Dear editor:

June 13 was the 12th annual National Lobby Day in Washington, DC for the bipartisan Citizen’s Climate Lobby (CCL). In that time, the Citizen Lobbyist meetings with the members of the House of Representatives have grown from six to 15,000 people with general CCL membership around 200,000.

The purpose of the Idyllwild Chapter of CCL is to lobby the government for swift action on climate legislation. CCL supports bills that will benefit the environment, people’s health, and help take carbon out of the air while protecting the economy. The CCL motto is to “Create a political will for a livable world.”

Right now there is a bill in congress (HR 763) that would introduce a carbon fee. The bill is revenue neutral, because it gives the fees collected back to the people. Approximately 70% of citizens will receive more money back than they spend in increased energy costs. The vast majority of economists support the fee, showing that it will increase our economy, and use market forces to innovate change. 

HR 763 (The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act), sponsored by 81 bipartisan members of the House, can reduce climate change far more than other actions like reforesting. Climate change is not going away. We need legislative solutions to protect the planet and humans from potentially irreversible and devastating consequences.

We were able to meet with Ivelisse Porroa-Garcia, legislative aide to Rep. Raul Ruiz, M.D., D-Palm Desert, on July 7 and we are hopeful he will take action to reduce climate change. We appreciate that Ruiz is working hard for our health, our safety, air quality and environmental justice. 

Ruiz helped pass legislation to protect our communities in the event of fire and now for COVID relief. 

We hope Ruiz will also emerge as a leader in reducing carbon emissions, which negatively impact our health and the safety of our community.

Let’s persuade Ruiz to prioritize legislation to address climate change with a carbon fee and dividend that will protect our national economy and the people. You can email him at  https://ruiz.house.gov/contact/email.
 

Mallory Cremin, Idyllwild

Karen Johnston, Idyllwild 

Jeri John, Idyllwild

Mark Yardas, Idyllwild

Melanie Lamaga, Idyllwild