ACTION PLAYBOOK:

Contact Your Utility Regulators

  • Urge your state’s utility regulators to implement regulations that incentivize decarbonization.

    1. Find your state’s utility regulators

    2. Send an email

    3. Call or leave a voicemail

    4. Report back

    5. Ask a friend to do this too!

  • Utility companies are responsible for delivering electricity and gas directly to homes and commercial buildings. Almost all of these energy utility companies either purchase or generate energy from fossil gas. Some operate their own gas-fired power plants, while others purchase gas-fired electricity to resell in retail markets.

    Every state has a commission that regulates utility companies. These regulatory bodies have a variety of names, but most are a version of Public Utilities Commission or Public Service Commission.

    Regardless of whether utility companies are generating their own electricity or purchasing it, public utilities commissions (PUCs) play a role in regulating that distribution chain. This makes PUCs influential and worth contacting.

1. Find your utility regulators

Find your commissioners and their phone numbers:

  1. Click the button below and find your state

  2. After selecting your state, you should see 3–5 commissioners, though a few states have as many as 7

  3. Keep the tab open displaying your commissioners’ phone numbers

Email address: It may be challenging to find individual email addresses for your public utilities commissioners, but it’s okay if you need to use a commission-wide email address.

  1. Using the tab you have open, click the external link to your PUC’s website

  2. Poke around for a “Contact Us” page. Every site will look different, so take whatever email address or contact form they’re offering!

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

2. Send an email

When you have an email address handy, click on the template below to open an editable email to your state utility regulators about this week’s featured climate solution (or manually copy and paste the template). The featured campaign is marked with a ⭐️, while additional relevant campaigns are marked “Active.”

Personalize the email wherever you can. Please bcc advocacy@climatechangemakers.org so we can track our impact.

Make sure to customize the sections in brackets and carry over any links (they’re an important part of your message), and save a copy of your email to use as a phone script.

Send the emails! Then, return to this playbook.

3. Make a call

Next, call each commissioner using the numbers you found in Step 1. You can repurpose 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.

4. Report back!

If you receive a response from your utility regulators, please share it with advocacy@climatechangemakers.org or send a message to a staff member in the Climate Changemakers Slack. You can simply forward email responses or send a screenshot. This enables us to more accurately track our community’s collective impact.

👎 Did your regulator give a reason it can’t happen in your state? Okay, anything you learn from their response is valuable—including their real or perceived barriers to action—so please report back. At the same time, be mindful of political dynamics and how they might affect a regulator’s response! 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? Awesome! Consider sharing your response publicly in the Climate Changemakers Slack #wins-shoutouts channel—other changemakers may find it motivating and inspiring. We’re normalizing civic action on climate, and it starts with talking about it.

5. Multiply your impact

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

“The most important thing you can do to fight climate change is to talk about it.”
– Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and communicator

Network effects are powerful. Connecting others with opportunities to take productive climate action is a crucial step toward changing cultural norms and making real progress. We're not the only ones asking, “What more can I do?”. Answering that question for others is an important climate action.

📲 Easy option: simply share this LinkedIn post.

Level up! Get creative with how you spread the word and invite others into action! This could look like a post on Reddit or the social media network of your choice, or sharing links in a Slack community, a group text, or an email listserv. Frame it however you think might be the most effective.

Looking for tips and tools for more effective climate conversations? We got you.

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

🎉 CUE CONFETTI by clicking COMPLETE! 🎉

Want more action?
Go to the current Action Plan

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