Author: cthorndike

After nearly three years of relentless community pressure, champions on the DC Council finally passed it… the strongest climate law in the country!
With a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the Clean Energy DC Act is heading to the Mayor’s desk to become law. Thanks to your focused work, the District of Columbia now leads the nation on climate policy. We will be powered by 100% renewable electricity by 2032, achieving this goal sooner any state in the country. We’ll have new and groundbreaking efficiency standards for existing buildings. (Buildings account for 74% of the District’s greenhouse gas emissions. This is a big deal.) We’ll raise tens of millions of dollars to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and provide assistance to low-income DC residents, plus a jobs program. And we’ll tackle transportation by joining the emerging regional plan under the Transportation Climate Initiative.
All told, the Clean Energy DC Act will reduce climate pollution in the District by a whopping 45%, and puts the District on track to meet our commitments under the Paris Climate Accord. And here’s the best part: the White House and Congress will be lit with renewable energy, whether they want it or not. Yessss.
I am humbled by the years of hard work that have culminated in passing this omnibus bill — the hard work of our incredible partners in the DC Climate Coalition, of champions in government, of people like YOU. Citywide sustainability plans developed over the last decade laid the foundation for the Clean Energy DC Act. Agency staff were basically jumping with joy that ideas they drafted were freed from collecting dust on the shelf! Reflecting on the tough road we’ve all traveled together, it made me so happy to hear insiders credit the carbon fee-and-rebate campaign for “coming out of nowhere like a freight train” to force lawmakers to act.
After thirteen years of climate activism, I had begun to think the odds of passing legislation were about the same as riding a unicorn off into the sunset. Now I see what it takes to win.
Here are my top three lessons:

1. WE WIN WHEN WE TREAT EACH OTHER WELL

Every kindness matters. Every time you give someone the benefit of the doubt. Every time you say thanks. Every time you recognize the human behind the title, the vulnerable heart behind the strong words, the hope to be loved behind the flailing juggernaut of ego.
I believe that climate change is above all else the symptom of a culture lacking in compassion. We are told to acquire more than to give; to fear more than to be; to react before observing. Compassion is not just being nice–it is the grounds for responsibility, justice, and healing. It requires that we seek and defend the truth with ferocity, and to treat each other as if we are inescapably one, because that’s how it really is.

2. AIM HIGH + PERSIST + BE FLEXIBLE = SUCCESS

I am now a die-hard carbon pricing / market-based climate policy fan who spearheaded support for a sprawling command-and-control omnibus of bold mandates (nerd alert). Translation: I believe in intellectual integrity combined with a drive for political results, which requires flexibility.
We must win what we can, where we are, with what we have.

I hope our story inspires even more synergy between the big national ideas–Citizens Climate Lobby’s bold, equitable, and bipartisan carbon fee and dividend bill, and the #GreenNewDeal championed by Sunrise Movement & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Shout-out to organizing phenom Jamie DeMarco for his leadership at that nexus.) The Clean Energy DC Act is mind-blowingly awesome. But to be clear, it passed *because* of the Carbon Fee & Rebate campaign.
This city’s passion for the Carbon Rebate–a progressively redistributive polluter-pays policy–struck terror into the heart of the Council. Why? Because it would be so damn effective at disrupting the fossil fuel status quo, and tackle so many injustices at once (climate, economic, and racial). We scared them into action and ended up with a great bill. One milquetoast, corporate-friendly Democrat looked me in the eye to commit his support for the Clean Energy DC Act: “because it’s not a carbon tax.” (These same lawmakers think a federal carbon tax would be *super*, btw).
Look, every policy costs. It’s rarely acknowledged, but often mandates cost more than carbon pricing and end up being less equitable and racially just, because you increase prices without generating revenue to redistribute. It’s more complicated than our debates usually allow. But David Roberts might be right that you only pass laws by flashing the green shiny things and hiding the price tag. I don’t know if that will work to meet IPCC targets on time, and I believe that it’s better to be transparent and share the wealth.
Our movement’s on an enormously complicated mission. So I want to talk to more of you about how to simultaneously crack the often inverse codes of good policy and good politics. We don’t have any time left to choose one over the other.

3. ACTIVISTS NEED FACILITATORS

You know that phrase “who needs enemies with friends like these”? Progressives and justice advocates and environmentalists are damn good at internal destruction and tearing each other down. TBH, my wounds from the Pacific Northwest have taken a long time to heal. But there are such simple things we can do to become unbreakably united and therefore invincible.
For one, campaigners need facilitation pros! Justin Wright of Habitus Incorporated masterfully facilitated the strong foundation of our coalition. I swear we would not be here without having done that work together under professional guidance. I am grateful he taught me how to better listen, communicate, and see how little needs to be taken personally.

