Citizens lobby for action on climate change

citizen's climate lobby — Citizen’s Climate Lobby Members at US Capitol, June 2014

The Citizen Climate Lobby aims to create political will by engaging citizens with their elected officials. Chris Hoffman, a volunteer with the Boulder chapter of the CCL says that when citizen lobbyists meet elected officials, those legislators take notice. “They know these people are not being paid by big corporations.”

Susan Seacord also with the Boulder CCL says that the whole focus of the organization is to create political will by engaging citizens with their elected officials. In 2014 Seacord says citizen lobbyists had over a 1000 meetings with members of Congress.

Citizen lobbyists concerned about climate change will gather in Golden Colorado in early February for a regional conference of the Citizen Climate Lobby, a volunteer organization that advocates for the introduction of a fee be on fossil fuels, based on the CO2 content of those fuels. Revenue from that fee would be returned to the public as a monthly dividend to protect households from rising costs associated with the carbon fee. Susan Seacord of the Boulder chapter of the Citizen Climate Lobby says this is the first time that Colorado has hosted a regional CCL conference. Citizen lobbyists from New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and Colorado are expected to attend.

On Saturday, February 7th 2015, there will be a free Introduction to CCL Workshop at the Jefferson Unitarian Church (14350 W 32nd Ave., Golden) from 9:00 a.m. to noon. It’s a foundational course for understanding CCL’s methodology and its legislative proposal and for beginning to develop the skills to be a citizen lobbyist. It will be led by Mark Reynolds, CCL national executive director, and Madeleine Para, Director of Programs. To register, please email [email protected].