FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 19, 2021 – Thousands of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) volunteers will participate in a nationwide virtual lobbying push for climate legislation, beginning March 22. The 400+ lobby meetings will build more support in Congress for a price on carbon emissions, which scientists, economists, and other experts say is a crucial policy to fight climate change.
“Our volunteers are raring to go,” says CCL Executive Director Mark Reynolds. “They’re energized by the signals coming from Congress and the new administration that major climate policy will happen this year. Our volunteers are adept at virtual lobbying, and they’re armed with a raft of recent evidence for the momentum behind carbon pricing.”
This lobbying push comes on the heels of high-ranking Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introducing a carbon pricing bill. In recent weeks, Republican Senator Mitt Romney and Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse have spoken up about their support for a carbon tax. Several other Senators (Sens. Schatz, Coons, and Feinstein) all backed carbon pricing bills in the 116th Congress and are expected to do so again.
In the 116th Congress, carbon pricing also gained traction in the House of Representatives: the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act won the backing of 86 representatives. This legislation is expected to be reintroduced into the House soon.
Beyond Congress, members of President Biden’s cabinet such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Climate Envoy John Kerry have been clear that carbon pricing is a necessary component of effective climate policy. Economist Noah Kaufman, who has been an outspoken advocate for carbon pricing, was recently named Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. (In his former role, Kaufman and a team of Columbia University economists analyzed recent carbon tax legislation and detailed its many positive impacts on the American economy.)
America’s business community is also lining up behind the market-based carbon pricing approach, indicated by recent statements from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute.
Volunteers will highlight these endorsements and more in these one-page leave-behinds for congressional offices.
“Next week’s lobbying efforts will make clear to Congress that a carbon price is an important and popular step on the path to solving climate change,” says Dr. Danny Richter, CCL Vice President of Government Affairs. “It has broad support, from influential industry groups all the way down to your average concerned voter. It’s time for Congress to take that step.”
CONTACT: CCL Communications Director Flannery Winchester, 615-337-3642,