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It’s not all sunshine and flowers. It stings to remember what we lost to the ruthless brute force of the utilities and their bottomless greed.
Just before Tuesday’s vote, Councilmember Cheh tore into Pepco-Exelon for “hijacking” parts of this bill to wield even more control over DC. Utility lobbyists stripped out long-term Power Purchase Agreements for renewable energy, falsified environmentalists’ support for their monopolizing agenda, and railroaded their way to dominate the Public Service Commission and block progressive climate action. Frankly, it is terrifying to see first-hand what a stranglehold corporations have on our elected officials (and remember, there’s not a single Republican on the DC Council). Their dirty tricks and backroom deals are disgusting.
No doubt remains: our future depends on organized people power. Scrappy grassroots movements — like this one you’re part of — are what stands between corporate money and the democracy we need to save the world. I always knew that in theory, but experiencing this campaign through from start to finish has engraved that truth into my bones.
This is truly only the beginning, and there are more fights to face ahead. This is why I sincerely hope you’ll consider a special year-end donation to CCAN today. We genuinely need your support to keep fighting dirty energy dollars and to inspire states to follow our lead. I am so proud of the District of Columbia right now. But if everyone else doesn’t step up, we’ll still be toast.
My heart is full with gratitude for this organization. CCAN has empowered, taught, and inspired me to no end. I am infinitely grateful for our invaluable partners in the DC Climate Coalition, as none of this would be happening without the sacrifices and collaborative goodwill of these dear friends, nor that of our hardworking allies in DC government. So please donate today. 
Above all, I am grateful for you. For every hour you volunteered, dollar you donated, call you made, email you sent, petition you signed, event you rallied, poster you stenciled, meeting you attended, friend you recruited, question you asked, answer you gave, and for every no you turned into a yes.
Thank you.
With love,
Camila Thorndike

Did you know that 96% of D.C. residents voted for a pro-climate administration last November? A sea of support for climate action encircles the industry-sponsored deniers in the White House and Congress. Now these residents are taking the movement to City Council to pass the #1 climate policy: a price on carbon, right here in the nation’s Capitol. So take heart and read on, fellow climateers. The “Put a Price on It DC” campaign to win a local carbon fee and rebate is hitting its stride.
 

Strong City-Wide Coalition 
Our diverse, multi-sector, city-wide coalition is now more than 20 organizations strong, and we have begun positive conversations with City Council members and key agency leads. Member groups signed on to the coalition’s framework principles and policy approach include: Americans for Transit, Black Millennials for Flint, Interfaith Power & Light (DC MD NoVA), Citizens’ Climate Lobby DC Chapter, DC Catholic Conference, DC Divest, DC Environmental Network, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, Moms Clean Air Force, ONE DC, Organic Consumers Association, SEIU 32BJ, Sierra Club, U.S. Climate Plan, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and Working Families Party.
 
Leadership from the Grassroots
With strong backing from the city’s leading organizations, our organizing team has launched a robust public engagement campaign to educate and involve community members in the policy process. To lead this effort we have welcomed Jeremiah Lowery, a lifelong local environmental justice activist born and raised in Ward 8. Jeremiah and Rachel Martin–our fantastic intern and corporate accountability advocate–are spearheading three exciting outreach projects for the campaign:
 

 1. ANC, Civic/Citizen Associations, and Coalitions:  Via email, phone, and paper mail, we have personally reached out to all 40 elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) and 60 Civic and Citizen Associations. In just the last two weeks, our team has presented to ANCs in Wards 1, 2, 3 and 5; have upcoming presentations in Wards 4, 6, 7, and 8; and initiated even deeper outreach to Wards 7 and 8 through community-based health organizations like the Health Alliance Network. The Asthma Coalition and the Fair Budget Coalition have also hosted us for campaign presentations and responded favorably to the concept. One-on-one meetings to introduce the campaign, solicit feedback, and invite participation are ongoing with stakeholders across the city.
 
2. Tenants’ Rights Groups: We have sent formal paper mail invitations to personally invite all tenants’ rights advocates to two informational public meetings in February, and more than 30 advocates have RSVP’d. We are looking forward to rich conversations about the intersections of environmental, social, and economic justice in the District. For example, access to housing is a major issue in DC, and the carbon rebate has great potential to help residents stay in their homes.
 
3. Small Business Outreach: Jeremiah, Rachel, and a crew of our “rockstar” volunteers are leading a twice-weekly Ward-by-Ward canvass to earn the support of local businesses. We have created a fact sheet to ensure business owners know of the city’s many renewable energy and energy efficiency programs available to avoid costly pollution.
 

