Take Action!
- Check out New Volunteer Page
- Learn about the bill Citizens' Climate Lobby supports here
- Learn about taking action here
- Call - Ask Rep. Mark Pocan to co-sponsor the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act HR 763 - Calling tool here
- Write your Members of Congress - info and link on this page
- Share brochures and flyers at events or with friends and family
- Like and share CCL social media posts
- See the Take Action Tab on our national website citizensclimatelobby.org
Letters to the Editor
Write a Letter to the Editor for the Mount Horeb Mail.
Mount Horeb Mail info on website here. Editorial deadline is typically Monday at Noon. Submit via email. Info from paper pictured on the right. Letter to the Editor News and Info |
Examples of Published Letters to the Editor in the Mount Horeb Mail
February 20, 2020
Thanks for Climate Change Actions . . .
Last Tuesday evening SWWAP (South Western Wisconsin Progressives) volunteers hosted a community forum with WKOW Meteorologist Bob Lindmeier on climate change in Wisconsin and what we can do about it. They invited the Mount Horeb Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapter to cosponsor the event and set up an info and action table there. This was helpful and appreciated! In his presentation, Bob spoke about a bill which he supports that is currently introduced in Congress – the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, H.R. 763. This bill has garnered broad public support from businesses, faith groups, local governments and prominent individuals including our own Bob Lindmeier. See www.energyinnovationact.org/supporters. It outlines a good for people, good for the economy bipartisan approach for reducing the pollution in the air Americans breathe that affects our health and is the driving force behind climate change. It is an effective, job-creating market-based solution that does not increase regulations or government spending. To learn more about H.R. 763 and to find a convenient easy way for citizens to take action to support it - please see www.cclusa.org/energy-innovation-act.
Also related to climate change, Senator Tammy Baldwin recently joined the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus which was formed in 2019 by Senator Michael Braun (R-IN) and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE). It is the only bipartisan caucus in the Senate where Republicans and Democrats can talk with each other about climate change and climate change solutions. Citizens’ Climate Lobby believes that we need our political parties to work together to address climate change. For everyone’s sake, we respectfully ask our Members of Congress to make climate change a bridge, not a wedge issue. We see the newly formed Senate Climate Solutions Caucus as an important step in that direction and wish to heartily thank Senator Baldwin for joining! It would be helpful if citizens would call or write Senator Baldwin to thank her for joining the caucus. For helpful, easy to use tools for doing so, please see www.cclusa.org/scsc-call or www.cclusa.org/scsc-write.
Linda Farmer
Mount Horeb
Thanks for Climate Change Actions . . .
Last Tuesday evening SWWAP (South Western Wisconsin Progressives) volunteers hosted a community forum with WKOW Meteorologist Bob Lindmeier on climate change in Wisconsin and what we can do about it. They invited the Mount Horeb Citizens’ Climate Lobby chapter to cosponsor the event and set up an info and action table there. This was helpful and appreciated! In his presentation, Bob spoke about a bill which he supports that is currently introduced in Congress – the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, H.R. 763. This bill has garnered broad public support from businesses, faith groups, local governments and prominent individuals including our own Bob Lindmeier. See www.energyinnovationact.org/supporters. It outlines a good for people, good for the economy bipartisan approach for reducing the pollution in the air Americans breathe that affects our health and is the driving force behind climate change. It is an effective, job-creating market-based solution that does not increase regulations or government spending. To learn more about H.R. 763 and to find a convenient easy way for citizens to take action to support it - please see www.cclusa.org/energy-innovation-act.
Also related to climate change, Senator Tammy Baldwin recently joined the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus which was formed in 2019 by Senator Michael Braun (R-IN) and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE). It is the only bipartisan caucus in the Senate where Republicans and Democrats can talk with each other about climate change and climate change solutions. Citizens’ Climate Lobby believes that we need our political parties to work together to address climate change. For everyone’s sake, we respectfully ask our Members of Congress to make climate change a bridge, not a wedge issue. We see the newly formed Senate Climate Solutions Caucus as an important step in that direction and wish to heartily thank Senator Baldwin for joining! It would be helpful if citizens would call or write Senator Baldwin to thank her for joining the caucus. For helpful, easy to use tools for doing so, please see www.cclusa.org/scsc-call or www.cclusa.org/scsc-write.
Linda Farmer
Mount Horeb
September 19, 2019
Rescinding hybrid vehicle surcharge is only a start . . .
Last week I received the license renewal for my 2013 Toyota Prius and immediately noted the $188 fee. Why so high? Because it includes a new $75 hybrid vehicle surcharge, the product of 2017 legislation -- Wisconsin statue 341.25 (1) (L) -- enacted, according to Republican politicians, to address the “unfairness” of hybrid and electric vehicles paying less in taxes because they consume less (or no) gasoline.
This new tax is thoroughly regressive and symbolic of the dangerously short-sighted thinking that plagues our politics. Given the reality of global warming, it is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing now.
Atmospheric CO2 has climbed to over 400 ppm in 2012 (now at ~409) after a million-year range between 172 and 300 ppm. No one, not even climate change deniers like Ben Shapiro or Tucker Carlson, disputes the relationship between rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and the warming of the earth. Why? Because it’s been proven over and over again in scientific experiments. To reject this scientific axiom, popularly known as the Greenhouse Effect, would be akin to rejecting the certainty that 2+2=4. In other words, the Greenhouse Effect is an objective truth.
The only point of contention around global warming is whether the dramatic increase in atmospheric CO2 over the past 150 years has been driven by human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels that enabled the industrial revolution and continue to be civilization’s dominant energy source.
