Weekly Briefing: House Passes IRA, Biden Signs Into Law

August 17, 2022

This past Friday, the House of Representatives passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included historic climate measures. Yesterday, President Biden signed that bill into law.
Based on analyses by several energy modeling groups, the Inflation Reduction Act will reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by the year 2030, significantly narrowing the gap between the U.S.’s current path and its Paris Climate Agreement commitment.

This stunning victory comes just weeks after climate advocates believed that the bill was dead and that major climate legislation in this Congress was off the table. 

The reconciliation roller coaster has put many CCLers on a wild ride for the last year, but volunteers faced each challenge with as much resolve as the last. During the past year that led to the climate legislation just enacted, CCL volunteers held 920 meetings with congressional offices, generated over 225,000 letters and calls to members of Congress, and published 2,117 letters to the editor and 676 op-eds.

Communications Specialist Steve Valk chronicles every twist and turn of the reconciliation roller coaster in his latest blog. Read the piece to remember how CCLers like you showed up over and over to make this day possible.

Read Steve's blog

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In other news this week: 

In other news this week:

• Watch the celebration: If you were unable to attend CCL’s celebration of the Presidential signing on Tuesday, you can watch the recording of that celebration here. 
• Details about the Inflation Reduction Act: Want to know a little bit more about the nitty gritty of the Inflation Reduction Act? Read this IRA analysis by CCL Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli.  
• The effect of dividends on carbon pricing popularity: With so much political concern over the economic impacts of inflation, it should come as no surprise that dividends help build political support for carbon pricing. Read the latest Nerd Corner post here.

If you have a little time: Thank your Democratic Representative
If you have a Democratic Representative, be sure to thank them for voting “yes” on this historic climate policy. Thank them here. 

If you have more time: Write an LTE about the Inflation Reduction Act
This is a great time to write a letter to the editor about Congress passing the Inflation Reduction Act. Don’t forget to mention your member of Congress in your LTE if they voted for the bill. For more information about writing LTEs on this topic, go to this link and download the timely LTE Topics document.

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

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Featured Lever This Week 

Grassroots: Bob Inglis does outreach with Idaho, Washington CCLers

Former Republican Congressman and CCL Board Member Bob Inglis has been working with CCLers in Idaho and Washington to spread the word about conservative support for climate initiatives. 

“We’re trying to show a way for my party to embrace the idea of free enterprise innovation leading to climate action,” Inglis said on one stop of his outreach tour, as quoted by the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. “In other words, that we can solve this through the power of the marketplace.”

Inglis has visited churches, Rotary clubs, and other organizations, emphasizing the importance of tackling climate change and decreasing reliance on fossil fuels from other countries. 

“It’s all about accountability,” Inglis said on one stop chronicled by the Idaho Press. “We think that’s rock-solid conservatism. Because we think that blessings flow from accountability. Havoc results from a lack of accountability. Climate change is that havoc.”

Read about Bob's outreach

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Upcoming Trainings 

• 8/18: Help Us Recruit Major Donors — Join members from our Development Team for a free, virtual conversation about how to find the fun in fundraising and how to recruit new major donors for our national work. Join us!
• 8/25: Earth Day: Election Edition Roll-out — Join us for an overview of CCL's fall plans to launch Earth Day: Election Edition. You may decide to replicate an amazing Earth Day or outreach event you hosted a few years ago, or you may decide to pull out all the stops and invite your whole county to participate. Staff will review the resources that are provided, including CCL branded handouts slogans and a social media packet. Join us!

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

• 8/23: 7 Steps for Media Action — Join us for a training on how you can best utilize CCL's suite of media resources to customize and submit one of CCL’s op-ed templates, ask an editor for an editorial, write more local letters to the editor and amplify your media work on social media. Join us!    

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