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Climate Solutions Caucus reaches 90 with addition of Khanna and Rooney
Less than two weeks after the last new members joined, the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus has climbed to 90 members with the addition of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL). Khanna, who has pledged to refuse campaign donations from fossil fuel companies, said in a statement, "As the increasingly common and destructive natural disasters of the last decade have shown, we must be committed to passing federal bipartisan legislation to protect our environment and combat climate change." Upon joining, Rooney said in a statement, "I joined the Climate Solutions Caucus because environmental issues are critical for our Southwest Florida community. Southwest Florida's well-being depends on a healthy environment; one just needs to look at the algal blooms currently ravaging our community to understand the negative effects of environmental disasters." Before joining the caucus, Rooney was a standout among Republicans for voting against the anti-carbon tax resolution introduced by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA). He also cosponsored Rep. Carlos Curbelo’s Market Choice Act, a bill that would price carbon and use the revenue to fund infrastructure projects. For a closer look at the ways Rooney is emerging as the latest Republican leader on climate change, read the blog from CCL Communications Director Steve Valk.
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Bipartisan red tide briefing on Capitol Hill
With tons of marine wildlife washing up on Florida beaches this year, the issue of harmful algal blooms, also known as red tide, has garnered much attention. Citizens’ Climate Lobby teamed up with Ocean Conservancy to organize a briefing for congressional offices about the causes and impacts of these horrific blooms. Red tides are naturally occurring but, as the panel of experts at the briefing explained, the phenomenon is being exacerbated by human influences like climate change and pollution. The briefing was sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), shown above giving closing remarks. CCL Legislative Assistant Adeline DeYoung provides an overview of the briefing in a post on CCL’s blog.
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Why you should come to November lobby day
If you’re looking for a little motivation to come to Congressional Education Day in Washington (Nov. 12-13), our good friends at The Years Project posted a wonderful video about CCL highlighting the work we’re doing to bring Republicans and Democrats in Congress together so we can enact Carbon Fee and Dividend. The video is a great way to introduce friends and family to CCL, so please share it on social media. The link above is to the Facebook post. There is also a link to share on Twitter. Watch the video, get inspired, and then register for Congressional Education Day to lobby with us one week after the midterm elections.
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Mark Reynolds on Political Climate podcast
CCL Executive Director Mark Reynolds was in San Francisco last month to speak at a carbon pricing event during the Global Climate Action Summit (shown above). While he was there, he and Harold Hedelman from CCL’s Business Climate Leaders were invited to be interviewed for the Political Climate podcast: “In this episode, we speak to leaders of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy group focused on drumming up political momentum to pass a carbon fee and dividend proposal. They make the business case for carbon pricing and explain why they believe a bipartisan federal carbon bill can — and eventually will — get passed.” Here’s a snippet from Mark: “Let’s separate the Koch family from the oil majors, in that the oil majors aren’t afraid of carbon pricing. They know it has to happen. They just want it done with the highest degree of certainty possible. A carbon tax is the highest degree of certainty you can get for business in general.”
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North Winds and Wild West conferences
Two regional conferences were held last weekend and another for the Great Lakes region is scheduled for this weekend. In Rapid City, South Dakota, more than 80 participants gathered for the North Winds conference. The highlight of the conference was the inclusion of 30 students from 6th grade through college. “Their presence stimulated a rich intergenerational conversation on Saturday evening when the students shared why working for climate solutions called them to the conference and how the older generation could help open doors as they move into the next phase of their activism,” said Co-Regional Coordinator Paul Thompson. A local TV station did a report about the conference and CCL’s Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal, featuring an interview with Co-Regional Coordinator Mindy Ahler (shown above). Salt Lake City hosted the Wild West conference with 157 participants (shown below). Perhaps the most inspiring part of the conference came with a discussion Friday evening about the passage of Utah’s climate resolution, HCR007, a collaborative effort that brought together high school students, CCL volunteers, local advocacy groups and Republican Representative Becky Edwards. "It was a weekend full of building relationships between each other as a part of the CCL community and beyond as CCL continues in its work to bridge the political divide in our country through climate action," says Bill Barron, Regional Coordinator of the Wild West region. Coming up: The Great Lakes regional conference in Perrysburg, Ohio, Oct. 6-7.
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Media hit of the Week: Deseret News
Our media highlight this week comes from CCL volunteers David Folland, a retired pediatrician, and Megan Nelson, a college student. Their op-ed, “Utahns deserve to hear candidates' solutions to climate change,” was published last week in the Deseret News in Salt Lake City. From the op-ed: Whether you’re a parent concerned for their child or a young person concerned for his or her future, climate change is an issue that connects us all. We can no longer keep the climate an unmentionable problem in upcoming elections; policy at all levels of government must be enacted. Luckily, promising solutions are in development. One encouraging policy, carbon fee and dividend, would drive the reduction of harmful emissions by putting a fee on fossil fuels and returning the proceeds directly to American households. Such policies are garnering bipartisan support from varied organizations, like the Republican-founded Climate Leadership Council and Students for Carbon dividends. LTE opportunity: The Trump administration issued a report acknowledging catastrophic warming by the end of the century but saw no reason to take action. More about this letter to the editor opportunity in Steve Valk’s post on the Print Media Action Team.
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This week on the CCL blog
In Canada, show them the money! Thanks in part to CCL Canada’s lobbying efforts, Canada’s federal carbon pricing policy, due to go into effect in January, will include a dividend to households. Read more. Big screen, big outreach: CCL is teaming up with the Wild and Scenic Film festival to offer chapters an opportunity to host engaging outreach events. Read more. Citizens’ Climate Radio, Episode 28: Climate advocates can learn a lot from environmental movements on college campuses. Podcast host Peterson Toscano speaks with Sophie Phillips, a senior and the outgoing head of Students 4 the Environment. Read more. |
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CCL offers two ongoing learning series for volunteers: Citizens' Climate University and Core Volunteer Training. Here are the next few sessions you can join: 10/4 Citizens' Climate University: Uncovering the CCL Brand - CCL’s marketing team leads a webinar to help communicate our unique value to our volunteers, donors, Congress members and partners. Learn more. 10/9 Core Volunteer Training: Deep Dive With Carbon Fee and Dividend - US-AID economist Robert Archer leads a webinar on new ways of thinking about the key components of CCL's flagship policy. Learn more and register for training. 10/11 Citizens' Climate University: Growing Your Local Group - CCL’s Southeast Regional Director Don Addu discusses strategies for finding and engaging people to become active volunteers in your local chapter. Learn more. To see all upcoming topics, visit the Learn page of CCL Community. |
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 Featured Action Team: Are you a Rotarian? If so, CCL Action Team co-leader Merrill Glustrom invites you to help activate Rotarians to do something about climate change. The mission of CCL's Rotary Club Action team is to increase collaboration between Rotary Clubs and CCL. For more information and to join, visit the Rotary/Service Club Action Team on Community.
Also meeting this week…
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10/4 - Presbyterian Action Team support call at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT
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10/4 - Spanish Language Action Team support call at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT
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10/8 - Conservative Caucus Action Team support call at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT
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10/9 - Agriculture Action Team support call at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT
To check out all of CCL's Action Teams and join any that interest you, head to the Action Team directory on CCL Community. |
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CCL Climate Advocate Training
Do you want to be a more effective CCL volunteer?
Register for our Climate Advocate Training, held the first Wednesday of every month at 1 pm ET and the third Wednesday monthly at 8 pm ET (adjust for your local time zone).
Dive deeper with our Core Volunteer Training, held weekly on Tuesdays at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT.
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Donate now to support our climate action work
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