Hi everyone,
Please see below for talking points to rebut the attacks we've seen from the fossil fuel industry on the American Jobs plan. Please reach out with any questions.
Thanks,
Lauren
CAC RESOURCE: Talking Points/Response to Opposition Attacks on American Jobs Plan
False Claim: Clean energy jobs are not a replacement for fossil fuel jobs.
Truth: The fossil fuel industry has been struggling for years. During the Trump administration alone, tens of thousands of jobs were lost in the industry as the price of crude oil plummeted and companies went belly-up. Economic analysts have predicted that President Biden’s plan will create nearly 19 million new jobs, including millions within the clean energy sector. In fact, clean energy job and economic gains will dwarf the losses from fossil fuel’s contraction. Before the pandemic, the clean energy sector was the fastest growing job creator in the US economy.
Talking Points:
The Build Back Better Plan will result in new good-paying jobs across America, including in small towns and rural areas.
Moving to wind and solar power will create jobs for electricians, welders, engineers, pipefitters, and laborers.
Retrofitting and modernizing factories will revitalize our manufacturing sector and lead to a resurgence in manufacturing jobs.
The Build Back Better Plan included training for workers to transition to clean energy jobs.
Energy company CEOs make millions in pay and bonuses and routinely lay off workers making hourly wages to pad their profits. These bad actors put their stockholders first and workers last.
False Claim: This bill is just a massive tax increase disguised as an infrastructure package.
Truth: Republicans love to say they’re for a major infrastructure bill except when it’s proposed by a Democratic president. Republicans also seem to abandon any sense of fiscal responsibility when they’re in the majority. Just look at their 2017 tax cuts, which were a windfall for the top one percent of Americans at the expense of our national debt. President Biden’s plan will put the country on the right path and it will do so in a fiscally sound way by addressing our flawed corporate tax code which has allowed multinational conglomerates to leverage loophole after loophole to avoid paying their fair share.
Talking Points
The long-term benefits of the American Jobs Plan far surpass the costs of these investments.
Clean energy creates good-paying jobs in numerous sectors and in small and medium-sized businesses across the country.
These investments will not only get more people working in higher-paying jobs, but will also reduce electricity costs, leading to more consumer spending and a healthier overall economy.
Top economists agree that clean energy is a smart investment in our long-term growth that will make U.S. companies more productive and competitive and add trillions of dollars to our economy.
There is strong support for a plan to pay for these infrastructure investments by asking the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share. A recent Politico/Morning Consult poll found that by more than a 2-to-1 margin, voters say they would be more likely to support an infrastructure plan paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy and big business The approach was supported by 47% of voters in the survey, and opposed by only 21%.
Biden’s American Jobs Plan calls on the wealthy to do more and rolls back taxpayer funded subsidies for oil and gas companies they’ve had for decades. It will pay for itself in 15 years.
False Claim: Biden is jamming the Green New Deal into the infrastructure package.
Truth: Infrastructure and the climate crisis are intrinsically linked. It’s that simple. Our crumbling infrastructure is a major reason why transportation as a whole is the leading source of carbon pollution in the United States. This is not the Green New Deal, but it’s clear that addressing infrastructure will jumpstart efforts to address the climate crisis. That’s why millions of the jobs created as a result of this bill will fall within the clean energy sector.
Talking Points
President Biden’s American Jobs Plan makes huge investments in jobs, justice and climate solutions.
It will dedicate billions to rebuilding our transportation infrastructure, putting hundreds of thousands of people to work building roads and railways, fixing bridges, building 500,000 charging stations and improving the public transit that supports our economy.
President Biden’s Plan is a jobs plan, first and foremost. And it’s a smart plan to build back better – to create jobs while we address environmental injustice and tackle the climate crisis.
President Biden says tackling the climate crisis is a jobs plan and the investments in his American Jobs Plan will create millions of jobs and build back better, while cutting the pollution that drives climate change.