Second Round of Exchanges 2022
The second round of exchanges of the Laboratories of Democracy Initiative brought together 14 German and U.S. state legislators for two meetings in Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, from May 10 to May 14, 2022, and Trenton, New Jersey, from September 13 to September 17, 2022. Besides general transatlantic topics, the 2022 core topic is climate and energy. The visits to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and New Jersey gave the participating parliamentarians the opportunity to meet with representatives of the state governments, engage in dialogue with experts on climate and energy, visit regional best practices and companies, and exchange ideas with each other. During the first trip to Schwerin, the group toured the State Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a leading hydrogen company, and a state-of-the-art wind farm among other activities. Additionally, the parliamentarians had time to develop first ideas for transatlantic policy recommendations. During the visit to Trenton, the group had the opportunity to further discuss state leadership on climate and energy with Governor Phil Murphy, other administration officials, and researchers. Building on the ideas from Schwerin, the group worked intensively to develop ideas on how to collaborate on shared challenges on the subnational level.
The policy recommendations of the German and U.S. state legislators of the second exchange round on climate and energy are published in this policy report.
Listen to the interviews with the participants of the 2022 exchange on YouTube.
The Aspen Institute Germany thanks the participants of the 2022 cohort: Barbara Becker MdL (CSU), Member of the Bavarian State Parliament; Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath (D), Member of the California State Assembly; Hannes Damm MdL (Alliance 90/The Greens), Member of the State Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; Representative Anna Eskamani (D), Member of the Florida State House of Representatives; Silke Gebel MdA (Alliance 90/The Greens), Chairwoman of The Greens in the Berlin House of Representatives; Assemblymember Don Guardian (R), Member of the New Jersey General Assembly; Daniel Karrais MdL (FDP), Member of the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg; Tamara Müller MdL (SPD), Member of the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate; Senator Marc Pacheco (D), Dean of the Massachusetts State Senate; Senator Ann Rivers (R), Member of the Washington State Senate; Gerd Schreiner MdL (CDU), Member of the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate; Senator Ryan Weld (R), Majority Whip of the West Virginia State Senate; Christian Winter MdL (SPD), Member of the State Parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania; Senator Andrew Zwicker (D), Member of the New Jersey State Senate.
