ACTION PLAYBOOK:

Urge Congress to Improve the Power Grid

1. Learn the basics.

  • We need to upgrade big electric transmission lines to get the power grid ready for renewable energy.

  • This will also help keep the AC on during extreme heat waves and prevent blackouts.

  • Right now, existing laws make it hard to build new transmission lines. But Congress can change that.

  • People like us can make a difference: 10 calls to a member of Congress is enough to get them to pay attention.

It’s a no-brainer! Let’s dive in.

➡️ Want more context? Jump to the bottom.

2. Send a personalized email.

We each have one U.S. House rep and two senators. Use the template below to email all three at once. When prompted for a letter topic, choose something like energy, climate, or environment. We automatically add a greeting ("Dear Senator...") and a sign-off ("Sincerely, Your Name"), so you just need to personalize everything in brackets!

🪩 BONUS: Make climate action cool.

Be a climate action role model! Get your community engaged, too. Here are some ideas:

  • Inspire the people around you to send an email.

  • Check out the Action Village.

  • Take an “action selfie” right now. Include it in your concert photo dump on social media. Tag @ajrbrothers and @theclimatevote.

  • Text this link to friends who aren’t here.

  • Mention this action when people ask “how was the concert?”

Every action counts. You never know what ripple effects you’ll have.

Congrats, you just took productive climate action!

Or maybe you just skipped down here to learn more:

  • Clean electricity is a top solution to address climate change.

  • We tend to build clean electricity far away from where people live. For example, we build solar farms where it’s very sunny and the land is cheap, like the desert.

  • To get electricity to people, we use big power lines called transmission lines. They’re like highways for electricity. In the U.S., we don’t have enough transmission lines. If we don’t build more, we won’t be able to connect new renewable energy to the grid.

  • More transmission lines will also keep electricity flowing normally during extreme weather. For example, we will be able to keep the AC on during heat waves, because there will be more “highways” for the electricity to travel on.

  • Right now, existing laws make it very hard to build new transmission lines. Harder than building a new oil pipeline, actually. 

  • We urgently need legislation that makes it easier to build new transmission so we can get clean energy on the grid. Congress knows it’s an issue. There are several proposed bills on transmission, but negotiations have stalled out and Congress has moved on.

  • People like us can actually make a difference: Studies show that 10 people writing in about a subject is enough to get a member of Congress to pay attention.

Want to learn even more? Check out this Climate Changemakers Issue Briefing on the topic.