In the scientific community, the human role in global warming is not a point of contention. It is a point of consensus. According to NASA, “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals1 show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree*: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. In addition, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.” https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
We understand the mechanics of global warming. We understand the cause of global warming. And we understand the terrifying effects that continued warming will have on all living species.
Yet, we do nothing. And worse, with taxes like the hybrid vehicle surcharge, we create disincentives to the kind of behaviors that we desperately need to be encouraging.
Obviously, the hybrid vehicle surcharge should be rescinded, but a more comprehensive plan designed to dramatically reduce fossil emissions is needed. One such plan is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763), a bill introduced to Congress in 2019 and backed by the bipartisan Citizen’s Climate Lobby. To learn more and see how you can get involved visit https://citizensclimatelobby.org/why-we-support-a-price-on-pollution/
Chris Hofmann
Mount Horeb
Rescinding hybrid vehicle surcharge is only a start . . .
Last week I received the license renewal for my 2013 Toyota Prius and immediately noted the $188 fee. Why so high? Because it includes a new $75 hybrid vehicle surcharge, the product of 2017 legislation -- Wisconsin statue 341.25 (1) (L) -- enacted, according to Republican politicians, to address the “unfairness” of hybrid and electric vehicles paying less in taxes because they consume less (or no) gasoline.
This new tax is thoroughly regressive and symbolic of the dangerously short-sighted thinking that plagues our politics. Given the reality of global warming, it is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing now.
Atmospheric CO2 has climbed to over 400 ppm in 2012 (now at ~409) after a million-year range between 172 and 300 ppm. No one, not even climate change deniers like Ben Shapiro or Tucker Carlson, disputes the relationship between rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and the warming of the earth. Why? Because it’s been proven over and over again in scientific experiments. To reject this scientific axiom, popularly known as the Greenhouse Effect, would be akin to rejecting the certainty that 2+2=4. In other words, the Greenhouse Effect is an objective truth.
The only point of contention around global warming is whether the dramatic increase in atmospheric CO2 over the past 150 years has been driven by human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels that enabled the industrial revolution and continue to be civilization’s dominant energy source.
In the scientific community, the human role in global warming is not a point of contention. It is a point of consensus. According to NASA, “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals1 show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree*: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. In addition, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.” https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
We understand the mechanics of global warming. We understand the cause of global warming. And we understand the terrifying effects that continued warming will have on all living species.
Yet, we do nothing. And worse, with taxes like the hybrid vehicle surcharge, we create disincentives to the kind of behaviors that we desperately need to be encouraging.
Obviously, the hybrid vehicle surcharge should be rescinded, but a more comprehensive plan designed to dramatically reduce fossil emissions is needed. One such plan is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763), a bill introduced to Congress in 2019 and backed by the bipartisan Citizen’s Climate Lobby. To learn more and see how you can get involved visit https://citizensclimatelobby.org/why-we-support-a-price-on-pollution/
Chris Hofmann
Mount Horeb
December 13, 2018
To the editor:
The Fourth National Climate Assessment published a few weeks ago by a team of more than 300 experts at the federal, state and local levels and reviewed by 13 federal agencies as part of the the Global Change Research Act of 1990, makes clear that climate change is not a future problem to be dealt with by coming generations; it is something that requires our urgent attention now. “The impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country. More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities. Global action to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions can substantially reduce climate-related risks and increase opportunities for these populations in the longer term.” With 97% of climate scientists agreeing that human-caused climate change is happening, coupled with the evidence we see all around us of a changing climate -- recall the 1,000 year rainfall we experienced this past August-- it gives me hope to see common sense bipartisan climate change legislation recently introduced to Congress. Sponsored by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL), Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Rep. John Delaney (D-MD), the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is a climate solution that goes further than any national policy to date, creating over 2 million new jobs, lowering health care costs, promoting energy innovation, and encouraging consumer spending. The bill is based on a carbon fee and dividend system that will use the power of market forces to drive down the use of carbon-based fuel sources and encourage the use of clean energy. The collected carbon fees will be distributed to the American people on a monthly basis to spend as they see fit. The provisions in this bill are very similar to the those advocated by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a non-profit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization with a local chapter right here in Mount Horeb. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is a win-win solution that will help mitigate the effects of climate change for our children and grandchildren, while positioning the economy for healthy growth. To learn more about the bill and its benefits visit https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-and-carbon-dividend-act/
Chris Hofmann
To the editor:
The Fourth National Climate Assessment published a few weeks ago by a team of more than 300 experts at the federal, state and local levels and reviewed by 13 federal agencies as part of the the Global Change Research Act of 1990, makes clear that climate change is not a future problem to be dealt with by coming generations; it is something that requires our urgent attention now. “The impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country. More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities. Global action to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions can substantially reduce climate-related risks and increase opportunities for these populations in the longer term.” With 97% of climate scientists agreeing that human-caused climate change is happening, coupled with the evidence we see all around us of a changing climate -- recall the 1,000 year rainfall we experienced this past August-- it gives me hope to see common sense bipartisan climate change legislation recently introduced to Congress. Sponsored by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL), Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Rep. John Delaney (D-MD), the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is a climate solution that goes further than any national policy to date, creating over 2 million new jobs, lowering health care costs, promoting energy innovation, and encouraging consumer spending. The bill is based on a carbon fee and dividend system that will use the power of market forces to drive down the use of carbon-based fuel sources and encourage the use of clean energy. The collected carbon fees will be distributed to the American people on a monthly basis to spend as they see fit. The provisions in this bill are very similar to the those advocated by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a non-profit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization with a local chapter right here in Mount Horeb. The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act is a win-win solution that will help mitigate the effects of climate change for our children and grandchildren, while positioning the economy for healthy growth. To learn more about the bill and its benefits visit https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-and-carbon-dividend-act/
Chris Hofmann