Notching up climate policy wins — together

The PROVE IT Act was a bill in the 118th Congress (2023–2024) that directed the Department of Energy to measure the carbon intensity of certain goods produced at home and abroad, helping America negotiate effectively with trading partners who have carbon tariffs in place and ultimately helping drive global emissions downward.

A bipartisan group of Senators introduced the PROVE IT Act in the Senate on June 7, 2023, just days before CCL's 2023 Summer Conference and Lobby Day. CCL Government Affairs staff added the bill to our list of asks, so many of our 436 meetings on Capitol Hill included discussions of the bill. Our volunteers continued to mobilize around it during the rest of 2023.

In January 2024, CCLers generated a targeted slate of calls to Senate EPW Committee members, helping support the bill to committee passage with a vote of 14–5 — even more bipartisan support than was expected at the time.

CCL volunteers continued to reach out to Congress in support of the bill throughout the first half of 2024, culminating in raising the PROVE IT Act as a primary ask in our 2024 Lobby Day meetings. Just weeks after those 442 meetings on Capitol Hill, and supported by 1,870 calls from volunteers nationwide, a bipartisan group of representatives introduced a companion bill in the House.

Though the PROVE IT Act was not included in any legislative packages before the end of the 118th Congress, CCL's Government Affairs staff continued discussions on Capitol Hill through 2025.

Then, in a report accompanying an Energy and Water Appropriations bill in January 2026, Congress included language very similar to the PROVE IT Act, directing the Department of Energy to calculate the carbon intensity difference between American and foreign products that are covered by Europe's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). This information will lead to more accurate negotiations with trading partners, driving countries to seek out the cleanest industry partners for their goods and services, and therefore helping reduce global emissions.

The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act, or the ADVANCE Act, is a bill to streamline the permitting process for new nuclear projects. Nuclear energy does not emit greenhouse gas when it operates.

The House version of the legislation, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act, passed the House on Feb. 28, 2024 and was then sent over to the Senate. CCL's conservative volunteers advocated for the bill in 47 citizen lobby meetings held in March 2024, as part of a larger push for bipartisan clean energy permitting reform. The text of the ADVANCE Act was later added to the Fire Grants and Safety Act (S.870), which passed the Senate on June 18, 2024 with an 88–2 vote. President Biden signed it into law on July 9, 2024.

The Growing Climate Solutions Act strengthened and improved access to voluntary carbon credits for farmers, ranchers, and private forest owners. Climate-friendly practices in agriculture help sequester more carbon in the soil, and the people who manage land this way need additional support.

CCL signed onto its supporter list when the Growing Climate Solutions Act was introduced in June 2021. That same month, 300+ constituent-led lobby meetings led to the recruitment of over 40 new co-sponsors. In the week before the Senate vote, CCL made 10,500 constituent contacts to the Senate and published at least 15 op-eds. The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 92–8. When this bill stalled in the House committee, our government affairs and grassroots network continued to build momentum for it in the House via media, calls, and constituent-led lobby meetings. Finally, the bill was included in the 2022 omnibus package.

The Inflation Reduction Act was a broad budget package that included measures on federal deficit reduction, prescription drug prices, and clean energy investments and tax credits.

The path to this landmark legislation was a long one, but CCL's grassroots efforts helped push lawmakers to keep climate measures in this sweeping package. In 2022, CCL volunteers held 920 meetings with congressional offices, generated over 225,000 letters and calls to members of Congress, wrote 2,117 letters to the editor, and published 676 op-eds urging Congress to go big on climate in the legislation.

Ultimately, Democratic senators reached an agreement on a final package that included historic levels of investment in climate measures, making significant strides toward reducing America's emissions and reducing the financial burden on people making the switch to clean energy options.

The Hope for Homes Act cuts costs for homeowners while investing in clean energy jobs and technology.

CCL supported this bipartisan bill with several hundred constituent-led lobby meetings in June 2021, and it passed the House later that year. Key provisions were later included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The infrastructure package was not specifically a climate bill — its primary goal was not to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — but it did include some climate provisions in the areas of alternative vehicles, public transit, research and innovation, and energy infrastructure.

To help get the package across the finish line, CCL's Government Affairs staff members directly lobbied congressional offices in support of the legislation. CCL staff met with offices to convey CCL's stance that there were valuable climate provisions in the bill and to express CCL's support for its passage. CCL staff also sent several official communications to all congressional offices, indicating CCL's support of the bill and urging offices to vote in favor when it came to the floor.

The bill passed the House with 228 votes in November 2021, after having passed the Senate with 69 votes earlier in the year. It was signed into law on Nov. 15, 2021.

The SCALE Act was created to help develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure as a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions while creating regional economic opportunities and jobs.

CCL contributed to coalition letters that laid out desired climate measures, mobilized constituents in Republican-led districts to support this legislation, and grew the co-sponsorship list over two years. This bill was a supporting ask during 350 constituent lobby meetings in June 2021. It was included in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed by both chambers of Congress in November 2021, and signed into law on Nov. 15, 2021.

The USE IT Act boosts carbon capture technologies with $85 million of funding and a permitting task force.

CCL volunteers had lobbied on this legislation since June of 2019, and it gained cosponsors after each of our lobbying pushes. Just before heading home for the 2020 holidays, the U.S. House and Senate passed a massive omnibus package — one of "the most significant energy legislation in more than a dozen years," according to Politico.

The Better Energy Storage and Technology (BEST) Act authorized $300 million for research and development of grid-scale energy storage systems, and authorized demonstration projects for these new energy storage technologies. This technology is essential for the deployment of wind and solar energy.

In July of 2020, CCL volunteers helped add at least 24 new cosponsors onto the BEST Act in just one week. The BEST Act was ultimately included in the omnibus package passed by the House and Senate at the end of 2020.

The Climate Ready Fisheries Act required a report to be prepared outlining efforts to adapt our nation's fisheries to the impacts of climate change.

CCL helped recruit 10 new co-sponsors after our 2020 June lobby day, and it was included in the 2020 omnibus package.