FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA-50), the House sponsor of the BIG WIRES Act, addressed CCL’s volunteers at our June 2023 conference.
CCL applauds bicameral BIG WIRES Act
SEPT 15, 2023 – CCL strongly supports the bicameral introduction of the BIG WIRES Act. We applaud Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA-50) for their leadership in introducing this bill and continuing to advance the conversation around America’s clean energy transmission needs.
The BIG WIRES Act — which stands for Building Integrated Grids with Interregional Energy Supply — would “accelerate America’s transition to cleaner energy while strengthening its strained electric grid,” the Washington Post reports.
We know that America needs to start building clean energy infrastructure faster in order to meet our climate targets. Communities also deserve to have a reliable, resilient grid that can provide affordable electricity in the face of ever more extreme weather events. The BIG WIRES Act would help achieve both of these goals.
“This bill should be at the forefront of the conversation about how we should reform the permitting of our energy infrastructure,” CCL VP of Government Affairs Ben Pendergrass said. “Our volunteers look forward to discussing it in meetings with their members of Congress.”
We are particularly excited about this legislation because our volunteers have been lobbying for action on permitting reform, with a focus on improved transmission of clean energy, since our June lobby meetings on Capitol Hill. In June, CCL volunteers sent 15,551 messages to congressional offices asking for this type of action, and they followed it up with discussion in 436 meetings with lawmakers.
This past week, we launched another push telling Congress that the permitting reform in the debt ceiling package was a good start, but we need to see more. In the initial days of this new campaign, our volunteers have placed 1,425 calls to Congress to urge them forward on this issue.
The introduction of the BIG WIRES Act shows that lawmakers grasp both the need and the exciting opportunity of increasing clean energy transmission capability across America, and they’re taking steps to make it a reality. Our volunteers will be working hard to build additional support for this legislation.
CONTACT: Flannery Winchester, CCL Senior Director of Communications, 615-337-3642, flannery@citizensclimate.org
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Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change. Learn more at citizensclimatelobby.org.
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