Friday, January 30, 2015

Groundhog Day...almost


New Legislative Sessions and Bill Tracking

By now, most state legislatures are up and running for new legislative sessions. We have seen a whole host of bills, mostly good, dealing with energy efficiency and renewables coming through state legislatures. You can peruse the ones we are tracking here:




The new bill tracking service we are using is called Bill Track 50. Some of the advocates in the states are already trained and using it. We have phased out our service with KSE, if you were depending on it for your bill tracking, then you need to contact Christina so she can get you set-up with Bill Track 50.

Also, on our February advocates call, USGBC's account manager will be on the call to do more in-depth tutorials on the other functions of Bill Track 50 that are available to advocates.

Federal Update

After a three-week debate and votes on dozens of amendments, the Senate finally passed a bill to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline project. Also included in the bill were amendments to promote energy efficiency and a symbolic statement that climate change is “real.” The final bill that will go to President Obama, after House and Senate Republican leaders confer, will likely only address the Keystone project.

2015 Advocacy Campaign Priorities

Some of you may have heard this already during the Chapter Priorities webinar that the Community Advancement team hosted. Here is the link to just the Advocacy Campaign Priorities for 2015 on Yammer. Please let Christina know if you have any questions.

February Advocates Call

The February Advocates call is Tuesday, February 17th at 4pm ET. The change in date is due to the Presidents Day holiday. Here is the webinar information.

Meeting number:         756 481 233    
Meeting password:      Adv0cates      

Join by phone 
1-650-429-3300 Call-in toll number (US/Canada) 
Access code: 756 481 233 

Monday, January 12, 2015

Happy New Year

2015 Monthly Advocates Calls

The 2015 monthly Advocates calls will adhere to the same schedule, 3rd Monday of the month at 4PM ET, except for January and February, due to federal holidays.

January Call: Tuesday, January 20th at 4pm ET.
We will have guest speaker, Steve Kihm, Principal and Chief Economist for the Energy Center of Wisconsin.
Here is the link to the webinar: Join WebEx meeting

New Legislative Session Template Email/Letter

On Yammer, you will find a template letter we think will be useful for your legislator outreach at the beginning of new legislative session. It is a basic letter that your chapter can customize.

Chapter Advocacy Days

We are looking ahead to a busy winter and spring for state legislative sessions. Please let us know, by filling out the form below, if you are planning a lobby day at your state capitol.