CAC Message Guidance: Turn Up the Heat Summer of Action

BACKGROUND

CAC’s summer of action program focuses on calling on Congress to pass big, bold, ambitious investments in climate, jobs, and justice. The messaging centers on the need to make investments that deliver on President Biden’s public commitments to tackle the climate crisis and advance environmental justice.

Because the legislative process is uncertain, the messaging is designed to be applicable to any qualifying legislative proposal that comes before Congress. Rather than advocating for a specific proposal, the focus will be on demanding Congress follow through on our priorities that the President promised the American people: big, bold, ambitious investments in climate and clean energy.

This messaging strategy is consistent with CAC’s early 2021 #ACTNow campaign and the #ActNow Investment Plan outlined in a letter to Congress delivered last February. 

MESSAGE GUIDANCE

If you say one thing:  

It is urgent that Congress pass a bill that makes the big, bold, and ambitious investments needed to tackle the climate crisis, achieve true environmental justice, and accelerate the transition to clean energy. To meet this moment, to heed the science, and to make good on President Biden’s promises, Congress must act now to deliver on climate, justice, and jobs. 

TALKING POINTS

Congress Must #ACTNow

• To rebuild our economy and create lasting economic opportunity for all, we must address climate change and accelerate the transition to clean energy. 

• It is urgent that Congress pass a bill that makes the big, bold, and ambitious investments needed to tackle the climate crisis, achieve true environmental justice, and accelerate the transition to clean energy. 

• To meet this moment, to heed the science, and to make good on President Biden’s promises, Congress must act now to deliver on climate, justice, and jobs. 

President Biden Proposed Big and Bold Investments

• President Biden’s initial plan to rebuild our economy included big and bold investments to spur clean energy growth, limit pollution from power plants, reduce carbon pollution from the fossil fuel industry, and expand the electric vehicle market through tax credits and investments in charging stations and infrastructure, and create millions of family sustaining jobs. 

• It also included a groundbreaking proposal to deliver 40% of the benefits from those investments to those communities traditionally harmed the most by dangerous pollution. 

• We need all of these provisions and more to meet President Biden’s goal of cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 (a 50-52% reduction in carbon pollution from 2005 levels by 2030) and we want Congress to deliver it now.

• This is a win-win solution. Investing in our nation’s growing clean energy sector will bolster our economy. 

• These are real jobs for real people. From plumbers, to carpenters, electricians, energy workers,  engineers, and more, we have an opportunity to create millions of new good-paying jobs in the clean energy economy. 

• We need to rebuild now to tackle the climate crisis, keep the economy growing, and create economic opportunity for all communities. 

What It Takes

• We need to go big on clean energy. 

• It’s clear what the public thinks --  71% of the public supports making the investments in climate, justice, and jobs that President Biden promised and that science demands. 

• The bipartisan infrastructure framework may be a necessary political step toward passing a major climate and clean energy bill, but it does not go nearly far enough to meet the moment nor make the necessary investments scientists tell us are necessary to address the climate crisis.

• Cutting the carbon pollution that exacerbates climate change and threatens the health of our communities must be part of the plan to rebuild our economy. 

• Congress must move the country toward achieving a 100% clean economy by 2050, driving innovation, job creation, and growth, while tackling the climate crisis and curbing other dangerous pollution.

• Congress must move forward with ambitious investments to spur clean energy growth, limit pollution from power plants, reduce carbon pollution from the fossil fuel industry, expand the electric vehicle market through tax credits, invest in EV infrastructure, and assure 40% of the benefits from all of those investments go to communities who have been most harmed by dangerous pollution.

• We are encouraged that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer made clear their commitment to ensuring that the climate crisis and environmental injustice are addressed by Congress. 

• And we are heartened that President Biden continues to say the right things about the urgency of addressing climate change and the need for big, bold, ambitious climate action. 

• But words are not enough. We need to act now on climate, justice, and jobs. Congress must use every tool available to cut through the obstruction and deliver for the American people.

Climate Action and Jobs

• Investing in our nation’s growing clean energy sector will bolster our economy. Prior to the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the clean energy sector was producing jobs 70% faster than the economy as a whole.

• These are real jobs for real people. From plumbers, to carpenters, electricians, energy workers,  engineers, and more, we have an opportunity to create millions of new good-paying jobs in the clean energy economy. We need to rebuild now to keep the economy growing and create economic opportunity for all communities. 

• These potential jobs number in the millions, including:

• Over 5.2 million new jobs to upgrade our infrastructure for clean water, clean transportation, and clean energy

• Over 4.1 million new jobs to expand renewable energy and increase energy efficiency

• Over 3.9 million new jobs to restore our lands and invest in regenerative agriculture

• Nearly 1.6 million jobs to manufacture the goods needed for all of the above investments

Climate and Environmental Justice

• Communities of color and low-wealth communities are hit first and worst by pollution and suffer severe health and economic impacts, not to mention economic inequality.   

• Climate change exacerbates these injustices, making just climate solutions — like the Administration’s proposed Justice 40 initiative to prioritize significant clean energy and climate investments in the most impacted and least resourced communities— an essential priority. 

• The fight against climate change is a fight for the health of our families and communities, and as such it’s imperative that the people of color leading this movement have a seat at the table to ensure a just transition into the clean energy future.