This is it, folks! The upcoming reconciliation bill is likely the Democrats' last big shot at climate policy for a decade. There are two key policies on the table; it's time for everyone to rally around them.
Serious question: how should I and others address our GOP senators (Marco Rubio and Rick Scott in my case) about this? Obviously, calling and saying “eat shit, I vote against you, but also support CEPP and clean energy tax credits” is likely to get tallied under “things dems want and don’t matter for re-election”, but even a neutral message seems likely to get tallied similarities just by party affinity on the issue. I don’t want to outright lie and say “yeehaw, Trump 2024, go CEPP and tax credits!” but don’t want to make a futile gesture by speaking impulsively either.
So, should we put on our southern drawls, offer an economic motivation, etc? It would be great to here from staffers what works best.
I agree with your analysis. But the value of calling Representatives and Senators is sometimes overrated. No number of calls to Senator Toomey in Pennsylvania, for example, will convince him to vote for any reconciliation bill, and the same goes for any Republican Senator.
What would be useful now would be for those who have moderate Democrats in their districts to call them and ask them to stop trying to pull the rug out from under the two-track strategy (which I’ve personally had my doubts about from the start). If the bipartisan infrastructure bill (which carved out the large majority of pro-climate provisions in it) passes into law first, then the bargaining leverage for reconciliation is gone — and we can probably say goodbye to thr serious climate measures that you outline here. Senators Manchin and Sinema will declare victory — and they’ll have full leverage to water down the reconciliation bill as much as they want.
So call your moderate Democratic Representatives in House and ask them to hold firm. Democrats are good at shooting ourselves in the foot. Let’s try not to do it this time.
Based on what they've said about money for addressing the climate crisis, if a 50-mile-wide rock were found to be tumbling toward us from outer space, we’d have some "moderate" congressional Democrats agreeing we should do something about it, but only if it doesn’t cost too much.
Game on: I will encourage my contacts/friends/family to email their two Senators and Congressperson. bonus points for calling! And ask my organizations to rally around this: a clean energy standard (CES) and clean energy tax credits,
Serious question: how should I and others address our GOP senators (Marco Rubio and Rick Scott in my case) about this? Obviously, calling and saying “eat shit, I vote against you, but also support CEPP and clean energy tax credits” is likely to get tallied under “things dems want and don’t matter for re-election”, but even a neutral message seems likely to get tallied similarities just by party affinity on the issue. I don’t want to outright lie and say “yeehaw, Trump 2024, go CEPP and tax credits!” but don’t want to make a futile gesture by speaking impulsively either.
So, should we put on our southern drawls, offer an economic motivation, etc? It would be great to here from staffers what works best.
I agree with your analysis. But the value of calling Representatives and Senators is sometimes overrated. No number of calls to Senator Toomey in Pennsylvania, for example, will convince him to vote for any reconciliation bill, and the same goes for any Republican Senator.
What would be useful now would be for those who have moderate Democrats in their districts to call them and ask them to stop trying to pull the rug out from under the two-track strategy (which I’ve personally had my doubts about from the start). If the bipartisan infrastructure bill (which carved out the large majority of pro-climate provisions in it) passes into law first, then the bargaining leverage for reconciliation is gone — and we can probably say goodbye to thr serious climate measures that you outline here. Senators Manchin and Sinema will declare victory — and they’ll have full leverage to water down the reconciliation bill as much as they want.
So call your moderate Democratic Representatives in House and ask them to hold firm. Democrats are good at shooting ourselves in the foot. Let’s try not to do it this time.
Based on what they've said about money for addressing the climate crisis, if a 50-mile-wide rock were found to be tumbling toward us from outer space, we’d have some "moderate" congressional Democrats agreeing we should do something about it, but only if it doesn’t cost too much.
Game on: I will encourage my contacts/friends/family to email their two Senators and Congressperson. bonus points for calling! And ask my organizations to rally around this: a clean energy standard (CES) and clean energy tax credits,