Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN)

CCAN has spent time lobbying Washington politicians. In 2015, the organization hired lobbyist Kenneth Forsberg³ to lobby in support of HR 1027 (called The Healthy Climate and Family Security Act of 2015) which aimed to reduce the use of fossil fuels during the production of goods and services by imposing taxes and requiring companies to purchase government permits.⁴  CCAN is well known in the D.C. area for its aggressive leftism: The Washington Post noted that anti-Trump Administration groups were raising funds for its D.C. area operations. ⁵  The organization has challenged and protested the Washington Nationals for receiving financial support from ExxonMobil. Exxon’s funds were directly supporting the promotion of a more environmentally friendly stadium.⁶

CCAN’s methods of climate alarmism are controversial even within the environmentalist community.  The anti-corporate environmentalist publication Desmogblog called out CCAN’s director, Mike Tidwell, in a multipart critique challenging his “misuse of science to serve political ends.”⁷  Further, Desmogblog suggested Tidwell’s activism would inspire people “to take counterproductive actions.”⁸  CCAN has feuded with other environmentalists about wind energy.⁹

CCAN activists have a record of controversial demonstrations. Protests like one involving dumping coal on U.S. Capitol property¹⁰ caused police to log Tidwell and other members of CCAN in a database as being “suspected of involvement in terrorism” for a 13 month stretch, though no charges were ultimately filed.¹¹

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

CCAN was one of more than 650 signatories on an August 2022 letter organized by People vs Fossil Fuels and addressed to the “Democratic Leadership” in Congress. The letter was titled: “Opposition to Fossil Fuel Project Approvals and Permitting Reforms Conditioned on the Inflation Reduction Act.” ²

The letter portrayed as “false solutions” carbon sequestration, carbon-free nuclear energy and all sources of energy not approved as “renewable” by the signatories: “Relying only on large scale investments in renewable energy and environmental justice alone will not stave off climate disaster if Congress simultaneously puts its legislative foot on the gas to expand fossil fuel production and false solutions like carbon capture, hydrogen, biomass, biofuels, factory farm gas, and nuclear power.” ²

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ¹² An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ¹³

Allied Organizations

Chesapeake Climate Action Network lists numerous groups as “Allied Organizations.” ¹⁴ They include:

Regional and Federal Allies

Sierra Club

Earthworks

Food & Water Watch

Don’t Frack Maryland

Potomac Riverkeeper Network

350.org

Center for Health Environment and Justice

Credo Action

Earthjustice

Energy Action Coalition

Green America

Hip Hop Caucus

Interfaith Power & Light

Mom’s Organic Market

Physicians for Social Responsibility

U.S. Climate Action Network

Maryland Allies

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

Citizen Shale

Environment Maryland

Food and Water Watch

HoCo Climate Change

Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake

Maryland League of Conservation Voters

Maryland Environmental Health Network

NAACP

Waterkeeper Alliance

Virginia and Washington, D.C. Allies

Appalachian Voices

Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards

Southern Environmental Law Center

Virginia Conservation Network

DC Environmental Network

Leadership

CCAN’s most important employees have backgrounds in the environmentalist and labor movements. ¹⁵

Founder and Executive Director

Mike Tidwell, the founder and executive director of CCAN, has authored several books including The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities as well as created the documentary film – “We Are All Smith Islanders”.

Deputy Director and Chief Financial Officer

The deputy director and chief financial officer of CCAN, Kirsten Collings, is a member of the board of directors of Green Corps, an environmental advocacy group affiliated with the Public Interest Network.

Senior General Counsel

Anne Havemann, the senior general counsel and foundation grants manager of CCAN, previously worked at the Center for Progressive Reform as well as clerked for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the American Wind Energy Association.

Carbon Pricing Coordinator

The carbon pricing coordinator, Camila Thorndike, co-founded Our Climate in 2013, an advocacy group focused on carbon pricing laws, and previously worked for the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. Thorndike was also a fellow of the Center for Diversity and Environment and a former board member of the Geos Institute and Watershed Management Group.

Board of Directors

The Cheseapeake Climate Action Network board contains 13 board members, all with background in the environmentalist movement. ¹⁶

The Chairman of the Board for CCAN, David Goodrich, previously served as Director for both the Climate Observations Division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Global Climate Observing Systems at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Board Vice Chair, Sat Jiwan Ikle-Khalsa, is the current president of Save Our Sky Home Heating Cooperative and a monthly columnist for “Going Green” at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Voice. He also previously worked at the Center for a New American Dream.

Jonathan Pearson, the board secretary, who previously worked with the Maryland Save Our Steams and Amnesty International USA, currently sits as the Advocacy Coordinator for the National Peace Corps Association; the Board Treasurer, Ted Rouse, is the president of Healthy Planet LLC.

Additional board members include Charlie Garlow, an Air Enforcement Attorney for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Albert Nunez, co-founder of the Capital Sun Group in 1997; and Lise Van Susteren, a board member for the National Wildlife Federation.