CCL Mounts Full Court Press Re: Sen. Cortez Masto

CCL is asking all Nevadans, especially community leaders, to contact  Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and to press her to “ensure the Reconciliation Bill includes carbon pricing.”   

Why Now?

“Now” is dictated by the climate and by the politics.  Read the latest report from the IPCC if you have ANY doubts about the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Politically, major legislation passes only when the time is right.  Now, with a climate-friendly Democratic party in control of both Houses of Congress (by very slim margins) and of the Presidency, there’s a chance to pass laws addressing the climate emergency.  We must seize that chance and, as President Biden says, “go big” — insist that Congress take bold action, no half-measures.

Why? Because once we get into another election cycle, passing laws, especially big ones, is almost impossible.  And early political forecasts show that the Republican party may gain control of one or both houses of Congress in 2022.   And even though some thoughtful Republican leaders embrace carbon pricing, the leadership, the major donors and the most active “base” of Republican voters are hostile to any federal effort to address climate change.  After the Democratic party lost control of Congress in 2010, it took over a decade to get to a time when climate legislation might pass.  The time for climate action is now!

Why Reconciliation?

Given the current politics within the Republican party, passing a bill that includes a “carbon tax” using “Regular Order” would not be possible.

Therefore, despite CCL’s strong preference that legislation be bi-partisan (and despite the strong support for carbon pricing across the political spectrum), the ONLY way something will happen in 2021 is via Reconciliation.

Why the focus on Senator Cortez Masto?

As of August 26, 2021, both the Senate and the House have affirmatively voted on how big the Reconciliation package shall be — $3.5 trillion dollars over 10 years.  (This is a large number, but it represents about 1% of US GDP over the same period.)   Congress has decided how tall the skeleton is to be — and now it need to add the meat and the organs.

Majority Leader Schumer has set September 15th as the deadline for having the Senate Finance Committee draft the actual legislative language.  (Reconciliation involves the budget, so the Finance Committee is the “Committee of Jurisdiction” assigned to draft the legislation.)   Sen. Cortez Masto is on the Finance Committee.

Bottom Line: Our Senator is on the actual committee that is drafting the meat to go on the skeleton of the Reconciliation bill as it is being developed.  WE NEED HERE TO PRESS FOR CARBON PRICING to make sure it makes it into the draft bill.

PS – what emerges in mid-September is the first draft.  Then other committees of Congress get to work “marking up” the legislation.  So details about the amount of the carbon price, how it changes over time, how the revenues are applied, etc., etc. — all those details will get hammered our in the “sausage making” that is the political process.   But none of that can happen unless carbon pricing is in the initial draft.  So NOW IS THE TIME to get carbon pricing into the legislation,  And Sen. Cortez Masto is our best access point.

Why “Carbon Pricing”

Let’s define some terms.  Carbon pricing is a parent category that embraces three different “species” of carbon pricing:

1. Carbon tax (where fossil fuels are taxed and revenues are kept and used by the government).
2. Carbon fee and dividend (where the revenues are distributed to households), and
3. Cap and trade (where pollution permits are traded on a market exchange and slowly removed from that exchange)

It’s no secret that CCL supports #2.  So, why no ask for that directly?  Well, we could.  But our legislative strategists, after talking with Congressional offices, have heard that they want to argue over the revenues a bit and not commit to 100% dividend.  So, rather than over-specifying what we want, we are asking them to “make sure carbon pricing is in the Reconciliation Bill.”   That’s the first step.  If it’s not in the bill, “carbon fee and dividend” is dead for this Congressional session.  If it’s in the bill, then we’ll have time to argue for the dividend later.

What is the specific “call to action” we are requesting?

Simple.  We want Senator Catherine Cortez Masto to use all the influence she can muster to ENSURE THAT CARBON PRICING IS IN THE RECONCILIATION BILL.

You can say it in slightly different words, but be clear.  We want to see rising fees on sources of carbon pollution added to the Reconciliation bill.  We want her to ensure polluters pay with a carbon tax.  We want her to include carbon pricing, preferably carbon fee and dividend.   We need her to act.

There are two ways to do this.  Call or email her (or do both call and email).   Using those online tools is easy.

Personalize your message — who YOU are; your leadership role in your city and state; a brief statement of climate as a priority issue for you as a voter; and then your paraphrasing of “make sure Sen. Cortez Masto gets carbon pricing into the Reconciliation bill.”

If you do this, what more can be done?

The most important thing is DO IT NOW.  Scroll up and just do it.  It literally takes one minute to make the call.  OK, it may take five minutes to plan, dial, and say something (or personalize the email draft provided).   Do it now, while it’s fresh in your mind.

The next thing you can do is help get others to lobby our Senator (esp. Cortez Masto) using the above Senate tools to call or email.  Some outreach ideas:

• post the campaign on any social media feeds you have
• call other influential people and ask them to help this effort (or introduce them to a CCL rep who can answer their questions and ask them to contact our Senators)
• NOW IS THE TIME.  We literally only have a few weeks.