(L-R) Richard Lipsky, Brian Emanuels, Rachel Molloy and Elijah Kelimig are just a handful of the volunteers who have been going door to door in Washington, building support for Ballot Initiative 1631.
CCL mobilizes for Washington carbon pricing
By Jamie DeMarco
Ballot Initiative 1631 in Washington state would enact the country’s first steadily rising price on carbon, and it’s a climate fight playing out on the national—even global—stage.
Bill McKibben, the founder of 350, has said that helping 1631 is “the most important work that is being done on this planet,” and he is telling all his followers to call swing voters in Washington. Al Gore is also mobilizing his Climate Reality Project organizers to pick up the phone. The national People’s Climate Movement is telling people to call. Even groups outside the climate movement like national Indivisible are taking up the “call Washington” mantle.
Even with all these big players mobilizing national networks, CCL volunteers have consistently made 20% of the call volume to Washington state. If the national climate movement is truly being fully mobilized around 1631, then when it comes to who actually picks up the phone to take action, it seems like our volunteers make up about 20% of the U.S. climate movement.
Our volunteers around the country have been incredibly active to support 1631, but even that is nothing compared to what our volunteers in Washington are doing. They have collected signatures to get 1631 on the ballot and door knocked every weekend to get it passed. They have also published more than 35 LTEs supporting 1631 over the last six weeks across 18 different newspapers throughout the state. Collectively, those LTEs have about one and a half million views! CCL volunteers have also helped to pass municipal resolutions supporting 1631 in Olympia, Seattle, Tacoma, Mercer Island, Kirland, Brainbridge Island, Langley, Trumwater, Redmond, and the list keeps growing.
Everyone in CCL knows that making the political will for a livable climate takes work, and we are are truly exceptional in our ability to roll up our sleeves and actually do that work. I am so proud of everything we have done to help the Yes On 1631 campaign, but we’re not done yet. Polls show the margin on this vote is going to be razor thin on Nov. 6, and action is needed now.
Please, wherever you are, do what we do best at CCL—pick up the phone and create the political will for a livable climate, one call at a time.
Click here to make calls to Washington state and help pass Initiative 1631.
Jamie DeMarco is the State-Level Carbon Pricing Coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
