Over 800 volunteers from Citizens’ Climate Lobby attended the July 2025 Summer Conference, participating in more than 400 lobby meetings on Lobby Day. We had a 28-member contingent from Wisconsin, with 10 young people fully or partially funded through CCL Wisconsin’s new scholarship program. See our state’s photo album here. We thank everyone who donated, especially Larry Hands and Karen Kendrick-Hands, who funded the large Two-for-One Match donation!
Asked how the experience changed her, Emelyn Beaster, leader of the Lawrence University CCL chapter stated, “By lobbying Congress, and being right on site in DC, I gained a lot of hope for the impact of the voice of the community in climate work. This lobby day came at a time where it’s been really easy to lose that hope or feel burnt out in climate work, but the conference reminded me that together, a community like CCL can become this really influential collective voice of action.”
We hope to bring as many or more volunteers of all ages together in Washington, DC, for the 2026 Conference and Lobby Day. Meanwhile, we continue our efforts from home by taking actions suggested by CCL National and by supporting the outreach and development work of our local chapters.
Our climate advocacy continues to be very important, especially in these difficult times. As climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe puts it, “The science is clear: every fraction of a degree of warming we prevent reduces suffering and saves lives. We already have the technology, the knowledge, and the ability to transition to a clean energy future, cut emissions, and build resilient communities. The biggest thing we’re missing is the collective will to act—and that’s something each of us can help create.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher, but so too are the opportunities. By choosing action, we not only protect what we love; we are also building a safer, healthier, and more equitable future. The power to turn awareness into momentum, and momentum into change, is in our hands.”
Blog
Introducing CCL WI’s new Scholarship Fund; help is requested with fundraising efforts
CCL Wisconsin is dedicated to supporting and empowering its members who wish to attend the 2025 Summer Conference and participate in Lobby Day in Washington, D.C., on July 20-22. And we believe that lack of funds to make the trip should be the last reason that someone cannot attend.
So we have developed a Scholarship Program this year. Learn more about the CCL Wisconsin Scholarship Guidelines here. Click here for the scholarship application form.
Our first-ever, state CCL fundraising effort was the successful CCL Wisconsin Younger Members Panel held on April 6. See this nine-minute highlights video.
As we continue to build the CCL Wisconsin Scholarship fund, we’d like to ask for help. Many CCL volunteers, family members, and friends simply do not have the time or inclination to travel to Washington, DC, for the annual Summer Conference and Lobby Day. However, if asked, perhaps they’d be willing to contribute to our CCL Wisconsin scholarship fund in order to help others who really would like to go but would need some financial assistance.
Any interested CCL Wisconsin supporter is invited to ask supportive family members and friends if they’d be willing to donate to this fund. They would be able to help young people and other CCL volunteers from Wisconsin who need help financially to travel to Washington, DC, for the summer Conference and Lobby Day. Here is a sample donation letter that could be customized.
With many thanks to our Citizens’ Climate Lobby supporters in Wisconsin, every little bit helps!
“Advocacy is empathy, compassion and community at work.” ― Janna Cachola
CCL Wisconsin’s Younger Members Panel and Fundraiser a Big Success!
Ever wonder what young people think about climate change and how they feel about advocating for climate solutions?
On April 6, 2024, Citizens’ Climate Lobby of Wisconsin held a Younger Members Panel discussion on Zoom, where college students, Emelyn Beaster and Rylee Polanka, of the new CCL Lawrence University chapter and high school students, Nina Zhu and Madeleine Bohn, of the CCL Madison chapter shared their answers to these questions and much more.
Following is a nine-minute highlight clip and the full length video recording of this inspiring event, which also was a first-of-a-kind fundraiser for CCL Wisconsin to kick off our new scholarship fund. This fund will help send young people and others who would not otherwise be able to attend CCL’s Summer Conference and Lobby Day in Washington, DC. If you’d like to donate or help us raise money, please see this blogpost.
Contact cclwisco@gmail.com with any questions.
Here is a nine-minute highlight clip:
And here’s the full video:
CCL Wisconsin Younger Members Panel Sunday, April 6, 6-7 pm CST
Register here for your Zoom link:
https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/meeting/register/DtiTwst1RrKKu62BM9cQIg.
Join CCL Wisconsin as two high school-aged members of the Madison CCL chapter’s Youth Action Team and two college-aged members from the new Lawrence University CCL campus chapter in Appleton share how they became concerned about climate change and what it is like to be a youth or young adult climate advocate. Their voices are influential in lobby meetings, as they courageously take part in discussions on federal climate policy-making, promoting clean energy and slowing global warming. There will also be time for Q&A.
