ACTION PLAYBOOK:
Urge Your State to Regulate Emissions
Let’s take action.
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Urge your state legislators to allow the public utilities commission to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
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Find your state legislator
Research your state’s public utilities commission
Send an email
Make a phone call
Tweet at your legislator
Report back
Scale your impact
1. Find your state legislator’s contact information
Most Americans don’t know who represents them in the state legislature, but if you’re part of that majority, don’t worry! Use our playbook Who Represents You in the State Legislature? to find out. The playbook will help you easily find an email address, phone number, and Twitter handle for your legislator.
2. Research a few basic facts about your state
Before you start drafting your email, it’s helpful to understand a few things about your state to ensure you’re referencing everything correctly. Use the resources below to gather this information:
We’re using PUC as a generic term, but they have different names in every state. Here’s a list of every utility regulatory commission in the country and the current commissioners.
Does your state have a clean energy standard, and which type? Use this interactive map to find out.
Are there already efforts in your state to accomplish PUC modernization? Google “[your state] + public utilities commission modernization” and see what you find. This will give you something even more concrete to ask your legislator to support. If you find nothing relevant, that almost certainly means there’s no such effort in your state. Most states are not doing this!
3. Send a personalized email
It might be tempting to sign your name to the bottom of a pre-written email, but personalized emails are much more attention-grabbing and get processed differently than form letters (which are often batched). Since PUCs are a niche topic that most people aren’t casually discussing around the dinner table, we’ve provided talking points you can paste into your email and customize to fit your personal narrative.
Regardless of whether you use the talking points, be sure to follow this basic formula in your writing:
Identify yourself as a constituent (and identify your district).
Make the specific ask: I’m urging you to support legislation that grants sufficient statutory authority to our public utilities commission [replace with whatever your state calls it!] to regulate utilities’ greenhouse gas emissions.
State any relevant expertise (if applicable) and a few facts to back up your ask.
Authentically tie the policy issue to why you care.
➡️ Talking points on PUC mandates:
Public utilities commissions have authority over utilities that serve 72% of America’s electricity customers.
Most PUC mandates were written at a time when we didn’t know much about climate change, and they must be modernized to reflect our need to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
We can’t expect commissioners to take initiative on regulating GHGs on their own when there is ambiguity over their regulatory authority in this domain. State legislatures have to act.
Modernizing statutory authority of PUCs is essential to keeping regulatory action aligned with state climate policies. [Here’s a good place to cite your state’s clean energy standard, if applicable!] There must be a mechanism for evaluating utilities’ performance on emissions.
There are already great examples of states updating this statutory language:
In 2018, Connecticut instructed its Public Utilities Regulatory Agency to consider whether a utility “maximizes consumer benefits consistent with the state's environmental goals and standards, including, but not limited to, the state's greenhouse gas reduction goals.”
In 2021, Massachusetts amended its Department of Public Utilities mandate to add what’s in bold: “prioritize safety, security, reliability of service, affordability, equity and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to meet statewide greenhouse gas emission limits and sublimits [established in the act].”
When you’re done, save your letter in a separate file so you can use it as your call script and/or repurpose it as a Twitter thread. When you’re ready, hit send using the email address you found in Step 1.
4. Make a phone call
Use your email as a call script!
You’ll want to identify your constituent status, be concise and specific, and demonstrate authenticity. When you’re ready to go, dial the office number you found in Step 1. If they don’t pick up, leave a voicemail.
5. Tweet at your legislator
Public amplification of your message can grab the attention of policymakers and elicit a response. Turn your personalized message into a Tweet, being sure to preserve the specific policy ask. Make sure you tag their handles! Check any of our federal policy Issue Briefings for ideas about how to structure the Tweet.
6. Report back!
If you receive a response from your local officials, please report back to advocacy@climatechangemakers.org or send a message to a staff member in Slack. You can simply forward email responses or send a screenshot. This enables us to more accurately track our collective impact.
It's useful to learn of any barriers for your state. Anything you learn from their response is valuable, so please report back! We’re trying to grease the wheels to deploying climate solutions, so the more we know, the more effective we can become as connectors and advocates.
Did you get an enthusiastic response from your state legislator? Awesome! Consider sharing your response publicly in our Slack #wins-and-shoutouts channel —other changemakers may find it motivating and inspiring. We’re normalizing civic action on climate, and it starts with talking about it.
7. Scale your impact
Letting others in your network know that you’ve taken action is a great way to scale your impact. Consider using social media, email, texting, etc. to amplify the action you just took and invite others to join you. If you’re in our Slack, consider posting about what you did to help motivate others! Below is sample language you can customize:
I just contacted my state legislator about how important it is to modernize public utility commissions. It’s really empowering and a lot more accessible than it seems. Check it out for yourself at the next Hour of Action with @theclimatevote! http://climatechangemakers.org/events
Thank you for taking action!
Help us improve this playbook: info@climatechangemakers.org
