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The Energy Innovation �& Carbon Dividend Act is back! 🎉

All Supporters Call

September 28, 2023

Presentation Slides:

cclusa.org/reintro23

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Housekeeping

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Training being recorded, available after in CCL Community

All lines are muted -we’ve now turned off Chat to focus on Q&A

Ask your questions using Q&A icon

Recording will be up in 24 hrs at cclusa.org/youtube

Format: 35 min total, staff updates then time for questions

Brett:

First, this webinar is being recorded and will be available at the link posted in the Zoom chat (https://cclusa.org/youtube ) and on CCL Community, our volunteer platform by tomorrow.
CLICK: We’re in meeting mode so we can see each other if you’d like to have your camera on to feel that connection, but all attendees are muted to make things easiest so to ask a question you will need to access the Q&A feature by clicking on the Q&A icon at the bottom of your Zoom window. If you see a question you would like answered, upvote the question by clicking the “like” icon, thumbs up.
CLICK: Tony Sirna, CCL’s Vice President of Organizational Strategy and Karina Ramirez, CCL Diversity and Inclusion Director are monitoring the questions and will either address them directly or answer them live when we get to a question and answer section during the webinar, which we’ll host two different times.
CLICK: A reminder that for the remainder of the call we’ve turned off the chat feature for participants to make it easier to link share, so please use the Q&A if you have questions. We’ll have two specific times during the presentation where we’ll go to questions. With that let me introduce our speakers line-up!

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Our Speakers

Mark Reynolds

CCL Executive Director

Dana Nuccitelli

CCL Research Coordinator

Ben Pendergrass

CCL VP of Government Affairs

Elli

Sparks

CCL Sr. Director of Programs

Elizabeth Dell

CCL Program Manager

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Agenda

Legislative and policy overview

Data behind the main benefits

Q&A discussion

Talking about Energy Innovation Act

Get active in your community

Q&A discussion

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Meet the new lead sponsor 🤝

Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA-24)

Rep. Carbajal

CCLer Olivia Melonas

Announced bill at press conference with CCLers
Filed this week in Congress
H.R. 5744
Original cosponsor

Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA-50)

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Mark:

New lead sponsor and one original cosponsor (Ben will talk more about this decision)

No Republicans on the bill right now

CCLers took part in the launch announcement, which was a press conference held in the district. Here’s CCL CFO Olivia Melonas with Rep. Carbajal at the launch announcement

Rep. Carbajal of CA announced he was re-introducing the Energy Innovation Act. His announcement In Santa Barbara was followed by a statement of CCL’s staff Olivia Melonas and CCL volunteer Carol Switzer You can see a CCL pin on the members jacket in this picture

Welcome to bill kick off call, MBR director CCL

In 45 mins or less we will tell you why we like and support the bill

Describe the features and any changes from last year

What you and your chapter can do

So far D only bill, we prefer bipartisanship and will continue to work on that.

As Brett said you will from four of our staff members Ben’s going to go over the outline of the bill, Dana will cover some of the bill’s benefits and then they will take a few questions, too. Elli and Elizabeth will review with us what we are asking everyone to do and will go over the best ways to talk about the bill and take a few questions.

https://keyt.com/news/environment/2023/09/25/rep-carbajal-announces-plan-to-combat-climate-change-in-free-market-way/

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Legislative and policy overview

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Why we love this policy 💜

50% by 2030, Net Zero by 2050

Critical to hitting climate targets

Affordable Clean Energy

Drives energy innovation → reliable, abundant affordable clean energy in every community

Puts Money in Your Pocket

Helps low and middle income Americans break even or come out ahead

Saves Lives

Reduces air pollution that kills and sickens us.

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Same policy, but a new political climate

Since the previous bill introduction (2021)

New bills have gotten the ball rolling on clean energy

Inflation Reduction Act
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
CHIPS and Science Act

Russia invaded Ukraine
Political landscape has changed

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Ben:

Second, let's talk about what has changed since the Energy Innovation act was last introduced.

