The war in Ukraine is a stark illustration of how fossil fuels directly enable global conflict and threaten democracy in addition to driving the climate emergency. Enormous earnings from oil and gas exports provided President Putin with the hard currency needed to fuel his invasion of Ukraine. President Biden took a necessary first step by halting imports of Russian oil, gas, and coal — but lasting peace and global stability demand bolder climate leadership.  

That’s why Build Back Fossil Free – alongside 200+ climate, Indigenous, social justice, religious, foreign policy, and progressive groups – is urging the Biden administration to continue to resist bad faith attempts to lock in future fossil fuel exploitation and dependence by invoking the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up the deployment of renewable energy and stop existing fossil fuel infrastructure to ensure a just transition off fossil fuels. 

Amidst the backdrop of the latest dire Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the need to transition off of fossil fuels has never been more urgent. This is a critical moment to stand up to the false narrative being spread by the fossil fuel industry that we need to increase oil and gas production in response to surging energy prices, and demand that the President instead lead a just transition off fossil fuels once and for all. 

Biden can deploy his executive powers to weaken the geopolitical power of fossil fuels, address the climate emergency, and prevent further mass suffering by invoking the DPA to produce alternatives to fossil fuels, fight the climate emergency, combat Putin’s stranglehold on the world’s energy economy, and support the transition to a renewable and just economy.

For a list of actions you can take to suit your schedule, see this document.