Weekly Briefing: Let’s debrief about lobby week

December 18, 2024

Another fall lobby week in the books! Since our December conference, thousands of our grassroots volunteers have organized and held 320 virtual lobby meetings. Social media posts have been rolling from meetings with lawmakers in California, Colorado, Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and more.

One of our primary asks in those meetings was for Congress to support the Energy Permitting Reform Act (EPRA). These meetings were supported with a flurry of 2,275 constituent phone calls to Congress, emphasizing the same message.

Ben Pendergrass, CCL’s Vice President of Government Affairs, has been combing through the meeting notes. He said, “A clear takeaway from these meetings was the broad bipartisan agreement on the need for energy permitting reform.”

Negotiations to include EPRA in the final spending package of the year came very close to being successful, but lawmakers didn’t reach an agreement before time ran out. In a statement this week, we made clear that CCL remains committed to the permitting reforms needed to support faster clean energy deployment, and we will continue to push for them in the new Congress.

Join CCL staff on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT for a post-lobbying debrief call. “A lot of things were happening on the Hill, and we want to share what was going on behind the scenes,” Ben says.

If you couldn't join us live to hear Ben’s perspective and ask him your questions, catch up on the recording here.

In other news this week:

Take action this week

If you have a little time: Support CCL with a year-end gift. With 13 days left in our year-end fundraiser, CCL supporters have already donated an incredible $884K—thank you for your generosity! This total includes $300,000 unlocked through a bonus gift from Climate Guardian donors. The end of the year will be here before we know it, and we need your support to be ready for the climate challenges ahead in 2025. If you haven’t already, please donate today to help us fight climate rollbacks and make additional climate progress in the new Congress.

If you have more time: Find the center of your climate advocacy. What CCL work brings you joy? What are you good at? What work needs doing? On our December Action Sheet, we’ve included an exercise adapted from Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s TED Talk and book to help you answer these questions. By the end of the exercise, you’ll be clear about the center of your climate advocacy and ready to make your unique impact on climate work in 2025.

Upcoming trainings

CCL is not holding any live trainings this week or next due to the holidays, but you can revisit these key conference sessions to get ready for 2025:

Carbon Pricing Opportunities in the 119th Congress - With the election behind us, we have a clearer picture of the opportunities and constraints the new Congress may present for implementing a carbon price. In this session, Dr. Danny Richter, CCL’s Policy Fellow, walks us through the lay of the land and how carbon pricing policy could evolve and tie in with tax policy reform. Watch now.

The Continuing Case for Permitting Reform - Rob Gramlich (President of Grid Strategies LLC) and Shane Londagin (Senior Policy Advisor for Innovation at Third Way) join CCL's Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli to discuss the need for more permitting reform. Watch now.

#TheSocialClimate - Want to be part of CCL’s new social campaign? Join CCL's Content Marketing Manager, Elissa Tennant, for an overview of #TheSocialClimate. You’ll learn CCL’s plan to shape the online conversation around climate in 2025 and how you can contribute with your own video posts. Watch now.

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