As Congress Prepares to Move Forward with Reconciliation Bill, Local Organizations and Elected Officials Active in Every Region of the Country Urge Electric Sector Decarbonization Through a Clean Electricity Payment Program (CEPP)
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, leaders from some of the nation’s most well-known organizations fighting climate change released letters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and West Virginia asking their Senators to support full funding for the Clean Electricity Payment Program (CEPP). The letter calls for $150 billion in funding through budget reconciliation.
The letters were sent to Senators with key roles on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee: Chairman Manchin (D-WV), Senator King (I-ME), Senator Kelly (D-AZ), and Senator Hickenlooper (D-CO). This is the latest effort in the summer-long fight to move the nation’s power sector to cleaner sources of energy. The CEPP, along with $300 billion in proposed clean energy tax incentives, will account for nearly half of the carbon emission reductions to come from the proposed dual infrastructure bills, which together will curb greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030.
Click to read the letters sent to Senator Manchin, Senator King, Senator Kelly, and Senator Hickenlooper
We strongly encourage Congress to pursue the full $3.5 trillion spending package. This is not the time to pause and see what happens. All across America, communities are witnessing the intensifying effects of climate change, from hurricane-induced tornadoes in West Virginia, to flooding in Maine, to wildfires in Colorado, to unlivable heat in Arizona. Voters want all levels of government to take steps to address the climate crisis. Decarbonizing the electricity sector is essential to meet our climate goals, and the CEPP is the best policy to make it happen.
Statement from Jamie DeMarco, Federal Policy Director of the CCAN Action Fund: “The Clean Electricity Payment Program is the lynchpin for climate action. I’m glad to see the constituents of key US Senators stepping up to say that we must fully fund the CEPP.”
“A clean electricity system is key to fighting the climate crisis. Passage of a Clean Electricity Payment Program and other clean energy investments will transform our power system and accelerate an equitable transition away from fossil fuels and toward the carbon-free electricity we need to build a clean energy economy for all,” said Patrick Drupp, Deputy Legislative Director for Climate and Clean Air at the Sierra Club.
Transitioning to a carbon pollution free power grid with a CEPP isn’t just key to fighting the climate crisis, it’s also overwhelmingly popular with voters across the country. According to polling from Data for Progress, nearly two-thirds of likely voters nationwide support a transition to 100% clean electricity by 2035. Transitioning to 80% clean electricity by 2030 is affordable, feasible, and reliable, and is projected to create 500,000 good jobs.
Contact:
Jamie DeMarco, CCAN Action Fund: jamie@chesapeakeclimate.org, 443-845-5601
Adam Bingman, Sierra Club: adam.bingman@sierraclub.org, 202-221-0266
###
The CCAN Action Fund is the advocacy arm of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the oldest and largest grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. For almost 20 years, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
