For Stevens Point News

STEVENS POINT – As evidence of climate change grows more and more apparent, members of the Stevens Point Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) will join over 50 other Wisconsin citizens in traveling to Washington, D.C., next month to join with hundreds of other volunteers pressing Congress to enact policies to reduce the heat-trapping pollution that is warming our world.

The CCL volunteers are heading to Washington for the 9th Annual International Climate Conference and Lobby Day. Following two days of informational sessions and training, they will go to Capitol Hill on June 12 for meetings with Senator Tammy Baldwin, Senator Ron Johnson and Congressman Ron Kind. They will seek support for a carbon-pricing system known as Carbon Fee and Dividend. Carbon Fee and Dividend will put a fee on all oil, gas and coal we use in the United States. It will drive down carbon pollution because energy companies and Americans will choose cleaner, cheaper energy options. The money from the fee will be returned directly to people as a monthly rebate. Most American households will end up with more money in their pockets.

“We’re running out of time to avoid the worst consequences of climate change,” said Dan Dieterich, the group leader of the Stevens Point Chapter. “Here in Wisconsin, we’re feeling the impact in the form of devastating floods, disappearing cold water fish, and negative impacts on agricultural yields.”

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a national, nonpartisan advocacy organization working to bring Republicans and Democrats together on market-based solutions to climate change. The group has been the primary catalyst for the formation and growth of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, which now has 78 members, 39 Republicans and 39 Democrats. Wisconsin

Congressman Ron Kind is one of the newest members of the Climate Solutions Caucus. “We’ll be working with him to move the ball forward with effective solutions,” said Dieterich