It’s a different world in many ways. On the positive side of things, the most important climate legislation in history was passed and your advocacy played a major role in that victory.
Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act combined with the bipartisan infrastructure act has begun an unprecedented level of investment to decarbonize our economy
On the not so great side the Russian invasion of Ukraine has produced a prolonged period of volatility in energy prices and we have been in a long period of inflation that America had not experienced for many decades.
Lastly, we should remind ourselves of how the political landscape has changed. When the Energy Innovation act was last introduced the executive branch and both houses of Congress were controlled by one party. So while we believe bipartisan action is the best, most durable path forward for action on climate, we knew a partisan reconciliation bill was going to be one of the primary pathways for major climate action and our focus on as getting many co-sponsors r even if they were from one party reflected that moment and got us very close to a CP in the reconciliation process

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How Carbon Fee & Dividend Works

How it works

Return 100% of net revenue to households as a carbon cashback

Charge a fee on fossil fuels at the source �(mine, well, or port)

Carbon �Border �Adjustment

$

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What’s The Same?

What’s stayed the same 🔍

The initial fee ($15/ton)
Annual fee increase ($10 every year)
100% cashback to every adult
50% cashback to every child
Border carbon adjustment
Prebate, studies on accountability, automatic ratchet if emissions targets aren’t being met

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Ben:

There is the same $15 per ton initial price, same $10 annual rate of increase, same 100% dividend to every adult and half-dividend to every child, and there is still a border adjustment designed to protect American industry from being uncut by dirty foreign producers, that will also drive down global emission using the power of the american market place. The studies on accountability, and the automatic increase of the fee if we’re not meeting emissions targets are still there.

What’s different - The bill is almost entirely the same, except for larger yearly targets for emissions reductions up to 8% annually until 2030 and 2.5% thereafter below 2005 emissions. These targets are achievable and necessary to hit the reductions we know are needed by 2030 and 2050. 2005 is another update. you might remember 2010 was the previous baseline. This change is mainly because 2005 is now the most widely used base line year.

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What’s The Same?

What to do next ☑️

Take action at cclusa.org/energy
Context of a divided government
Focus on building support in our communities
Your outreach is essential
This achievement wouldn’t have happened without your ongoing commitment and hard work!

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Ben:

Talk about what to do next

So what should you do now? We are asking all CCL supporters to contact their Representative and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. This is an important moment to remind all members of Congress that a carbon price is still an important tool to reduce emissions and this is most direct message to Congress and one they will understand

However, remember a few moments ago I talked about how things have changed since the Energy Innovation Act was last introduced. This means the bill introduction is going to look a little different than last Congress. In a divided Congress, Congressman Carbajal wants to hold open a space for outreach to Republicans in the House. That’s why you don’t see a long list of original co-sponsors this time or for Congressman Carbajal to immediately add co-sponsors and see the impact of your emails. This doesn’t mean that previous co-sponsors no longer support the bill, Last Congress it made strategic sense to have as many Democratic co-sponsors as possible, this Congress it’s important to hold open that space for bipartisan dialogue. But we should still send a message to all members asking them to co-sponsor. To remind all members that this is an important policy.

Additionally, when the bill was last introduced our focus was on Congress. This time our focus for long term success really needs to be building support for this policy in our communities. More than ever we need to grow our base of support on the ground to move Congress on a Carbon Price. We have done a lot to advance this policy. It came very close to being in the reconciliation package. Now we really need to widen and deepen our grassroots support for the bill to set us up for success.
This outreach in the communities is also important because we might be in a government shutdown, for how long we don’t know, but for most congressional offices that is where the focus will be for the next several weeks.

Conclusions

In closing this is an important moment, it is always an achievement when a bill is introduced in any Congress and it would not be happening without your efforts. We are committed to advancing policies that bring us closer to our goal of a livable planet, and the Energy Innovation Act will do that. But don’t just hear from me let's Hear from congressman Carbajal

Play video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOp_-cZU5RA starting at 1:40 for one minute

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Data behind the main benefits

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Powering America

Forward to

Clean Energy

Net Zero by 2050

This policy will deploy the single most powerful tool we have to drive down America’s carbon pollution and ensure a healthy climate. It is critical to hitting our climate targets of 50% carbon pollution reductions by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

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Energy Innovation Act + Permitting Reform 💪

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Dana:�On this chart you can see that based on various modeling efforts, the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy permitting reform, and the Energy Innovation Act together will get us on track to meet our commitment to cut US climate pollution 50% by 2030. The Inflation Reduction Act was a good start, but we’ve learned that we need Congress to pass a clean energy permitting reform package to unlock its full climate potential, so that a too-slow permitting process doesn’t handcuff the clean energy transition. But those policies would still leave us short of our 2030 target. So then the carbon price in the Energy Innovation Act would get us the rest of the way there. While a carbon price creates the financial incentive to deploy clean energy solutions, it also needs clean energy permitting reform to allow those solutions to get built. So, they’re both important and complementary policies.

