Thirty-six Mainers, including 13 high school students from Kennebunk, Portland and Baxter Academy, went to Washington, D.C., to a nonpartisan Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) conference and lobby day from June 11-13.

In the words of Marshall Saunders, who founded CCL: “We are a peaceful army, dealing with truth, promoting non-violence and demonstrating respect for our opponents. We are engaged in a battle for all of life.”

Climate change is the most important issue facing mankind and we need societal actions to deal with it. Individual actions, like recycling and home solar panels are welcome but will never be enough. Thus, we lobby our senators and representatives. We meet in person with them or their staff and are well received. CCL is one of the largest groups to do in-person lobbying on the Hill. There are many paid lobbyists but we are all volunteers and constituents, so we stand out. We asked them to support strong bipartisan legislation, including a carbon fee and dividend, which would put a price on carbon, slowing the use of fossil fuels and returning the money to citizens. We have also advocated for permitting reform, which will allow renewables to be connected quickly to the grid.

The technology exists to save our planet but we need to create political will. Please consider joining some environmental groups. Also contact Sens. King and Collins as well as Reps. Pingree and Golden and tell them you expect them to act to slow climate change.

Nancy Hasenfus
Brunswick