This Build Back Better Act framework, with at least $555 billion in climate and equity investments, meets the climate test and will help put the U.S. on the path to cutting our climate pollution in half by 2030, invest directly in communities of color too often left behind, and create good-paying union jobs. Congress must swiftly finalize the details of this transformative bill, pass it and send it to President Biden to sign into law.
Climate and Environmental Justice Highlights from the Build Back Better Act Framework:
- Robust ten-year set of tax incentives totaling $320 billion for clean energy, transmission, vehicles, manufacturing, innovative technologies, and energy efficiency that will save households hundreds of dollars annually and are tied to strong labor provisions and support domestic manufacturing
- Electric vehicle refundable purchase incentives worth up to $12,500 that support union jobs and American manufacturing and can help meet the goal of EVs being 50% of new cars by 2030
- Air and water pollution reductions focused in frontline communities with funding for clean ports, clean buses, trucks and transit, and additional funding to replace lead pipes
- Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator ($29 billion) that delivers 40% of investments to disadvantaged communities to help meet the President’s Justice40 initiative
- Support for community capacity building in environmental justice communities ($3 billion)
- Investing $105 billion in resilience, including climate-smart agriculture ($27.15 billion) and climate-smart forestry ($27.15 billion), coastal restoration ($6 billion), urban parks ($100 million), and other community resiliency programs
- Creating a Civilian Climate Corps with a diverse workforce of over 300,000 members
- Investments of $110 billion in clean and globally competitive industrial facilities and clean energy and vehicle manufacturing
- Federal clean energy, vehicles, and materials procurement funding of $20 billion
- Restoring protections to the Arctic Refuge
- Making Polluters Pay through reinstating the Superfund polluter pays principle to fund cleanups of toxic waste sites in communities, reducing methane pollution from the oil and gas industry, and provisions to make oil, gas, and mining companies pay their fair share to extract resources from public lands and waters
- Banning new oil and gas leasing off the east coast, west coast, and eastern Gulf of Mexico
- Removing more than $85 billion in international fossil fuel subsidies
There are also other critical investments outside the climate space including in affordable, lead-free, and sustainable housing and workforce development; funding immigration system improvements to create a path to citizenship, reduce backlogs and delays in asylum process; supporting Historically Black Colleges & Universities (“HBCUs”), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Minority Serving Institutions (“MSIs”), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (“TCUs”); and investing in community college workforce programs, sector-based training, and apprenticeships.