This event will be a fundraiser to help our WI youth and young adult volunteers and other CCLers who may need financial assistance to get to Washington, DC, to participate in Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s Summer Conference and Lobby Day on July 20-22, 2025. Any donations can be made at: cclwi.org/donate or by emailing cclwisco@gmail.com for more information.
Your support of our state’s CCL youth and young adult climate advocates is truly appreciated! Please also feel free to share this link with your family, friends and other networks: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/meeting/register/DtiTwst1RrKKu62BM9cQIg#/registration.
Big news: Citizens’ Climate Lobby at Lawrence University
Lawrence University in Appleton has become the home of CCL Wisconsin’s first campus chapter!
When five Lawrence University students attended the October 2024 CCL Great Lakes Regional Conference in Rockford, Illinois, they met student leaders from the very active campus chapter at the University of Michigan. Within four months, Lawrence University CCL became an official organization on campus. With a staff advisor who was a CCL member and the mentoring of CCL National’s Climate Fellow, Jun Gesteland, the new Lawrence University campus chapter has already been very active.
The Lawrence University CCL chapter has hosted an info session, had four monthly chapter meetings, and gave a talk at the University’s Greenfire Presentation Night to spread awareness about their group and to start collaborating with other campus organizations. They also met with students from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, who worked with their own student CCL chapter to start a CFD (carbon fee & dividend) Movement. The Lawrence CCL chapter leadership team members has attended national CCL monthly Higher Education Action Team and Campus Leader Strategy calls, as well as learned about strategies for making a difference as undergraduate students.
“Our generation is building this huge momentum to address the climate crisis, and I’m so excited to be a part of it,” stated the new chapter leader Emelyn Beaster, “At Lawrence, there are so many students who are passionate about solutions to everything from global warming to food insecurity. CCL campus chapters can help create a space for all of us to work together and do meaningful climate action!”
Going forward, several chapter members would like to attend the CCL Summer Conference and Lobby Day in Washington, DC, in July. However, it will be necessary to do some major fundraising for these trips, and they are working hard on that at this time.
In addition to raising money to get to the CCL Summer Conference and Lobby Day, some of their other goals include: establishing a weekly sustainability column in the college’s Lawrentian publication; possibly doing some state lobbying; planning for spring-term collaboration with Greenfire; and working with the LU Sustainability Coordinator to contribute to the current discussions on a 5/10/20 year plan for Lawrence sustainability.
IRA Benefits for Wisconsin: Key Facts, District Projects, and Resources
Phil Smith
In our December lobby meetings with Republican members of Congress (MOCs), we presented The IRA is Good for Business. Keep it in Place as our primary ask. Several aides said they would like additional details on Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) benefits to Wisconsinites. We have assembled a one-pager of IRA national and Wisconsin benefits (with awesome links), and included a lengthy table of specific projects benefiting from IRA funds organized by congressional district. Additional resources, such as media reports, are included on a second page. Liaisons, group leaders, and others are welcome to download the files, modify as you see fit and use the data in social media posts, letters to the editor (LTEs)/Op-eds, and other communications with your networks. Liaisons won’t forward to MOCs until CCL national tells us the time is ripe.
These files are also useful for other states since many of the links for Wisconsin benefits also contain information for other states. CCL national now has a database with both the E2 and Rhodium databases available for all states at this link.
IRA Rebates Update from Focus on Energy – Event Recording & Other Resources
On Wednesday, January 29, 2025, CCL Wisconsin virtually hosted Brady Steigauf, Focus on Energy’s Community Liaison Manager, for a very educational presentation about the IRA rebates and other incentives for residents of Wisconsin for clean energy and efficiency. You can watch the recorded presentation here and view the presentation slides here.
We learned how Wisconsinites can benefit from the IRA rebates, as well as state and federal (and sometimes local utility) incentives, to save money and reduce our carbon pollution. Following are some additional important and useful found tools on Focus on Energy’s website:
- https://focusonenergy.com/get-started is the best place to “Get Started” when you have home projects in mind and are curious what incentives exist locally to make energy improvements more affordable.
- “How do businesses or nonprofits know where to start?” They’re a little more complex. Other than looking at their website for custom offerings for each business type, Focus on Energy’s Energy Advisors are regionally/locally based and provide one-on-one help. A map of the Business (nonprofits also use the same) Energy Advisors can be found here: https://focusonenergy.com/energy-advisor-map?program=businessCustomers
- Wisconsin’s IRA Home energy rebates
- IRA questions can be sent to this email address: iraher@focusonenergy.com.
