Weekly Briefing: House Vote Shows Need For Our Ongoing Advocacy   

March 27, 2024

Last week, we told you about an anti-carbon tax resolution up for a vote in the House. In just 48 hours, CCL volunteers jumped into action to call members of Congress more than 1,250 times and encourage them to vote no.

Unfortunately on Friday, the House passed that resolution by a slim margin, with a handful of Democrats joining most Republicans to vote for it. It’s disappointing to see so many lawmakers continue to fear a climate policy that is effective at reducing pollution and is moving forward in other places like Canada and the European Union. 

But despite the passage, there are a few encouraging signals. This type of resolution gets dramatically less and less support each time it appears, meaning our ongoing advocacy is moving the needle in the right direction.

And some House members are willing to step out and speak up in favor of carbon pricing. Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who sponsors a carbon pricing bill of his own, voted against the resolution. Democratic Rep. Salud Carbajal actually spoke on the House floor challenging the premise of the resolution. He said, in part:

This resolution denounces the free market, capitalist solution to lower carbon pollution that originally was introduced by Republicans! Are we not for the free market anymore?

[...] Even today, there are bipartisan bills, including some that I am co-leading, that would put a price on carbon, protect our markets from pollution-intensive foreign goods, and put money back in Americans’ pockets.

Americans support putting a price on carbon by a three-to-one margin, with twice as many Republicans supporting the idea than opposing it.

[...] Carbon pricing is the “obvious move,” and worthy of our consideration – not condemnation. 

This resolution and the results of the vote underscore just how critical our advocacy is for this policy. Join us at our summer conference and lobby day in D.C. to learn the skills you need to keep educating Congress about this critical climate policy and building support for it in communities all across America!

Early bird pricing ends on April 9, so if you’re planning to come, get that registration in soon! Submit applications for our Conservative Scholarships and Inclusion Scholarships until April 15.

In other news this week:

• Conservative Conference was a hit on the Hill - At last week’s Conservative Climate Leadership Conference and Lobby Day, right-of-center CCL volunteers held 47 lobby meetings with Republican offices, recognized the Republican heads of the Climate Solutions Caucuses with Climate Champion Awards, and more. See some photos and social posts from the event on our Spread the Word page.

Take action this week

If you have a little time: Give the PROVE IT Act another boost. In January, the PROVE IT Act passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee after a wave of phone calls from CCLers. We’re giving it another boost this month with emails encouraging more members of Congress to step up as cosponsors! Use our easy online action tool to send a quick message to your Senators and Representative.

If you have more time: Support CCL with a monthly donation. Monthly donations to CCL are critical to training and empowering our grassroots climate lobbyists. If you set up a new monthly donation, or increase an existing one, before the end of this month, each dollar will be TRIPLE matched through April and May. But time is running out to help us meet our goal — there are only a few days left in March! Donate today.

Featured chapter: CCL San Mateo County

In an election year, CCL chapters can play a critical role in showing candidates that local voters want climate action. Recently, we saw this in action in California’s 16th congressional district. Climate champion Rep. Anna Eshoo, who is a longtime member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus and an original cosponsor of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, is retiring from Congress. Ten candidates jumped in the race, and the local CCL chapters knew exactly what to do — host a climate-focused candidate forum!

Together with CCL’s Silicon Valley North and South chapters, CCL San Mateo County took on the mission of organizing and putting on the event in just five weeks. “To the average eye this may have looked like an impossible task, but the team was fearless and confident,” said volunteer Jenn Bulka.

Jenn Bulka and Madalyn Friedman, who co-chaired this effort for the chapter, quickly recruited all 10 congressional candidates to participate in the forum. Under Jenn and Madalyn’s leadership, a dozen CCLers then planned, advertised, and hosted two virtual forums, attracting over 300 Zoom registrants.

It was a resounding success. “Candidates and constituents praised the forums for being informative, well organized and thoughtful with regard to the content,” Madalyn shared. An event of this scale pushes climate change higher on the priority list of every candidate. Three cheers for all three chapters involved!

Want to help push climate action this election season? Visit our Election Engagement Action Team for info on postcarding, phone banking, and more.

Upcoming trainings

3/28: Diversity & Inclusion Updates - Join CCL's Diversity & Inclusion Director Karina Ramirez for an update on all of the Diversity and Inclusion initiatives CCL has been up to in the past year. Join us!

4/4: Climate Conversations Campaign For Earth Month - For Earth Month, CCL volunteers are having 25,000 climate conversations across the country with their friends, family, and communities. This training will include tips from Dr. Katharine Hayhoe for having a successful conversation about climate change, and you’ll learn more about how you can participate in the campaign and log your conversations. Join us!

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

4/2: Communicating with Conservatives - This session with CCL's Conservative Outreach team will cover conservative messaging on climate change and carbon pricing. Join us!

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

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Expected plug-in hybrid and EV share of new US car sales in 3 scenarios

Join the discussion about EPA's initially proposed and final vehicle tailpipe emissions rules.