Teens are not often credited with eloquence or with the willingness to take on complex issues of national concern. Yet on Saturday, January 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. over 100 high students from 24 high schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties will reveal serious, articulate facets of themselves as the compete in the ninth annual Fairchild Challenge Environmental Debates at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables.

After spending weeks researching the 12 given topics, students will debate environmental issues ranging from local to global.  Here are the topics:

Student Congress debate topics:

1. A bill to reinstate the deep-water offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico through 2015

1. A bill to establish tax credits for the companies responsible for oil spills when they offer professional training and relocation for workers directly affected by the oil spill

1. A bill to increase federal funding for the research and development of one thorium-fuel technology based nuclear power plant by 2020

1. A bill to ban the use of all chemical dispersants in future oil spill cleanup operations

1. A bill to establish an “at-the-pump” tax, 10% per price of gallon, in which monies are used to monitor oil spill affected wildlife over a ten year period

1. A bill to ban the harvesting of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico through 2013 and monitor regional seafood safety levels through 2015

1. A bill to require all Florida counties to phase out commercial and consumer fossil-fuel based technologies by the year 2020

1. A resolution to mandate online publishing of all government interactions involving the environment and resource management on a public website

1. A resolution to establish an international oversight committee for oil spill cleanup responsibility

1. A bill to allocate 10% of core federal highway program funds for statewide alternative, non petroleum-based transportation options for public, green-bus technology

1. A bill to raise the statutory expenditure limitation for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund from $1 billion to $1.5 billion

1. A bill to permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) only from directional wells that are drilled from outside the refuge’s borders

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