non-producing well not sufficiently plugged. The taxes will incentivize natural gas companies to effectively plug abandoned wells and wells nearing non-production.
“COMPENSATION FOR PLUGGED WELLS.— Notwithstanding any other provision of this bill or any other law, the Secretary of the Interior shall respectfully compensate drilling industries who have successfully plugged abandoned and nonproductive wells. For every 20 successfully plugged abandoned and nonproductive wells, compensation will be paid (and increase) to natural gas companies. Compensation will increase for every 20 wells successfully plugged, to create incentive for companies to effectively plug wells. By plugging wells correctly, future environmental issues, related to fluid or gas leakage, shall be avoided and thereby also preserve savings otherwise eroded by remediation or litigation costs.
SECTION 4: ENACTMENT CLAUSE
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 40 days after ratification.
Writing Reflection
My writing needs to use more evidence. I have trouble writing with evidence because I feel like it takes too much time and can take my train of thought off of its rails. My tocqueville essay should have used a lot more evidence. I used barely any and suffered the consequences. “Being oppressed by a few sources is much more morally wrong than being oppressed by the majority. With the majority you have many perspectives being considered and refined into a general idea but that has been thought about by a lot of people.” This section of my essay is one specific part that could have used more evidence to make my point stronger. I can work towards this goal by setting a required amount of evidence per paragraph for my writing. This number would vary depending on the type of writing and how much evidence is actually needed to make my point in that paragraph. This would take practice but I think it could help.
I tend to fluff up my writing when I don't know what to say. I put some meaningless, awful, and sometimes irrelevant sentences in places where I have gotten writers block but I do not take them out when the writers block ends. “Women are thought to have not been running for political offices because of their connection to “home”, their children, husbands, their families.” This sentence was put in the writing as fluff. I had discussed this in my blog post already but put it there because I didn't know what else to write. To combat this in the future I should revise all of my writing looking for this specific type of sentence. It won’t take more time, it will just help my writing.
One problem I have in my writing is that I get too descriptive sometimes. I know that sounds like not too bad of a thing but it can be. This was a problem in my college essay. I wrote sentences that described every detail of everything I was talking about. “I pass through my nylon flaps that separate me from the moist dewy ground where my boots sit awaiting my browned and callused feet to lead them to places where the chance of another American has stepped there or ever will is slim to none.” This sentence takes away from the point because it is too descriptive. I can combat this by writing descriptively but not too much.
I tend to fluff up my writing when I don't know what to say. I put some meaningless, awful, and sometimes irrelevant sentences in places where I have gotten writers block but I do not take them out when the writers block ends. “Women are thought to have not been running for political offices because of their connection to “home”, their children, husbands, their families.” This sentence was put in the writing as fluff. I had discussed this in my blog post already but put it there because I didn't know what else to write. To combat this in the future I should revise all of my writing looking for this specific type of sentence. It won’t take more time, it will just help my writing.
One problem I have in my writing is that I get too descriptive sometimes. I know that sounds like not too bad of a thing but it can be. This was a problem in my college essay. I wrote sentences that described every detail of everything I was talking about. “I pass through my nylon flaps that separate me from the moist dewy ground where my boots sit awaiting my browned and callused feet to lead them to places where the chance of another American has stepped there or ever will is slim to none.” This sentence takes away from the point because it is too descriptive. I can combat this by writing descriptively but not too much.
Street Law Mini-Project
This mini-project was designed to teach us “young adults” about our rights in the big wide world. It was mostly dedicated to looking into and exercising our 4th amendment rights in school, on the road, and in our homes. We also focused on when police do and don't need warrants and what the differences between reasonable suspicion and probable cause are. This project also taught us what and what not to do in certain situations.
I connected to this project through my love for cars and my teenage angst towards the police in our society. I made a resource for drivers while pulled over on the road. I chose to make this because I felt it would be a helpful tool for flustered drivers while being pulled over for the first or 10th time. I also created this so I knew how to deal with these situations as well. All new drivers should have this resource and use it. |
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