ACTION PLAYBOOK:

Contact Your Public Utility Commission

Step 1: Find your utility regulators

Every state has a Public Utility Commission (PUC) that oversees gas and electric utility companies. In some states, it’s called a Public Service Commission or Corporation Commission. Most have 3-5 commissioners, and some have as many as 7.

Find your commissioners and their contact info:

Click the button below and find your state
After selecting your state, you should see the faces and phone numbers of your commissioners.
Keeping that tab open, click the external link to the PUC’s website to look for your commissioners’ email addresses. Poke around for a ‘Contact Us’ or ‘About’ page. It’s ok if you only find a commission-wide email address or public comment form!

Find my commissioners

Alternatively, you can try to Google the names of your individual commissioners + “email address” or “contact info” to further target the emails.

- In Texas, the Railroad Commission of Texas regulates the gas utility companies– not the Public Utility Commission of Texas listed on the map above (they only regulate the electric utility companies).
- In Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Gas Commission regulates the local gas utility company, not the PA PUC listed on the map above.
Public Utility Commissions often post their meeting schedule on their websites. Sometimes they’re public hearings on specific issues before the PUC, and sometimes they’re just public meetings where anyone can raise concerns. Consider attending your PUC’s next meeting – or at least watch the livestream – to get a sense of how these things work and what kind of issues are in front of your PUC right now.

Step 2: Send personalized emails to your PUC commissioners

PUC commissioners rarely hear from the public because their proceedings can get really wonky. Don’t try to beat them at their own game; instead convey your valid concerns as a ratepayer and member of the public. It’s their job to ensure you’re getting safe and reliable service at a reasonable price!

Use the issue-specific Writing Guides below to craft an email to your commissioners.

Tips & reminders:

Customize the sections in brackets - or more if you’re up for it!
Send a unique email to each commissioner, tailoring it to their unique priorities as much as possible.
Save a copy of your email text to use as a phone script in the next step.
Please bcc advocacy@climatechangemakers.org so we can track our collective impact.

Step 3: Make a call

Next, call each commissioner using the numbers you found in Step 1 and repurposing your email as a call script. You’ll want to start by identifying your status as a resident of the state, then make sure to be concise and specific. Be polite, but don’t be afraid to get personal. There’s no shame in practicing before you call!

If they don’t pick up, don’t worry—your voicemail will be documented. And if you prefer to leave a voicemail rather than talk to a real person, call after hours.

Step 4: Multiply your impact - get a friend to do it too.

Now that you’ve taken action, increase your impact by talking about it!

You (and only you!) have the power to influence certain people around you to take action. To make the greatest impact possible, we have to get comfortable talking about climate action with friends – even if they say, “No thanks, not today.” It’s how we 2x, 5x, or even 10x our impact on the issues we care most about. More people taking action = more public pressure for climate solutions.

📲 Easy option: start with a social media post. Start from scratch, or repost from Climate Changemakers (@theclimatevote) with your own commentary on Instagram, BlueSky, or LinkedIn. You can do this in writing, or better yet, in a quick selfie video. The algorithms love video.

Whether you’re drafting from scratch or reposting with commentary, here’s an effective message arc:

🤓 What did you learn: I just learned that [insert most interesting factoid].
❤️‍🔥 Why do you care: This is really [emotional adjective like ‘exciting’ or ‘worrying’] because [why do you feel that way].
✅ What did you do: I just contacted my state legislator who represents me in [your state capitol], which was honestly way less intimidating and way more empowering than I thought it would be.
❓ Invitation/Call to Action: If any of my people in [places where this is relevant] want to do this with me, here’s a step-by-step playbook: https://www.climatechangemakers.org/preview-utility-regulators

Take this step to the next level by reaching out to a friend who lives in the district of a state legislator who you think needs a nudge.
- To make it as easy as possible for your friend, you can even “ghostwrite” for them. Just do this playbook again as if you were your friend and deliver them a ready-to-send email, phone number to call, and social media post to amplify. The more people get involved, the stronger the public pressure. The more targeted the public pressure, the more likely we are to succeed.
- A different strategic approach is to choose someone who lives in a place where the issue is hot. Picture a scenario where you live in Berkeley, CA, and the neighboring city of San Francisco hasn't yet banned fossil gas in new buildings. You also just read that in Salem, Oregon, a city council vote on this issue is imminent. In this case, your San Francisco friends can wait—text that Salem bestie immediately!

Step 5: Report back!

If you haven’t heard back in a week, follow up! A friendly nudge, just checking in that they received your email and the resources, is totally appropriate and often appreciated.

When you receive a response, please share it with advocacy@climatechangemakers.org. You can simply forward email responses or send a screenshot. This enables us to more accurately track our collective impact.

👎 Did they seem skeptical? Anything you learn from your regulator’s response is valuable—including barriers to action. We’re trying to grease the wheels for 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! In addition to forwarding to the Climate Changemakers staff, consider sharing your response publicly in our epic Slack #wins-shoutouts channel — other changemakers may find it motivating, and it may inspire more action-taking! We’re normalizing civic action on climate, and it starts with talking about it.

And that’s it, playbook complete! Feel accomplished.
Thank you for taking action.

🎉 CUE CONFETTI by clicking COMPLETE! 🎉