By John Burton
SHREWSBURY – The local members of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby are hoping to turn up the temperature for elected officials on the subject of climate change and steps to combat it.
“I see this as the most serious threat facing us in the world,” said Judy Krusell who is a member of the local chapter for the organization, speaking about the threat posed by climate change.
Krusell, who is a clinical psychologist from Shrewsbury, and Phil Blackwood, a Red Bank resident, are two of the approximately 20 active members (with about 80 total on the mailing list) of the Lincroft chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, which has chapters throughout the United States and now in Canada.
The group, Krusell said, is “trying to make (climate change) more of a non-partisan issue.” New Jersey currently has several chapters.
The strategy is to use some of the group’s roughly 14,000 volunteers to lobby all the members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to take a look at the group’s plan to battle climate change and its effects. “We meet with every member of Congress who can find time for us,” said Blackwood.
In addition to appealing to federal lawmakers, the group has adopted an additional plan, looking to court local and county elected officials, as well as religious, community and civic groups to help spread the word, and encouraging the public to reach out to elected officials, too. Volunteers are encouraged to write letters to the editor and op-ed articles for local publications, as well writing to their representatives, according to Krusell.
As Krusell explained it, “Everyone tries to use their different contacts to get the message out.”
Krusell and Blackwood last month approached the Two River Council of Mayors, a regular, informal gathering of mayors from about a dozen communities who discuss issues relevant to the Two River area. Mayors present at the meeting said they would return to their governing bodies with the information.
Blackwood said that the group puts out a specific proposal for lawmakers’ consideration, which they hope will lead to future legislative changes.
The group’s Carbon Fee and Dividend policy is an economics-based plan to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions; a plan, which the group stresses, will stimulate the alternative energy sector of the economy. It places a fee on carbon-based fuels at the source, meaning at the well, mine and port of entry. Starting at $15 per ton of fossil CO2 emitted and increasing each year by $10, with that money to be placed in a public trust fund. That money, Citizens’ Climate Lobby maintains, will make its way back to American households equally on a per-capita basis. This levy would be the stimulus for entrepreneurs to invest in the clean energy economy, the group said, stressing this plan would result in the creation of more than 2 million jobs, adding more than $70 billion to the gross domestic product and saving approximately 13,000 lives due to reduced air pollution. The statistics are drawn from a study commissioned by the lobby, conducted by the Regional Economic Model Inc., a public policy group.
“Economists across the spectrum have endorsed it,” Blackwood said. “From a (fiscal) conservative point of view, it’s revenue neutral.”
Blackwood works as researcher at AT&T Labs in Middletown and serves as the group’s liaison with U.S. Representative Chris Smith, a Republican whose 4th Congressional District covers much of the Two River Area; and liaison for Cory Booker, the junior U.S. Senator for New Jersey, a Democrat. “About three years ago I just wanted to do something to affect climate change,” which he saw as a real and present threat, Blackwood said. When he became aware of the lobby’s efforts, “They looked like they had a good approach,” and were attracting “a lot of smart people,” he added.
The approach is non-confrontational as well as non-partisan, as the group tries to win over hearts and minds, said Krusell.
What Blackwood has found is that all congressional members he’s been involved with on this issue have been open-minded on the topic especially when confronted with the data. “We don’t meet a lot of denial,” from the federal lawmakers, he observed.
However, “The election has changed the landscape quite a bit,” Krusell acknowledged about the recent presidential victory of Donald J. Trump. Trump has said in the past that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government to put U.S. businesses at a disadvantage.
Despite the president-elect’s position, “our organization will continue doing what we do,” Krusell offered.
Marshall Saunders, a Coronado, California-based real estate broker specializing in shopping center development and leasing, founded the group about a decade ago to address his concerns about the threat climate change posed. He adapted the lobbying strategies he saw used in his years of working with an anti-hunger and -poverty group, RESULTS.
More information about Citizens’ Climate Lobby can be found online at citizensclimatelobby.org, or through the local chapter (908) 601-9466.
