DNC Climate Council On Senate Passage Of Infrastructure Bill: We Must Act with Decision and Urgency to Address the Climate Crisis in Reconciliation
Statement from Michelle Deatrick, Founder and Chair of the DNC Environment and Climate Crisis Council:
“Now that the Senate has passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill, it must immediately move to the reconciliation bill and address the climate crisis with urgency and boldness.
“The climate crisis is not coming, it is here now. We already see killer heat waves, stronger storms and heartbreaking floods shattering record after historic record. The impacts of the climate crisis are being felt everywhere and planetary tipping points that threaten life as we know it are nearing.
“Yesterday, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, with its sobering, but not surprising conclusions, underscored the importance of this moment and the imperative need for our elected leaders to act without delay. This is the only way to limit further damage from this emergency. Just as every tenth of a degree of warming matters, every week of delay matters too.
“The reconciliation bill gives Congress a once-in-a-generation opportunity to finally address this crisis at the scale and scope it demands.
“Here is the plain truth, we can not build back better unless we build an economy that is sustainable, and that addresses the climate and environment justice crises head-on.
“To do this, the reconciliation bill must include unprecedented investments in a renewable, sustainable future. Above all, it must include an end to the federal fossil fuel subsidies for the oil and gas industry that are stoking global heating and poisoning our air, water, and soil.
“We can not afford to wait any longer to address this crisis. The reconciliation package gives Democrats an opportunity to do something Congress has failed to do for decades. Once and for all, we must take serious, meaningful and substantial steps to address the crisis that endangers all of us and our one and only earth.