Process: Getting it Right
We are grateful for the skillful facilitation of Justin Wright and Lesley Spencer of Active Neutrals, who dedicated extensive pro-bono support to the campaign in late 2016 and have now been contracted to lead our policy development process. Their communications, structure, and procedural expertise is ensuring a uniquely transparent, inclusive, and expedient collaboration amongst existing and prospective coalition members. Four three-hour-long policy design meetings are scheduled with nearly a dozen coalition members between now and early April, which we expect will result in bill language ready for introduction to the Council. Contact Camila with any questions about the detailed process structure.
 
A Boost from Hollywood
The November release of the “Priceless” episode of the latest Years of Living Dangerously series built buzz about carbon pricing in DC. The episode features young #PutAPriceOnIt advocates (like yours truly) in a quest for economic climate justice, from Texas to British Columbia. In November, the faith and social justice magazine Sojourners and Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) co-hosted a Priceless screening to publicly introduce the DC campaign. CCAN also joined the local CCL chapter and Greendrinks DC to co-host a standing room only Years episode screening at El Tio last year, recently followed by a packed screening and conversation at Potter’s House hosted by IPL’s Catherine Goggins. Energy for local climate leadership has grown tremendously since the election and we are experiencing exponential growth in volunteer interest.
 

Macroeconomic Study in the Works
CCAN’s policy director James McGarry is overseeing a macroeconomic study on the DC carbon fee that will become a primary education and lobbying tool for the campaign. We have contracted with the Center for Climate Strategies to lead this project. The Center is collecting input from a wide array of coalition partners and key stakeholders in the city, and will author a report summarizing data generated from original REMI modeling for a variety of policy scenarios.
Continue reading

This post is from DC Summer Organizing Fellow Joanna Wolfgram.
My name is Joanna, and I’m an organizing fellow with CCAN on the DC Carbon Fee and Rebate campaign. I wanted to take a moment to share a snapshot of our work with you, and why I am so passionate about this cause.
With water levels predicted to rise onto the National Mall and asthma rates in D.C. rising high above the national average, taking action to protect the residents of Washington D.C. is of the utmost importance. On August 4th, a group of 25 dedicated climate enthusiasts gathered in a Sierra Club meeting room to discuss taking real action in the fight for cleaner air, healthier families, and greater income equality for all of D.C.
All the chairs were filled and attendees had their notebooks at the ready. Together, we delved into how exactly a “Carbon Fee and Dividend” will fix pollution problems in D.C. while putting money into the pockets of local families. By charging big polluters a fee for every ton of carbon pollution they dump into our air, and returning all the money collected equally to each and every D.C. resident, it became clear to us all that a  “Carbon Fee and Rebate” is the solution we have all been waiting for.
Buzzing with excitement over the sheer potential of the Carbon Rebate policy, the new question quickly became: “How can we get this policy passed?” The answer was, of course, by the support of the people! So after warming up our favorite waving arms and practicing our most charming smiles, we learned how to petition, so that we can earn the support of our neighbors, our friends, our family, our fellow people of faith, our fellow students, and the list goes on and on!
To finish off our meeting, we each shared an adjective to describe how we were feeling about this campaign. There were quite a few “excited”s, a handful of “optimistic”s, and if my memory serves me right, someone even uttered an “awed.” Not too shabby.
I hope to see you at the next gathering on Thursday, September 8th, at a social get-together at the Penn Quarter Teaism co-hosted by our friends at Interfaith Power and Light. Get the details and be sure to RSVP here on Facebook.

Read about the DC Carbon Rebate campaign from our fantastic student Organizing Fellows this summer! 

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Asthma and My Childhood in DC

Maia Berlow

As a kid growing up in DC, I remember, fairly regularly, friends collapsing during PE class and struggling to breath because the air pollution was triggering their asthma. It was terrifying for me to see my friends like that, but it was so much scarier for them. I remember many days where we could not go outside for recess or PE because the air quality was too bad. The low air quality was bad for our lungs, made it hard to breath and was even worse for people with asthma. 10.4 percent of DC’s residents have asthma as compared to the 9.1 percent nationally (DOH 71). Everyday, 11 people in the United States die from asthma (Asthma MD).  Luckily, my friends had access to medicine and good medical care, but not everyone in Washington, DC is so lucky.