We are grateful to Brady for sharing this excellent information and to Focus on Energy for managing the many energy-saving the rebates for Wisconsin!
Special Event: “Focus on Energy’s Update on IRA Home Energy Rebates” Wednesday, Jan. 29, 7 pm
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Wisconsin is excited to host Focus on Energy’s community liaison manager, Brady Steigauf. Come learn about IRA Home Energy Rebates & Focus on Energy incentives for beneficial electrification. Wisconsin is the first state in the country to launch the IRA Home Energy Rebate programs, thanks to our statewide Focus on Energy program. These rebate programs help make whole-home efficiency and/or electrification more affordable.
Find out how Wisconsinites can participate and benefit from state and federal (and sometimes local utility) incentives, including federal tax credits, to save money and reduce our carbon pollution.
Register here: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/meeting/register/1iGKb7dqSEKxHiLLE6Uplw.”
Wisconsin CCL’s New Phone Banking – It’s a different experience!
We’ve been having some very encouraging conversations in our latest round of phone banking. Our new script is very different from what we have used in the past because it is based on deep canvassing. It leads off with asking people about their opinions on the environment and climate solutions, and some people really want to talk about it! While callers still receive many of the usual responses such as wrong number, not home, voicemail and hangups, the conversations that we do have seem to be connecting emotionally with environmentalists who don’t typically vote.
Two of our phone banking volunteers share their recent experiences below:
“I had a few in-depth, heartfelt conversations while phone banking one night last week using our new script. One woman I talked to said she was uncomfortable about what seemed to her like “the weird shifting of the seasons.” She said she was also very frustrated that some people just don’t see it. After asking her to tell me more, she talked about how winters are so much shorter now and we shared our mutual sadness that snow is no longer practically guaranteed for Christmas anymore. One of her family members lives in northern Wisconsin, and they never even got their snowmobiles out last year. The snowmobile trails were not opened even once. She confirmed that family traditions were very important to her. She and I agreed that many things are very different now because of the weird weather caused by climate change. After we had talked, she was absolutely sure she would be voting. She thanked me for talking with her.” – Jill Mitchler
“Using a deep-canvassing-inspired phone banking script and the polished call list, I had an incredibly fulfilling phone banking session last week with several deep conversations! With one caller, I shared my experience of wildfire smoke clouding my neighborhood, and they talked about how they knew people in California who were affected by other wildfires. We developed a shared understanding of our love for those we care about. The phone call comforted me. It affirmed my belief that there are others like me who want to talk about their deep-rooted feelings about climate change with people who want to understand, not debate. As a bonus, the caller I mentioned committed to go to the polls and even agreed to a text reminder! Thank you to all of the previous phone bankers who worked hard to clean up the call list and make my phone banking session a motivational experience.” – Jun Gesteland
We are phone banking twice a week through the end of October. Give it a try! In addition to having some inspiring discussions by telephone, we’re learning and practicing skills that can be used in our everyday, face-to-face conversations. Every phone banking session includes training.
Tuesday mornings – 10:00 to 11:30 am CT (if you don’t need training you can just come at 10:30 or whenever you want to start) Zoom Link: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/86403066619? pwd=lrOXb1RSpeKoUj4BGEHaHc9ACh06VH.1 Meeting ID: 864 0306 6619 Passcode: 123
Thursday evenings – 6-7:45 pm CT Link: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/87024242304?pwd=OWKcfiUiaARQUE7MNcpr1f2GLPcceZ.1 Meeting ID: 870 2424 2304 Passcode: 123
Please consider joining us; we’d love to have your help. And if it’s out of your comfort zone, remember that’s where the magic happens!
Working together gets it done: Zoom co-working Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m.
Have fun turning your good intentions into completed actions, and make a difference this election year! Whether you know what exactly you need to do or you are figuring out your election activities, co-working on Zoom gets it into your schedule and gives you a bit of company (muted most of the time) while you work. You can make a plan for how you want to work on election engagement when you join the meeting, or come with your tasks in front of you already. Our personal worksheet can give you ideas, or you can ask the Zoom co-working host. And we’ll cheer each other on.
Our Zoom co-working takes place on Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m., hosted by Madeleine Para and Katy Grogan. (We are no longer hosting it on Saturday mornings.) Tuesday zoom link: https://citizensclimate.zoom.us/j/86403066619?pwd=lrOXb1RSpeKoUj4BGEHaHc9ACh06VH.1 Meeting ID: 864 0306 6619 Passcode: 123
Citizens' Climate Lobby Wisconsin 