2024 Policy Roadmap

Behind the wheel

As a grassroots advocacy group with 220,000 supporters and 381 chapters, we’re driving climate action in Congress all year long.

Power in the 118th Congress is split between the parties: Republicans control the House, and Democrats control the Senate, both with slim majorities. So far this Congress, we have seen that configuration lead to some encouraging bipartisan collaboration. 

It’s also important to note that 2024 is an election year. This year, there’s an election for every House seat, many Senate seats, and for President, which will draw huge attention and turnout. Congress will focus on campaigning between August and November 5, 2024 (Election Day), so not much legislating will happen during that period. With this in mind, we can push for climate policy progress at appropriate times during the year, and we can also use campaign season as an opportunity to bump climate action higher on every lawmaker’s priority list.

The overall political atmosphere will also feel even more partisan as Election Day approaches. That means our respectful, nonpartisan approach to climate advocacy is especially vital.

In the fast lane

Our work this year is happening in a few major lanes on the advocacy highway: carbon pricing, clean energy permitting reform, healthy forests, building electrification and efficiency, and election season. You’ll find opportunities to take action in all of them during 2024.

CCL staff gives you guidance about when and how to take specific actions, so that all chapters and volunteers are headed in the same direction. You've probably seen that guidance in the monthly Climate Action Program emails, the monthly Action Sheets, and in our monthly meetings. 

Beyond that, you may change lanes according to what’s most exciting to your chapter, relevant to your community, or important to your member of Congress. We’ll see how the road trip goes! (Just, you know, use your blinker.)

Activities & milestones along the way

On the visual version of the roadmap, you can see road signs detailing our activities, as well as pins marking milestones we’ve achieved along the way. Each one is color coded to indicate the relevant policy area. Starting at the beginning of the 2024 road, here are the activities and milestones we’ve seen so far:

• Push for a permitting reform package - In 2023, we engaged heavily on clean energy permitting reform with emails, calls and lobby meetings throughout the year. Some permitting reforms passed in the June 2023 debt ceiling deal, and further opportunities emerged with the introduction of the BIG WIRES Act. This year, we’ll keep building support for a comprehensive permitting reform package that could include the BIG WIRES Act and other necessary updates. For our first big action of the year, we sent 11,476 messages to Congress between Jan. 9 and Feb. 5, asking them to work together toward a bipartisan package of permitting reform legislation.
• Advance the conversation on Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAMs) - The CBAM conversation leapt forward in 2023. Two Senate Republicans put forward the Foreign Pollution Fee Act. Democrats in the House and Senate reintroduced the Clean Competition Act. And last but not least, the PROVE IT Act was introduced, and CCL supports this bill. The PROVE IT Act would direct the Department of Energy study and measure the carbon intensity of certain manufactured goods, which we need in order to negotiate with trading partners who have their own border carbon tariffs. The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee announced a markup and vote of this bill in January 2024, and CCL volunteers mobilized calls to the relevant Senators to help the bill pass the committee with even more bipartisan support than expected! We have continued to support this bill with 8,747 messages to Congress in March, urging cosponsorship. We will keep working to advance this bill and the broader CBAM conversation throughout the year.
• Elevate climate during the primary elections - For most districts, the primary elections are the best chance to elevate climate-friendly candidates from either party. This year, we’ve partnered with the Environmental Voter Project to hold weekly phone banks to environmental voters, urging them to participate in primary state elections. In the first three months of the year, these volunteers made more than 94,753 dials and had more than 8,700 minutes of conversation with environmental voters.
• Build in-district support for carbon fee and dividend - The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act was reintroduced in the House in 2023, and to advance this legislation — and the idea of carbon fee and dividend generally — we need to demonstrate even more support in our communities. Keep talking about this policy at tabling events and gathering Energy Innovation Act constituent letters. This spring, many chapters have planned or completed drop-offs of those letters or other climate materials to their representative’s district office.
• Advocate for climate policy in the Farm Bill - The Farm Bill is a big, diverse package of legislation that comes up for renegotiation and renewal once every five years. In February, we generated 11,329 messages to Congress to protect climate smart funding in the Farm Bill! A note on timing: the Farm Bill should have expired in 2023, but near the end of last year, Congress passed an extension through September 2024. They may pass another extension into 2025, but whatever the ultimate timeline, our outreach is laying a very strong foundation defending the climate funding that we want to see included. CCL will also engage throughout the year to help relevant climate policy get included in this package, like the Increased TSP Access Act and other healthy forest policies.
• Educate about electrification - The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022, includes all sorts of incentives designed to increase access to clean technology in our homes. Most of those incentives are already available, and the rest will become available in the second half of 2024. We can educate ourselves and our communities about those opportunities and help speed the process of electrifying buildings nationwide. CCL’s Electrification Action Team is active in this work, as well as advocating for local and state policies that promote electrification. Another way to advocate for electrification is by supporting things like the School Electrification Challenge, an ongoing effort led by CCL’s National Youth Action Team.
• Get out the environmental vote - A key way we can ensure Congress prioritizes climate change is by getting environmentalists to the polls. But lots of environmentalists don’t vote! To make sure they turn out, we will encourage people at our tabling events to register and to vote, and we will be phone banking, postcarding and canvassing alongside our friends at Environmental Voter Project all year long. And of course, we’ll be sure to vote early or turn up to the polls on Election Day ourselves!
• Lean in during the lame duck period - The 2024 election results may shift the balance of power in Congress for 2025. In the last few weeks of Congress, before that shift takes place in January, there may be additional opportunities to help push some climate policy over the finish line.

Conferences & Lobby Days

• Conservative Climate Conference & Lobby Day - Every March, right-of-center CCLers gather together in Washington, D.C., to connect with each other and to meet with Republican members of Congress about climate policy. At this year’s event, 56 right-of-center CCL volunteers attended trainings, heard from guest speakers on the EcoRight, and then traveled to Capitol Hill for 47 lobby meetings with Republican offices. These meetings focused primarily on the BIG WIRES Act and other opportunities for bipartisan permitting reform.
• Summer Conference & Lobby Day - This is CCL’s biggest annual show of grassroots force, when volunteers come to Washington, D.C., from every state in the nation to learn together and then hold hundreds of in-person citizen lobby meetings on Capitol Hill. The specific focus for these meetings will be determined closer to the date. Register now and plan to join us!
• Inclusion Conference - Our strength as a grassroots coalition comes from our cultural and political diversity. This annual event helps us connect across our differences, making our organization as “big tent” and welcoming as possible, so that we can make a big impact in our communities and on our congressional representatives.
• Fall Conference & Lobbying - Another conference and nationwide round of lobbying late in the year — this time virtual — gives us another chance to send Congress a big, clear message and advance our policy priorities
• Regional & state conferences - Throughout the year, CCL regions may organize their own regional or state conferences and lobby days to further grow their local grassroots and apply additional pressure to lawmakers to act.

Get ready to hit the road

• Create your 2024 Chapter Action Plan
• Sign up for CCL’s text alerts so you get notified of monthly action opportunities
• Ensure your chapter has liaisons identified and ready to set lobby meetings this year