Holding the line on climate: What CCL has done, will do, and why
In the first few months of President Trump’s second term in office, he and his administration have made moves on climate that are, to say the least, alarming. As a climate organization, that matters to us.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby is one of the few grassroots groups working on climate policy at the federal level, and one of the few climate groups who has longstanding bipartisan relationships in Congress — it’s vitally important that we use that experience and those relationships to help hold the line on climate.
Our climate advocacy work is grounded in the power that Congress has to make laws and appropriate funds, and the expectation that those laws will be implemented and the funds allocated as directed. We still see Congress exercising that power today, as they advance bipartisan climate bills like the Fix Our Forests Act and craft legislation deciding sufficient staffing and funding for critical agencies and programs. That’s encouraging and worth acknowledging, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continue to do their jobs.
But we also see instances where the constitutional authority of Congress is being undermined or challenged in some ways by the executive branch. In those instances, CCL has a vital role to play. We can’t chase this administration down every rabbit hole on climate, but we can use our voice and our grassroots power in new and different ways to help ensure that Congress stays effective and retains its power as a branch of America’s federal government.
So that’s what we’re doing. In recent months, we have begun to take those new and different steps to meet the moment — while staying true to our mission, our core values, and our area of expertise.
In this blog series, we’ll take a look at some of the Trump administration and Congress’s interactions on climate, what CCL has done in response, and what we plan to do in the future. Read the series in order, or jump to any of the posts below:
