Climate and the Election

Call Date: September 19, 2012

Darren Springer , Energy Advisor to Sanders (I-VT)

Darren Springer is Senior Policy Advisor for Energy and Environment to United States Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vt). In this role Darren is responsible for working to advance Senator Sanders energy and environmental legislative agenda. Senator Sanders is the only member in the majority in the Senate who sits on both the Energy & Natural Resources Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee. Darren also serves as staff for the Senate Green Jobs and New Economy Subcommittee which Senator Sanders chairs.
 
Prior to joining the Senator's office, Darren worked for more than three years with the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, most recently as Program Director for Energy and Transportation. Darren is a graduate of Vermont Law School, having earned a J.D. and Master of Studies in Environmental Law. During law school, Darren served as a law clerk for Senator Patrick Leahy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and worked with the Vermont Alliance of Conservation Voters. Darren is a member of the bar in Florida and Virginia.

Bernie Sanders was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. Born in 1941 in Brooklyn, Bernie was the younger of two sons in a modest-income family. After graduation from the University of Chicago in 1964, he moved to Vermont. Early in his career, Sanders was director of the American People’s Historical Society. Elected Mayor of Burlington by 10 votes in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York.

The Almanac of American Politics has called Sanders a "practical" and "successful legislator." He has focused on the shrinking middle class and widening income gap in America that is greater than at any time since the Great Depression. Other priorities include reversing global warming, universal health care, fair trade policies, supporting veterans and preserving family farms. He serves on five Senate committees: Budget; Veterans; Energy; Environment; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Website: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/

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