Washington D.C. – In response to the debate on the House energy innovation package (H.R. 4447) the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) sent a letter to the hill recommending House members vote in support of the package and released the following statement from Legislative Director Matthew Davis:

“The House energy innovation package is rightly focused on increasing investments for clean energy solutions at a time when we are clearly seeing the dangerous and devastating impacts of the climate crisis. The package would make solid investments in clean energy, environmental justice, clean transportation, energy efficiency, direct air capture, industrial decarbonization, and  cut emissions of super-pollutant HFCs and methane. 

Unfortunately, the bill contains a few investments, namely in fossil fuel carbon capture and sequestration and nuclear technologies, that could potentially exacerbate environmental racism. Congress can rebalance those detrimental investments and greatly strengthen the package by adopting a suite of more than 40 equity-centered, pro-environment amendments. 

Amendments boosting funding for electric school buses, energy efficiency of public buildings, schools, and low-income housing, climate smart ports, community solar, clean energy workforce development, and environmental justice grants deserve to be added. And amendments shifting policies to advance equity in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, partnerships with institutes of higher education, and solar energy deployment, to support timely updating of appliance energy efficiency standards, to include workforce protections and project labor agreements, and to boost transparency on carbon emissions from fossil fuel extraction on public lands and on funding provided to nuclear energy are among others deserving support and inclusion in the final package.  We support these and other efforts to transition to a clean energy economy in a just and equitable way.” 

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Read the full letter here: