Citizen's Climate Lobby Focuses On One Thing!

July 2017 Green News from Laurie Dameron monthly music newsletter and Green News

Citizen's Climate Lobby Focuses On One Thing! 

I have heard about Citizens’ Climate Lobby for some years, but always thought it was an organization that works on legislation for many kinds of environmental issues. I learned otherwise when I finally attended a CCL meeting, where Susan Secord (Boulder, Colorado Chapter) explained what CCL is about. "Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change."

Since it began in 2007, it has zeroed in on getting its carbon fee and dividend legislative proposal passed. It works by training ordinary citizen volunteers to build relationships with elected government officials, the media, and their local community. Right away, I thought what a great thing to be so focused! 

The evening I attended the meeting, CCL volunteers were preparing to travel to Washington, D.C., at their own expense, to lobby Congressional representatives—35 members from Colorado, 1,300 members from the entire U.S.!  I always thought lobbyists stood outside the Capitol building and grabbed politicians when they walked by. Yes, I have a lot to learn! CCL volunteers actually make appointments ahead of time and then meet with Senators and House Representatives. This June, CCL volunteer lobbyists visited over 500 members of Congress! 

Although there have been a number of carbon tax proposals made in the last few years, CCL wants to institute a carbon fee. A fee differs from a tax—a tax has the purpose of raising revenue, whereas a fee is to recover the costs of providing a service. CCL’s preferred climate solution is "a national, revenue-neutral carbon fee-and-dividend system (CF&D) [that] would place a predictable, steadily rising price on carbon, with all fees collected minus administrative costs returned to households as a monthly energy dividend."

CCL fully understands that the majority of science has substantiated climate change, which is gravely endangering health and poses catastrophic impacts to human civilization. We MUST get the CO2 in our atmosphere down from over 400 parts per million to 350 parts per million! 

If passed, CCL’s CF&D proposal would greatly benefit the economy, our health, the health of our environment, and national security. 

How exactly would the CF&D system work? Basically, there would be a fee on fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases at the source (mine, well, port of entry), starting out at a low of $15 per ton collected by the U.S. Treasury. The fee would go up at least $10 per ton each following year. Then each household in the U.S.A. would receive an equal monthly dividend to offset the costs of transitioning to a greenhouse-gas-free economy. The dividend would increase yearly, stimulating the economy as well as increasing the demand for cleaner energies, which would become more affordable. And we’d be well on our way to a fully clean energy economy! 

At first, I thought the equal dividend sounded unfair. What if my neighbors use much more energy than my household? Well, they might, but they will pay for it in the long run. If electricity and gas prices rise, there will be much more incentive to conserve. 

As I searched the Internet for pros and cons of this system, something that caught my attention was that often low-income households live in homes that are less energy-efficient; therefore, an equal dividend might not seem fair. Of course, there's always controversy when it comes to anything, let alone legislation. A carbon tax model as part of Australia’s Clean Energy Act of 2011 was repealed in 2014. There has been a carbon tax in British Columbia since 2008, where there is still controversy as to whether or not it has decreased gas consumption. But keep in mind that the models for a tax and a fee are different. You'll have to do some homework yourself, but I am confident that Citizens’ Climate Lobby, working side by side with bipartisan political support, will iron out the details to make this an effective plan for fighting climate change. 

Speaking of bipartisan support, the Climate Solutions Caucus in the House of Representatives was formed in February 2016, and now there are 44 (22 Republicans, 22 Democrats) in the caucus! See who they are here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-solutions-caucus/.

You can help by writing your House Representatives and urge them to join the caucus. You can find your legislators here: http://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/. Or just write your short personal story to your House Representatives and Senators to let them know why they should act on climate change!

Please take two minutes of your time to watch this video: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/why-carbon-fee-and-dividend/carbon-fee-dividend-video/. And here is a link to a study done by an independent economic organization that shows the projected environmental, economic and health impacts of the CF&D system: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/remi-report.

Simply joining one of CCL’s 418 chapters and 72,000 members worldwide will help (nothing is required of you to join)! Just click on the red JOIN CCL button at the top of its website: https://citizensclimatelobby.org.

This is HUGE! I urge all of you who read this to do some more research and join this far-reaching, influential organization at a critical time in our history. After you join, you will get the CCL newsletter full of informative articles. Surely there will be an upcoming CCL event soon where you too, can attend, ask questions, and learn—just as I did! 

YOU ARE A PART OF THE SOLUTION!!!

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