Nerd Corner thread discussing the chart: https://community.citizensclimate.org/groups/discuss/viewtopic/1773/1810/27351

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Net Zero by 2050

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Powering America

Forward to

Clean Energy

Affordable Clean

Energy

Americans shouldn’t have to live with the price shocks and rising energy prices associated with fossil fuels.

This policy will drive energy innovation, giving every American community access to abundant, affordable clean energy produced right here at home.

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Affordable Clean Energy 📊

Solar and wind are the cheapest sources of new electricity today
Unstable fossil fuel prices often cause price shocks and inflation
Carbon pricing promotes innovation

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Powering America

Forward to

Clean Energy

Money in Your Pocket

The money collected from the corporate polluter fee goes directly into the pockets of millions of hard-working families via a monthly carbon cashback payment. The money can be spent without restrictions, and most low- and middle-income Americans will come out financially ahead or break even.

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Money in Your Pocket 📊

Monthly carbon cashback payment puts money directly into the pockets of millions of hard-working families
Most low- and middle-income families come out ahead (reduced income inequality)
1.6 million Americans (including 500,000 children) lifted out of poverty within 5 years

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Saves Lives

This policy will help improve health and save millions of American lives over the next 50 years by reducing pollution Americans breathe. Poor air quality from burning fossil fuels is responsible for as many as 1 in 10 American deaths today, and sickens thousands more.

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Saves Lives 📊

Replacing fossil fuels with clean alternatives reduces air pollution
Air pollution causes ~250,000 premature American deaths per year
Reaching net zero by 2050 would avoid

1.4 million premature deaths over 20 years
4.5 million premature deaths over 50 years

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Q&A

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Talking about the Energy Innovation Act

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Most Powerful Tool

Net Zero by 2050

Affordable Clean Energy

Saves Lives

Money in Your Pocket

Elli

As Ben and Dana have said: The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is the most powerful tool for lowering carbon emissions that Congress has in its policy tool box.

There are four key benefits that CCL loves:

The Energy Innovation Act puts us on the clear path to achieving net zero by 2050.

It makes fossil fuels more expensive so businesses will innovate and compete to provide the best low-cost clean-energy alternatives.

It ensures that the majority of Americans will have more money at their disposal than before thanks to the dividend portion or cash back of the bill.

And it gives us a quick and efficient reduction of pollution that starts saving lives right away.

You might find that your audience is more attracted to one or more of these. If that’s the case, you can tailor your message to your audience. You don’t have to cover all four of these benefits.

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New word choices:

Carbon cashback (carbon dividend)

‘Polluters pay’ (carbon fee)�
No more “EICDA” - use Energy Innovation Act

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Elli

We’ve got three additional tips regarding language around the bill.

We are now referring to the carbon dividend by the phrase carbon cashback. This term was created and workshopped by CCLers at the table. It’s still fine to say carbon dividend. We are using carbon cashback because it is easily understood as a payment to people.

We are also using ‘polluters pay’ along with ‘carbon fee’ as it helps clarify that the fee is paid at the source, and not by people.

DISCLAIMER: if you find these word choices don’t work for all of your conversations, you can choose other words instead to describe these concepts. And, please let us know how it goes.

Also, please know that this time around we will drop the use of EICDA as the shortened name for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

Instead, when you want to save your breath, simply say “The Energy Innovation Act”.

It took me over a year to remember the order of the letters for EICDA. Once I finally got those letters memorized in the proper order, saying it to someone while tabling or presenting wouldn’t give them a clues as to what the bill was about. On the other hand, when I simply say, “The Energy Innovation Act” people know I am talking about creative exciting things happening with regards to energy.

