Weekly Briefing: Final Push To Ask Others To Call Senate
August 4, 2021
As we enter the final week of our campaign asking senators to include carbon pricing in the budget reconciliation bill, we’re closing in on our national goal of 14,000+ constituents writing and calling their senators.
We can smash through that goal and finish up strong by asking friends and family to join the campaign. This is the time for all of us to go big. To give you some inspiration, CCL’s creative consultant, Nick Huey, provided an outreach tutorial with this video of him asking his mom to take action.
Throughout the country volunteers are reaching out through emails, phone calls, social media and even knocking on their neighbors’ doors. One volunteer who has 7,000 connections on LinkedIn has already heard back from 20 people.
To help with the push, CCL has organized phone banks to call CCL supporters and ask them to join the campaign. If you’d like to help out, there are two-hour phone banking shifts on Thursday, Monday and Tuesday evening. You can RSVP for a shift and get more information here.
Trainings and resources for the Senate campaign can be found here. Big thanks to all who have written and phoned their senators and all who have asked others to join this important campaign. Watch your inbox next week to find out how we did!
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In other news this week: 
Bipartisan clean energy bill introduced: Last week, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced legislation to encourage innovation in the clean energy sector. The Energy Sector Innovation Credit Act promotes clean energy innovation by allowing up to a 40% investment tax credit or 60% production tax credit for technologies that are emerging in the market. Citizens’ Climate Lobby is among the organizations supporting the Crapo-Whitehouse bill.
Answers to carbon pricing criticism: Critics say that carbon pricing is not as effective at reducing emissions as other policies such as regulations and subsidies. Do these arguments have merit? CCL Research Coordinator Jerry Hinkle explains what the studies show in this recent blog.
Jobs available with CCL: Citizens’ Climate Education is currently hiring for two full time positions: Student Engagement Manager and Grant Writer. We are also hiring for two six-month-long contract positions: Indiana Conservative Climate Field Organizer, Utah Conservative Climate Field Organizer.
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Take action this week 
If you have a little time: Retweet, like and reply to Congressman Ted Deutch’s tweet about his Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. Rep. Deutch has been a staunch leader on carbon pricing for a number of years. Let’s show him some love.
If you have more time: Watch the recording of CCL’s call with volunteer leaders that kicked off our Senate Action Campaign on July 20. In this video, CCL executives Mark Reynolds, Madeleine Para and Danny Richter lay out the campaign for CCL supporters to ask their Senators to include carbon pricing in the budget reconciliation bill.
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Featured Lever This Week 
Media: Carbon fee & dividend in Forbes
Forbes this week has an excellent and comprehensive article about the carbon fee and dividend bill pending in the U.S. House. Senior Contributor John Cumbers writes, “What if a carbon tax created jobs, grew the economy, and its revenues were used to send a monthly check to U.S. households? There is a specific piece of carbon tax legislation — the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act — that would do all these things.”
The article is a follow up to a piece Cumbers wrote two years ago after a member of CCL’s Business Climate Leaders, Joel Stone, reached out to him. Harold Hedelman, co-founder of BCL, thought this would be a good time to follow up with a piece specifically about the Energy Innovation Act, and he provided research that Cumbers used in the new article.
Cumbers concluded by citing what he sees as the benefits of fee and dividend:
“It grows the economy, creates millions of jobs, improves public health especially in fence-line communities, reduces income inequality, and will incentivize our trading partners to adopt their own price on carbon.”
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Upcoming Trainings 
8/5: Join a phone banking team: Instead of a Citizens’ Climate University training, we invite you to participate with a phone banking shift to contact CCL supporters and ask them to participate in the Senate campaign for carbon pricing. Join a phone banking shift.
8/12: Introduction to TikTok - Join CCL Marketing Manager Ashley Hunt Martorano to learn about this fast-growing social media platform and some of the creative ways CCL is engaging audiences on it. Join us!
Need training on the basics? Catch our next session of Core Volunteer Training, made for newer volunteers:
8/10: CCL Media Basics - Getting published in local media is a great way to get our message out and influence members of Congress. Learn how to get started with some of the resources CCL provides for your media work. Learn more and RSVP.
To see other topics and past trainings, visit the Training Topics page of CCL Community.
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This week on the CCL blog: 
A message from Sen. Whitehouse: Citizens’ Climate Lobby received a heartfelt appreciation from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse last week in a video message where he thanked CCL for the “really astonishing work that you’ve done to help us solve our climate crisis.” In the message, Whitehouse laid out the path ahead for climate legislation and reiterated his commitment to include a price on carbon. Read more.
Montana chapter pulls multiple levers: CCL’s levers of political will can sometimes create a virtuous circle. That’s what happened in Whitefish, Montana, when the local CCL chapter got their city to pass a resolution supporting the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, after which the local newspaper ran a front-page article about the resolution. Read more.
Understanding Hispanic Republicans: On the latest episode of Citizens’ Climate Radio, host Peterson Toscano talks with Geraldo Cadava, author of “The Hispanic Republican.” They explore the conservative values in the Latino community that motivate many to identify with the Republican party. Read more.
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