How CREDO’s donation is helping the League of Conservation Voters act on climate and our democracy

CREDO members know how intertwined the climate crisis is with threats to democracy, and how important defending voting rights, electing climate champions, and holding politicians accountable for their votes on the environment are to the future of our planet.

That’s why in June 2020, CREDO members helped us donate $51,841 to the League of Conservation Voters, an organization that influences policy, holds politicians accountable, wins elections and fights to build a world with clean air, clean water, public lands, and a safe climate that are protected by a just and equitable democracy.

This donation from our members helped LCV and its state affiliates secure new clean energy progress at the state and local levels and helped build momentum for bold federal action on the climate crisis, democracy, and environmental justice by the Biden-Harris administration.Working with its affiliates in more than 30 states and its Chispa and Climate Action organizing programs, LCV’s Clean Energy for All campaign wins policies to equitably shift the U.S. to 100% clean energy through grassroots organizing, advocacy, and partnerships. Since launching this campaign in 2018, LCV has helped advocate for and win historic state-level climate action, such that 1 in 3 U.S. residents now live in places committed to 100% clean energy. In the last few months, the campaign:

• Secured passage of Massachusetts’ NextGen Roadmap Bill — landmark climate legislation that implements the strictest emission limits in the country of at least 50% carbon reductions by 2030, and includes critical environmental justice protections 20 years in the making and expands Massachusetts’ commitment to offshore wind;
• Pushed Lincoln Electric System, one of Nebraska’s three major utility boards, towards a unanimous vote to commit to net-zero carbon by 2040, building on a similar victory with the Omaha Public Power board the previous year;
• Secured the biggest electric school bus deal in the nation when Montgomery County, MD committed to lease over 300 electric school buses as part of Chispa Maryland’s Clean Buses for Healthy Niños campaign; 
• Secured approval in Arizona of an electric school bus pilot project in the Cartwright School District, which — along with the rollout of Arizona’s first electric school bus in the Phoenix Unified School Districtin 2020 — is a result of Chispa’s work to organize Latinx parents and students in the state since 2017; and
• Advanced policy expanding solar access for low-income communities in New Mexico, secured critical environmental justice policy in Washington, and passed clean cars legislation in Virginia.

Second, the CREDO grant helped LCV to play a lead role in the environmental movement’s successful efforts to push the Biden-Harris administration to advance a strong agenda on climate and environmental justice. Last year, LCV’s Change the Climate 2020 campaign helped make the climate crisis a top priority for Democratic presidential primary candidates on the campaign trail and ensure that whoever won the nomination would be ready to enact an ambitious and equitable climate plan starting on Day One. The Biden-Harris administration campaigned and won—with more than 81 million votes—on the strongest climate and environmental justice plan of any presidential ticket in U.S. history. In early 2021, LCV released a list of policy priorities for the Biden-Harris administration’s first 100 days and the 117th Congress and launched a $300,000 digital ad campaign to support this work. LCV’s new report, 100 Days in Office, details the many ways in which the Biden-Harris administration has already started to deliver on its historic campaign commitments to tackle the climate crisis, confront racial and economic injustice, and fix our democracy.

Third, LCV played a critical role in securing major climate and clean energy provisions in the year-end omnibus package passed by Congress in December 2020. These provisions include pieces to limit climate super pollutant HFCs, extend clean energy tax credits for wind and solar, invest in clean energy grid modernization, advance energy efficiency, and reduce diesel pollution. 

To learn more and get involved with LCV’s important climate justice work, visit https://www.lcv.org/ or follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.