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10k constituents ask for a carbon price in budget bill

senate carbon price

By Flannery Winchester

Last week, Senate Democrats rolled out a $3.5 trillion resolution to begin the budget reconciliation process. The New York Times reports that “tackling the warming of the planet” is one of the goals of the budget. In other words, our Senators are, right now, deciding what to do about climate change.

What does that mean for climate advocates like us? “There is a moment in front of us that we want to seize,” says Mark Reynolds, CCL’s Executive Director. Our Senators can choose to go big, or they can stay small. We want them to go big.

So, it’s time for CCL volunteers to do what we do best — contact Congress! Starting today, we’re pulling out all the stops and generating a crush of emails and calls to Senate offices, telling them to go big with a price on carbon. 

Get started now! Email and call your senators

Danny Richter, CCL’s VP of Government Affairs, explains that all senators get a weekly report from their staff about what constituents have been contacting the office about. For the next three weeks, we want Democratic Senators to be hearing that the number one issue on their constituents’ minds is putting a price on carbon. Republican Senators can influence the budget process, too, by indicating their support for certain measures, so we’ll also be asking them to get behind a carbon price. 

“The iron is never going to be hotter than right now,” Danny says. “We have to strike that iron while it’s hot.” 

Ready? Send your email or call now

CCL’s legislative staffers have put their heads together with our regional and state coordinators to identify how many calls and emails will make an impact on your senators. Keep an eye on your email to find out your state’s target and the progress toward it as the campaign progresses. If we hit our state-by-state goals, 10,000 concerned citizens will have sent emails and calls to the Senate by August 10. 

“This is what we were built for,” Danny reminds us. “Our organization was built for moments like this.” 

Madeleine Para, CCL’s President, agrees. She says, “We’ve been building up to this moment for such a long time, so let’s give it everything we’ve got.” 

Visit cclusa.org/senate to participate in the campaign. Once you’ve sent your email and made your call, share that link with your friends, family, and other climate-concerned people in your community. They’ll want to take their shot to solve climate change, too.

Don’t forget…

Remember, it’s already likely that the budget reconciliation bill will include some kind of major climate policy, like a border carbon adjustment, a fee on methane, some kind of incentive for clean electricity, or others. We also know that climate change is a big, complex problem that will require a suite of solutions to fully solve. 

Whatever happens, Madeleine reminds us, “We’re going to do everything we can to get as much as we can out of these opportunities now, and we’re going to keep going.”

Flannery Winchester has put her words to work for magazines, for marketing agencies, and now for our earth as CCL's Communications Director. She is grateful to spend every day working to preserve this beautiful planet.