Action Alert: Ask Congress to Support a Strong Build Back Better Budget

When Congress returns from its recess in September, it will resume work on the “Build Back Better Budget.” It’s important that this budget include the investments needed to both to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.  Please send a short letter to Colorado’s Congressional Delegation to make sure they receive this message.

Please write to Senator Michael Bennet, Senator John Hickenlooper, and your representative (see list here) asking them to support a strong “Build Back Better Budget.”  A sample e-message is provided below; please personalize if you have time.  If you don’t have time, just copy, paste, add the appropriate names, and send.

Dear Senator/Representative XXX:

Please support a Build Back Better Budget when you return from your August recess that addresses the climate crisis at the scale required.  The science has never been clearer that time is running out to avert the worst harms of climate breakdown.  Drought, wildfires, torrential downpours, heat waves and other extreme weather is battering communities from Arizona to Michigan to Florida, wreaking havoc in rural communities, cities and everywhere between.  We must act now with a climate budget that invests in our future.

The Build Back Better Budget must make bold, ambitious investments in the following areas:

• A plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants by at least 80%.  The Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate (CCLC) has called for 98% greenhouse gas pollution reductions from Colorado’s utility sector by 2030.
• A gradual phase-out of oil and gas production over the coming decade.  The CCLC has called for 10% per year reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for a full phase-out of oil and gas production in Colorado by 2030.  People employed in the oil and gas sector can be put to work shutting down wells as production declines.
• More clean energy jobs and a civilian climate corps to provide good jobs addressing the climate crisis to everyone who wishes to work in this area.
• Retrofitting homes and schools to be energy efficient.
• Affordable public transit.
• Tax credits that expand the electric vehicle market and boost manufacturing of electric cars, trucks and buses
• Charging stations and EV infrastructure

Additionally, the Build Back Better Budget should include a carbon fee and dividend to discourage the use of fossil fuels and return a portion of receipts to citizens and U.S. residents. 

The climate crisis and environmental injustice have been ignored for far too long.  This is no time for half-measures; we must act boldly now.  Please do everything you can to pass a strong Build Back Better Budget.

Sincerely,

Your Name