Weekly Briefing: Making Climate An Election Issue With EVP

July 13, 2022

You’d be surprised that some environmentalists don’t vote. The need for big congressional action on climate and the Supreme Court’s recent EPA ruling are both examples of why it’s so crucial for us to push climate to the forefront of campaign platforms during election season.

For our July monthly call, CCL heard from guest speaker Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of Environmental Voter Project (EVP). Stinnett explained that EVP identifies individuals whose priority is climate, but who do not vote. Then, EVP engages in “behavior-changing” work to encourage environmentalists to vote. 

“The reason we are doing this is because we have identified that the climate movement and the broader environmental movement has a huge turnout problem,” Stinnett explains.

For the 2022 midterm season, Stinnett’s group has already identified over 13 million unlikely to vote registered voters. By encouraging environmentalists of all political affiliations to vote, climate is sure to become a key issue for all parties during election season. You can help make that happen.

Watch The Monthly Call

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In other news this week: 

    •    Canadians receive dividend checks:  This week, Canadian citizens will begin receiving a quarterly climate dividend check as part of the country’s carbon fee and dividend policy. You can read here about how CCL Canada helped make this happen.

    •     Businesses speaking up: Businesses are urging Congress to come to an agreement on climate policies in the budget reconciliation package. You can read these sign-on letters from the solar industry and other notable companies here and here.

    •     Regulating fine particulates: Check out one of the latest posts on Nerd Corner about the impact of the Supreme Court’s EPA ruling on regulating fine particulates. Read more here.

Watch the Monthly Call!

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Take action this week  

If you have a little time: Check out what Sen. Whitehouse had to say

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) had a lot of nice things to say about CCL at the June 2022 conference. You can check out a short clip with his speech highlights here on CCL’s Twitter.

If you have more time: Submit Madeleine’s election op-ed

Submit Madeleine Para’s recent op-ed about the importance of climate in the midterm elections to your local paper. Follow this link, and select the resource titled, “Adaptable op-ed template: Climate is critical in this election.”

Find your CCL chapter | Check out our Action Teams | Browse upcoming events

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Featured Lever This Week 

Rotary Clubs plants trees in honor of CCLers

Maryland CCLers Cliff Strawitch and Jeff Turner of Howard County have spent the last two years giving 20 talks to Rotary clubs on the East Coast.

On June 15, the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., and the National Park Service honored Cliff and Jeff by dedicating two trees in their names to be planted as part of the Trees for the Capital Program. 

The Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the National Park Service, have been planting trees on the National Mall and around the Tidal Basin for over 30 years. The Trees for Capital program also provided Cliff and Jeff with GPS locations for their trees, so they can visit them and watch them grow over time. 

Congratulations to Cliff and Jeff for all their grassroots climate outreach work, and we’re proud to see them honored in this way.

Read the Story!

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Upcoming Trainings 

7/14: Trees and Forests as Natural Climate Solutions — Join Dana Nuccitelli, CCL Research Coordinator, for a training that reviews the need for approaches to remove and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, the role trees and forests can play, and the other benefits that those solutions provide. Join us!

7/21: Extended Q&A with EVP — Wanted more time with CCL's July 2022 National Meeting Speaker? Join us for an extended Q&A with Nathaniel Stinnett from Environmental Voter Project will share how his organization is changing the voting behavior of people concerned about preserving a livable climate. Join us! 

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

7/19: Communicating with Progressives — Join CCL Texas State Coordinator and Progressive Outreach Action Team leader Bob Hendricks for a training on Communicating With Progressives regarding putting a price on pollution. Join us!

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