“Three of CCL’s lobbying asks pass Congress, will become law” by Flannery Winchester at Citizens’ Climate Lobby national site, gives, even in the awful year of 2020, some opening to optimism.

The big spending bill just passed by the U.S. House and Senate and now to be signed into law includes 3 measures that CCEA member CCL has been promoting, as described in that post, with its links:

BEST Act

CCL began lobbying on the Better Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Act in June of 2019. The bill, which authorizes $300 million over five years to reduce the cost of grid-scale energy storage systems, gained 24 cosponsors following CCL’s June lobbying this year. That support was a factor in the BEST Act being included in the Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act, which the House passed in September. 

USE IT Act

Politico calls this the USE IT Act “a top priority of outgoing Environment and Public Works Chair John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that would boost carbon capture and direct air capture technologies.” CCL volunteers have lobbied on this legislation since June of 2019, too, and it gained cosponsors after our lobbying pushes. 

Climate-Ready Fisheries Act

CCL volunteers also advocated for the Climate-Ready Fisheries Act in June of this year—the bill gained 10 cosponsors after our lobby days. This provision will require a report to be prepared about efforts to adapt our nation’s fisheries to the impacts of climate change. 

The measures had bipartisan support. Let’s hope that’s the way of the future—and rapidly— for climate legislation!