Thank you for helping to make this change! It might be hard at first, especially after all of these years of saying “EICDA” but we want to let folks hear the message of the bill in the shortened version of the bill’s name. And, you are more than welcome to use the long name of the bill: The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

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Get active in your community

Build support in-district to move the bill forward

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Tabling & Clipboarding

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Build support in your local community

1 page, 2-sided flyer

Quarter page flyer

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Elizabeth

That’s right, Elli! And CCL staff have been busy updating tabling materials for our outreach.

We have full page and quarter page handouts available in both English and Spanish. These have been modified slightly from the previous version with a new tagline: “Polluters pay. People get a carbon cashback”. And they’ve added a QR code linking to the Energy Innovation Act website.

When tabling or clipboarding, I’d suggest having a few of the two-sided, full size handouts, perhaps laminated, available to show people while you talk to them. Make sure one of them is in Spanish because even if you don’t speak Spanish, someone who stops by might and it creates a more inclusive space for them. The quarter sheet flyer is a great handout for people to take with them.

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Build support in your local community

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Elizabeth

A lot of you will be excited about this one – the return of the Constituent Comment Form! This new form is for the Energy Innovation Act only. There are two versions: one asking a Representative to become a co-sponsor and one for Representatives who have co-sponsored.

The design is simple and eye-catching. The graphic shows how significant the Energy Innovation Act will be in reducing emissions. The form is easy for a constituent to fill out with space for a brief personalized message. And for folks who want to join CCL, they can just check of the Join CCL box.

We’ll be collecting as many of these as possible now through the spring when we’ll deliver them to our Representatives’ district offices. Together we’ll send a strong message of grassroots support to Congress from every corner of the country!

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Build support in your local community

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Presentations

Elli

This is also an opportunity to drive interest in your community by shifting the focus of presentations back to the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

You can brush up on scheduling and presenting skills by joining the Presenters and Schedulers Action Team. Dave Cain, Abe Mazliach, and John Keller will take good care of you there.

As many of you have learned in CCL, presenting is a team sport.

Someone in your chapter who is organized and gently persistent can line up presentations - maybe that’s you: the scheduler.
Someone in your chapter can present - this would be a volunteer who enjoys public speaking or would like to stretch outside their comfort zone and give a talk. Maybe you are the presenter for your chapter.
A small team of one, two, or three to join the presenter. -This team sits in the audience and helps with networking before and after the talk. You may even be able to convince the hosting organization to allow your chapter to set up a table outside of the auditorium so the audience members have a place to learn more about CCL and the Energy Innovation Act after the presentation concludes.

Presenting is a team sport that includes the scheduler, the presenter, and the networkers. Or, this work can be done by just one person who schedules, presents, and networks. Lots of flexibility here!

sku

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Educate others about the policy

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Where to find ALL these resources

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Chapter Development

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Grasstops Engagement

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Gather endorsements from community leaders

Get back in touch with previous endorsers

Invite new grasstops supporters to endorse carbon cashback

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What do you want to do?

Collect constituent comment forms.

Recruit new volunteers.

Tabling & Clipboarding

Welcome new volunteers to your chapter.

Engage them in spreading the word.

Onboarding

Schedule presentations.

Give presentations.

Scheduling & Presenting

Reconnect with previous endorsers.

Connect with new potential endorsers.

Grasstops

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Take action tonight!

#1

#2

Email Your Support

cclusa.org/energy

Share On Social�cclusa.org/stw

Amplify Social Media

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Ask your Representative to cosponsor

Right now: Email your Representative asking them to cosponsor the Energy Innovation Act: ��cclusa.org/energy

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Spread the word on social media

Right now: Spread the word about the bill introduction by sharing CCL’s posts on your favorite platform: cclusa.org/stw

Ongoing: Use CCL’s social media toolkit to build your own posts about the bill.

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Q&A

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Thank You! 🙏

Recording will be posted on CCL Community and YouTube by tomorrow morning at: http://cclusa.org/youtube

Questions? Search for and ask on CCL Community’s Forums: cclusa.org/forums

www.citizensclimatelobby.org