Carson City CCL profiled in CCL National Weekly Bulletin

The final numbers are in! During last week’s lobby day on Capitol Hill, our volunteers held an incredible 436 lobby meetings on Capitol Hill. That’s 160 House Republicans, 182 House Democrats, 45 Senate Republicans, 46 Senate Democrats, and 3 Senate Independents.

We say we’re nonpartisan, and lobbying stats like that show we’re walking the walk. Our volunteers met with nearly every congressional office on both sides of the aisle. We need every elected official to move forward on climate policies like carbon pricing and clean energy permitting reform — so we’re pushing them all to make it happen.

On carbon pricing, many offices were receptive to the expected reintroduction of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, and they showed interest in signing on as cosponsors. (In case you’re new around here, that bill is our favorite carbon pricing legislation. With our support, it grew to an impressive 95 cosponsors last Congress!)

On clean energy permitting reform, our message was loud and clear: Congress needs to keep going. America needs further permitting updates to boost transmission projects, improve early community involvement, and speed up the pace of building and deploying new clean energy projects. After so many lobby meetings on this topic last week, now is the perfect time to follow up with your members of Congress reinforcing that message. Send them an email using our action tool today.

In other news this week:

• Lobby day photos: Volunteers posted more than 100 photos on social media last Tuesday, snapping selfies from Capitol Hill and taking group photos with their lobby teams. Check out our slideshow of lobby day photos that we shared at last week’s post-lobbying reception in D.C.
• Youth LTE in NYT: Samantha Block, one of CCL’s incoming Climate Advocacy Fellows, wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the New York Times. In the letter, which she wrote during CCL’s conference last week, she says, “Young people will bear the brunt of these disasters. Our future is at stake. Our voices must be heard.”
• Sea temperatures on the rise: The Chart of the Week in CCL’s Nerd Corner discusses the record sea surface temperatures so far in 2023.

Take action this week

If you have a little time: Share social posts from our conference. CCLers were posting up a storm across all the major social platforms during our June conference and lobby day last week. Check out the posts tagged with #CCL2023 or #GrassrootsClimate on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see and share posts from your fellow citizen lobbyists.

If you have more time: Kick off your summer outreach. With your chapter, plan to host a potluck or a get-together at a brewery or pizza place to share a meal with each other and local allies. Use the time to discuss what community outreach you would like to do this summer. Get more ideas and guidance in CCL’s June Action Sheet.

Featured chapter: CCL Carson City

CCL’s Carson City, Nevada, chapter has tabling down to a science. For the third year in a row, they are participating as a vendor at the local Carson Farmers Market, tabling every other Saturday from June through September.

The farmers market assigns them a 10-square-foot tent to work with, and the chapter draws in visitors with materials like banners, CCL’s tri-fold, and the new Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth. Volunteers cover the table in four shifts of about two hours each.

The chapter is led by Rob Bastien, Chas Macquarie, Midge Breeden, and Roger Heath. Rob describes the chapter as “relatively small,” but he says folks always “come through to manage the booth over the nine Saturdays of our season.”

Before they even get to the farmers market itself, the chapter puts in a lot of work to ensure their tabling efforts run smoothly. They hold local trainings to cover all the logistics — “arrival, unloading, booth setup according to the rules of the Carson Farmers Market, banner placements and set up, familiarization of the volunteers with the appearance of the flyers, practicing some tabling interaction, and then finally breaking down the ‘booth’ and fitting it all back into someone’s vehicle.” Since someone else will be tabling in another two weeks, it’s important to keep everything organized.

“There is definitely a fair amount of work involved, but tabling at Carson Farmers Market is rewarding,” Rob says. “Along with acquiring new members, we are visible, and we are spreading the word about the climate crisis and what can and must be done to address it. It’s work that must be done!” Fantastic job, CCL Carson City.

Have you logged your recent activities in the Action Tracker? Tell us what your chapter has been up to lately.

Want your chapter to be featured? Share your info and photos with us.

Upcoming trainings

6/29: Clean Energy Permitting Reform Updates and Q&A – Join Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli to learn what’s happening on clean energy permitting reform since our June Conference and Lobby Day. What was included in the debt ceiling bill, what more do we need in a comprehensive package, and what are the prospects of a bipartisan clean energy permitting reform deal this year? Bring your questions! Join us!

Need training on the basics? Catch our next session of Core Volunteer Training, made for newer volunteers:

6/27: Understanding Congress Basics – Have a question about the legislative process in Congress? Tune in for this training that explores the details of the congressional policy-making process, how a bill becomes law, and research from the Congressional Management Foundation on life in Congress for both staff members and our representatives and senators. Join us!

To see other topics and past trainings, visit the Training Topics page of CCL Community.