As a result of we shouldn’t solely act for the Earth on April 22, Earth911 is honoring Earth Day’s 52 years of inspiring motion with 52 Actions for the Earth. The Earth Day theme this 12 months is investing in the planet. Every week from Earth Day 2022 to Earth Day 2023, we’ll share an motion you may take to spend money on the Earth and make your personal life extra sustainable.
This week, you may spend money on the Earth by serving to to create a inexperienced economic system.
Motion: Inform Congress to Assist Inexperienced Financial Laws
Construct Again Higher
Final 12 months, President Biden proposed the Construct Again Higher Plan. The plan provided a legislative framework to construct the muse of a brand new inexperienced economic system that may return the nation to pre-pandemic financial prosperity. The plan contained three elements:
- The American Rescue Plan was a COVID-19 aid bundle. It grew to become legislation in March 2021.
- The American Households Plan was a social coverage proposal that included spending on welfare and social companies.
- The American Jobs Plan was a proposal to fund infrastructure and scale back the results of local weather change.
American Jobs Plan
The American Jobs Plan would have put the U.S. on target to make the most of 100% clear energy by 2035; laid the muse to electrify the nation’s automobile fleets; and retrofit houses, colleges, and buildings to be power environment friendly. The plan prioritized fairness by focusing on 40% of the advantages from inexperienced economic system infrastructure investments in deprived communities.
Among the infrastructure spending within the American Jobs Plan was included into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into legislation on November 15, 2021. Different parts of the American Jobs Plan – similar to funding associated to local weather change and residential care – had been merged with the American Households Plan to type the Build Back Better Act, which handed the Home however was successfully killed by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). For many who wish to know extra concerning the legislative course of surrounding the invoice, Vox explored possible paths forward.
Take Motion for Inexperienced Laws
A number of the infrastructure and local weather parts from the original plan have been adopted piecemeal by different laws. However many parts stay unfulfilled, specifically, the local weather change provisions. The Home COMPETES Act consists of a lot of them. Congress is at present resolving differences between this invoice and the Senate’s Innovation and Competitors Act.
To take motion for the inexperienced economic system, you may write a letter to your Congressional representatives. Allow them to know that you simply supported the American Jobs Plan and wish to see a remaining decision of the present Home and Senate payments that features provisions for motion towards local weather change and assist for the inexperienced economic system. Encourage your representatives to proceed proposing and voting for laws that helps clear energy, decrease emissions, and environmental justice.
You possibly can ship your letter any means that you simply like. Congressional workplace workers file and catalog each communication they obtain. So use your finest stationery, hearth off an e mail, or use the form on the EarthDay.org web site that may autofill your representatives’ contact data based mostly in your mailing deal with. However do inform your representatives that you really want them to work in the direction of a inexperienced economic system.
