Over the past several weeks CCAN activists have been campaigning hard to push their Congressman, John Sarbanes, to strengthen the American Clean Energy and Security Act during the bill’s markup this week. In a truly inspiring show of good old grassroots gumption these super-activists managed to generate well over 100 emails, phone calls, faxes and hand written messages to the Congressman in just over a week. In message after message, constituents called on the Congressman to wrest back control of the bill from special interest hijackers by advocating on behalf of a 100% auction of pollution permits, strictly limited and regulated carbon offsets, and strong renewable energy and energy efficiency standards.
The grassroots lobbying flurry culminated on Wednesday when CCAN rock-star activist Ruth Alice White and I traveled to Capitol Hill to personally hand Sarbanes a stack of 70 constituent letters. Ruth Alice caught up with the Congressman on his way out of a committee markup session, and handed him the letters all tied up with a snappy green ribbon.
Before heading off, the Congressman posed for a picture with Ruth Alice, and you can tell from the grin on his face that he couldn’t have been more thrilled to receive this unique gift from his constituents!
It’s important to note exactly what we accomplished with this constituent pressure. No, we didn’t get a stronger bill. The passage of a watered down bill was unfortunately a forgone conclusion, rendered by the powers that be. But we established a very important dialogue between the Congressman and his constituents on climate change. We clearly demonstrated that his constituency is engaged, informed, and deeply concerned about climate and clean energy policy and thereby raised the bar for his leadership. Over the past several, we turned up the volume and the Congressman is tuning in, as suggested by his his remarks on the first day of markup. He’s listening folks, so let’s make sure he continues to hear our voices. Go to http://local.1sky.org to sign up for our 3rd District Climate Action Network!
