Supporting Each Other and the Environment during the COVID-19 Pandemic

All of us at EESI hope that you and your family are doing well as our country and the world respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We would like to thank you for your continued interest in climate change solutions and to offer our support and love to all those affected by this crisis.

We want to reassure you that our work to advance both federal climate policy and technical assistance to utilities adopting clean energy financing solutions (our Access Clean Energy Savings Program) continues to move forward. We will continue to do all we can to work for winning climate policy solutions.

It’s clear that the widely varying coronavirus responses around the country have some parallels to the way that climate action has unfolded piecemeal in states, cities, and counties—yet swift federal action to respond to both crises intelligently is absolutely needed. For both climate change and this pandemic, ensuring that federal policy actions are informed by science and that they evolve quickly in response to the latest findings is critical.

From a logistical standpoint, we have made a few temporary changes in how we’re operating. Briefings will be held online instead of in person and EESI Update will be sent only by email for the time being. If you’re not on our email list, please sign up at www.eesi.org/subscribe.

Also, if you happen to be in a position where you can donate to EESI (which we would greatly appreciate, especially in light of the crisis), we’d love it if you did so online instead of by mail. Simply go to www.eesi.org/donate.

As the situation rapidly evolves, we have taken deliberate steps to keep our staff healthy and safe—to keep our work on climate solutions moving forward! We quickly updated our sick leave policy, implemented all-telework guidance, cancelled all staff travel for work, acquired and upgraded our webinar and online meeting technologies, and scheduled new team check-ins. Things have gone well, considering the circumstances, and our staff, fellows, and interns never missed a beat. Thankfully, we all remain healthy at this time and hope the same is true for you and your loved ones.

 

Authors: Phoebe Bride and Susan Williams