Primary Ask (Leave Behind)

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When you hold a lobby meeting, whether with an aide or with a member of Congress, they want to know what actions we want them to take. Our Primary Ask (Leave Behind) sheet lets them know.

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Usage Instructions

A primary ask should be made in every meeting. For full instructions for how to use these documents, see the Reviewing Primary & Secondary Asks training.

We recommend using this primary ask resource to help frame the conversation in your lobby meetings. 

For November's Fall Lobby meetings, we also recommend emailing the resource (and any 1-page Secondary Ask document(s)) to your member of Congress or staffer ahead of your lobby meeting to help them prepare. 

To download the PDF resource, click on the button(s) below. To learn more about this primary ask watch the recording: Overview and Benefits of the BIG WIRES Act.

If you have any questions, email liaison.coordinator@citizensclimatelobby.org to help determine meeting topics and asks.

 
Current Asks (Fall 2023)

The BIG WIRES Act (S.2827/H.R.5551)

Citizens’ Climate Lobby believes it is critical to speed up the process of building America's clean energy infrastructure. Changes to the current process for permitting energy projects must be made so America can lower greenhouse gas emissions and ensure American households have access to affordable and reliable clean energy. CCL appreciates that the debt ceiling agreement included some provisions that will help streamline clean energy permitting. But it's not enough. 

More comprehensive permitting reform is still required, and speeding up the process to expand and update our country’s energy transmission system is a key part of what is still needed. The Building Integrated Grids With Inter-Regional Energy Supply (BIG WIRES) Act would be a major step in the right direction and provide Americans with low cost, reliable energy.

Currently, the U.S. electrical grid is unable to move large amounts of energy from one part of the country to another. Additionally, new energy projects are finding it more and more difficult  to connect to the existing grid. The status quo has led to lower reliability and higher costs for consumers. The BIG WIRES Act would address this issue by directing FERC to better coordinate construction of an interregional transmission system and require each of the FERC planning regions to be able to transfer 30% of their peak electrical loads to neighboring regions.

Please note, the one pager was updated on October 23rd with additional information that came from the lead sponsor's office so that as you're talking to Congressional offices our primary ask is consistent as it's being discussed on the Hill. 

The BIG WIRES Act One-Pager The BIG WIRES Act One-Pager (.pdf)(updated 10/23/23) 75 KB
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Additional support document: (use as you see fit)
Supporter Quotes For the BIG WIRES ActSupporter Quotes For the BIG WIRES Act(.pdf) (added 10/20/23)156 KB

 

 
 
Additional Support Information
  • CCL's Research team chart for the projected emissions reductions from each of CCL's policy agenda areas (additional details and sources here):
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  • If it's helpful in framing the importance of clean energy permitting reform you can highlight that if the U.S. doesn't begin building clean energy infrastructure faster, we are projected to only achieve ~20% of the potential carbon pollution reduction from climate policies that are already in place. In other words, over 80% of the potential emissions reductions delivered by the Inflation Reduction Act in 2030 are lost if transmission expansion is constrained to 1%/year, and roughly 25% are lost if growth is limited to 1.5%/year (Princeton REPEAT Project).
  • See CCL's Clean Energy Permitting Reform training series for additional information. 


Fall 2023 Lobby Trainings:

Previous Asks
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Resource
Topics
Lobbying Congress, Grassroots Outreach
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Handout
File Type
PDF (.pdf)