Build Back Better: Fossil Fuels
Build Back Free From Dirty Energy
Help power change. It takes support from environmental champions like you to build a more healthy and just world.
The climate crisis demands a complete, rapid and just transition off of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and industrial-scale bioenergy. To build back better, we need to:
End dirty energy bailouts
Our government must stop bailing out dirty energy industries.
Economic stimulus funds, infrastructure packages, public spending, subsidies, etc. must not prop up and perpetuate our dependence on dirty energy, both at home and abroad.
Tackle fossil fuels
Congress must pass cutting-edge legislation to phase out fossil fuels.
Bills like Senator Jeff Merkley’s comprehensive Keep it in the Ground Act should become law.
Protect our public lands
President Biden must end all new fossil fuel leases on public lands.
On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden pledged to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.” He must fulfill that promise.
Provide a just transition
We must provide for a just transition for affected workers and communities.
Sufficient funding and resources must be allocated at the federal, state and local levels of government to ensure a successful transition for workers and communities that are already or will soon be impacted by the decline of the fossil fuel industry.
Transition to renewable energy
We need to replace fossil fuels with locally owned and controlled renewable energy.
We should be moving toward more electricity coops, distributed renewable systems, community-based electrification, etc. Meanwhile, the Federal Power Program, including the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), must completely transition out of dirty and dangerous fossil and nuclear energy.
Reject false climate solutions
Policymakers must eschew false climate solutions.
We must not be distracted by so-called “solutions” like carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, carbon offsets, and industrial scale bioenergy that often perpetuate environmental injustices and harm.