Research has shown that air pollution can worsen asthma symptoms (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America). Air pollution as defined by the EPA is “any visible or invisible particle or gas found in the air that is not part of the natural composition of air.” But DC seems like a fairly clean city; we do not see a lot of smog and we have beautifully clear days. So where is this pollution that is irritating people’s asthma? Like the EPA says, air pollution can be invisible. When we burn fossil fuels to create our energy, nitrogen oxides are added to the air, creating ozone which is then quickly destroyed. This creation and destruction of ozone is part of a natural cycle, but when hydrocarbons — vapors from fossil fuels– are added to the mix, it adds to the creation of ozone and stops the destruction of it, creating unhealthy levels of ozone, increasing air pollution, and increasing asthma.

I want to stop the air pollution in this city that I have grown up in, and this one of the many reasons that I am excited to be working on the DC Carbon Rebate campaign with CCAN. This campaign strives to make polluters pay for the real cost of their actions on climate and health. Right now, fossil fuels are cheaper than renewables for utility companies because they do not reflect the real cost of fossil fuels on people’s well-being and our environment. If you are going to be doing something that harms people, you should be paying for it. The carbon rebate places a fee on each ton of carbon that the utility companies emit, making fossil fuels more expensive, renewables more realistic, and sending a signal that renewables have no extra health costs. Beyond incentivizing utility companies to make good choices for the people they serve, the money from the fee would go directly back to DC residents: the people suffering from utility companies’ wrongful choices. Research shows that low-income residents would benefit the most from this program– a small step towards shrinking the inequalities in this city (Citizens’ Climate Lobby).

Each day that I am out working on this campaign I encounter mothers who say that their three-year-old has asthma and that the medicine is too expensive. I encounter grandmothers who are incapacitated on hot days because the pollution in the air is so bad. And I encounter hundreds of people, ready to say that they have had enough and that it is not alright to pollute this city for free.

To take action today, and let Mayor Bowser know that you will not stand for pollution that harms this city and contributes to climate change worldwide, sign this petition.

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Movement-Building with CCAN or, The Awkward Tan Lines Are Worth It

Joanna Wolfgram

For many years, I thought that climate change was an issue that only affected the world on an environmental level. I envisioned in the coming years polluted water sources, dead coral reefs, species extinction, and melting ice. As I grew up, I was taught different ways for individuals to do their part to stop these environmental problems. In sixth grade I was taught about the importance of recycling and composting. In my high school biology class I learned about choosing organic produce. Although all of these lessons were very important, none of them felt particularly extraordinary. Recycling a can did not feel like saving the world, composting seemed like too much trouble, and as a student living at home with my family, which zucchini to buy was a matter I felt better left to my parents.
Then, one day in my freshman year of college, I was avoiding starting a paper in a fashion truly representative of my government and politics major (aka scrolling through world news articles on CNN). Suddenly, a particular article caught my attention. The article discussed how climate change had resulted in a record drought in the middle east, which in turn caused the migration of Syrian farmers into cities to find work as their crops failed. The influx of the farmers worsened political tensions within Syrian cities and, in time, the Syrian Civil War, a war that according to the article has cost 250,000 people their lives, began. Before this moment, I had never considered the possible role climate change could play and already is playing in international and local relations, as well as national security.
Abruptly, I could imagine all the ways climate change could result in more conflict and strife all over the world in the near and distant future. As nonrenewable resources dwindle, the measures countries take to obtain or protect their supplies could become more desperate. Changing landscapes from droughts and rising sea levels could cause more mass migrations of people who have lost their homes and livelihoods. Changing weather patterns could result in food shortages and famines. These are only a few possible scenarios, some of which have already begun to take root in our present day society. With all of these looming possibilities for the future, I decided I wanted to look for organizations trying to make a difference now, to protect the people of the world in the years to come.
Eventually, I stumbled upon a listing for an internship at CCAN. After reading about their many different campaigns, from stopping oil trains in Baltimore to calling for a carbon fee and rebate in Washington D.C., I could tell that this was organization not only committed to stopping global warming, but to protecting people who are vulnerable to the adverse affects of climate change. I sent in my application, and when I was told I had been accepted for the DC Carbon Rebate campaign, I was thrilled. I knew that working to pass this revenue neutral policy would be working towards a renewable energy based economy without leaving low- and middle-income families behind. I was excited to help DC set a national and potentially global precedent by working to get this policy passed. I began my internship wanting to feel like more than just an individual putting a can in a blue bin; I wanted to feel like a part of a movement.
Funny enough, my work at CCAN has made me realize that it takes the combined small actions of individuals to create any kind of movement. Every petition I collect is like adding a new ally to the brigade of those calling for change. Each person who checks the little “I want to volunteer!” box adds to the resources of the campaign, even if they have only a small amount of time to give. And it is these individuals, whose desire to see improvement in the world by supporting a DC carbon Rebate, that make every single awkward tan-line I get while petitioning totally and completely worth it.