A New Letter, Another Meeting

On Friday, I was asked to write a letter to the editor. I responded to an LA Times article on the rejection of Proposition 23 and the future of cap and trade. My letter proposed a solution better than cap and trade called the fee and dividend. This will raise the fees of carbon polluters at the source, and distribute the money to all Americans. On Saturday, I went to Rick's house in La Jolla for a monthly meeting. There were more people this time, including one new member named Anne. The guest speaker was congressman Bob Filner. The conservation centered around member questions, and addressed the need to test different rhetoric on different people to find out how to appeal to politicians correctly. Total: 25 hours.

Another Week, More Work

This week, my assignment was to draft an outline of how I would run a meeting with a Congressperson, and read a New Yorker article about climate legislation. My hypothetical meeting was with Barbara Boxer about the Carbon Fee and Divided, an initiative pushed by CCL in August. I followed some CCL guidelines, and made a good start to learning how to lead a conversation with a senator. The article I read (twice) was about a bill nicknamed KGL, for the proponents of it: John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman. These senators tried to pass a non-partisan cap and trade bill through Congress. They were met with so much opposition, and tried to satisfy so many people that it eventually failed. It started with backing by John McCain and other Republicans. However, they betrayed the bill despite the adjustments made protecting nuclear energy like they wanted. A "linked fee" was added for the oil refineries, which resulted in more opposition by others. These attempts were well-intentioned, but were met with so much opposition by the media, and made Congress hesitant to passing any climate bills in the near future. I didn't have a meeting to discuss these with Amy because I was sick, but I will see her this weekend at the monthly CCL conference call. However, yesterday I had the chance to go over some laser talks with Megan Wiggins, a CCL member in Florida. That was pretty helpful. Total: 20 hours.