Today’s guest is Mark Reynolds, Executive Director at Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

Executive Director Mark Reynolds’ tenure at Citizens’ Climate Lobby has been marked by exceptionally rapid growth, with the organization doubling or tripling in size every year.

During his years as a private sector trainer and consultant, Citizens’ Climate Education Executive Director Mark Reynolds worked to maximize personal and organizational effectiveness in a variety of fields. Today, he uses those skills to empower ordinary citizens to educate influential stakeholders about the benefits of national climate solutions. As a globally-recognized expert on helping disparate interests find common ground on energy, public policy, and the environment, Mark has appeared before the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, AREday, and Power Shift. He oversees a training curriculum that reaches tens of thousands of supporters every year, has been a frequent guest on TV and radio shows, and has written op-eds on climate solutions for 85 print journals, including the Houston Chronicle, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Des Moines Register, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Salt Lake Tribune. Mark also serves on multiple advisory boards including Climate Advocate Platform and Climate Cost Project.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• CCL founding story and their areas of focus
• The growth CCL has had under Mark’s leadership, and why Mark feels that is
• Polarized government and implications for getting things done
• Details of their carbon fee and dividend proposal
• Where things stand today and where they need to go
• Some headwind with their proposal and carbon pricing in general
• The CCL playbook and plan of attack
• Discussion on how bills get signed into law and what this bill would need to get signed into law
• Learnings from Waxman Markey
• How people can  help
• Parallels Mark draws to cigarette smoking
• GND and price on carbon
• If Mark could wave magic want to accelerate their efforts, what would he change and why

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Citizens’ Climate Lobby: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
• Marshall Saunders: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/about-ccl/citizens-climate-lobbys-founder/
• Microcredit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcredit
• Citizens’ Climate International conference: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/2019-conference/
• Collective action: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action
• David Jolly CCL interview: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/a-former-republican-congressmans-take-on-the-midterms/
• Theda Skocpol: https://scholar.harvard.edu/thedaskocpol/home
• Grover Norquist tax pledge: https://www.businessinsider.com/who-is-grover-norquist-pledge-signers-list-fiscal-cliff-republicans-tax-2012-11
• Climate Leadership Council: https://www.clcouncil.org/
• Jonathan Haidt TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind?language=en
• EICDA: https://teddeutch.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399493
• Frank Luntz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Luntz
• Frank Luntz’s call for climate action: https://grist.org/article/the-gops-most-famous-messaging-strategist-calls-for-climate-action/

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Enjoy the show!

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