Rethinking Our Strategy
Mark Rohde
46 Posts

It was a proud moment when the IRA passed, yet key components have since been dismantled by the President . . . and Congress has remained largely silent.

The Weather Bureau has enjoyed funding from Congress since 1870 and NOAA since 1970, but today, Congress seems unable to guarantee that NOAA can fully carry out its life-saving work. Deadly gaps in services are already appearing, and examples of congressionally authorized programs being shuttered are all too common.

Our Mission and the Road Ahead

We are Citizens’ Climate LOBBY, and our mission is to secure laws that foster a healthy environment. In two weeks, we’ll return to DC, hoping to see the Fix Our Forests Act and energy-permitting reform become law.

But even if we succeed in passing legislation, we cannot be certain it will be enacted. The majority party has ceded significant authority to the President, whose priorities do not include climate action. The fate of any bill is now unpredictable.

Exploring Strategic Options

We can continue with our traditional approaches or adapt to this new reality. I propose that CCL’s staff leadership, volunteer leadership, and Board of Directors convene to explore:

  • Mechanisms for encouraging Members of Congress to reassert their oversight of passed bills
  • Creative safeguards or legislative riders that lock in critical agency funding and operations

Leveraging State-Level Action

While federal avenues grow uncertain, states still hold tremendous power over key climate levers. I recommend enabling chapters to form coalitions and pursue state-level legislation aligned with CCL’s four-part mission.

Frankly, states control the building codes that facilitate building electrification. States control enormous swaths of land and have a huge interest in healthy forests. While the federal government controls the interstate transmission of electric power, most energy permitting for the power grid happens at the state level

There is much work ahead—and plenty we can accomplish where our efforts stand the greatest chance of success.

4 Replies

@Mark Rohde
I suggest CCL's leadership take seriously the admonition of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse in his speech yesterday on the Senate floor. An excerpt:

But Citizens United, Whitehouse said, “told the fossil fuel industry: ‘The door’s wide open – spend any money you want in our elections’”. The industry, he said, promised the Republican party “unlimited amounts of money” in return for stepping away from bipartisan climate action: “And since 2010, there has not been a single serious bipartisan measure in the Senate.”

Historically normal citizenship and lobbying by people clearly is not competing well with the insidious flow of corporate dollars that provide Senators and Members of Congress job security. I don't know the answer, but it isn't chatting pleasantly and factually with representatives whose service is bought and paid for by the oil and gas industry.

Mark Rohde
46 Posts

@Michael Feeney
The issue of corporate funding is certainly one issue that distinguishes the U.S. from most of the rest of the industrialized world.
It amuses me that the far right typically puts a positive sounding name on their most destructive initiatives. You may recall that the Patriot Act reduced personal freedom and Bush’s Clear Skies Initiative allowed for more pollution. Honesty has not been a strength of the far right, but marketing has been.

@Mark Rohde
Thank you for raising this issue. These are not “normal” times, and we need to take account of the changing environment in which we try to do our work.

@Michael Feeney
Two of the best organizations working to reverse Citizens' United are End Citizens' United and American Promise. The latter organization worked with Sam Daley-Harris (who worked with Marshall Saunders on CCL) and utilizes well rehearsed, passionate citizens using their voices with legislators much the same as CCL does with the exception that their solution calls for a constitutional amendment.

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