ICYMI: Climate Power Executive Director Lori Lodes Lays Stakes of Clean Energy Plan

Washington, D.C. — Today, at a press conference with League of Conservation Voters (LCV), EDF Action, NRDC Action Fund, NextGen America, and Sierra Club, Executive Director of Climate Power Lori Lodes laid out the stakes of the 2024 election results for the American people and the future of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Read her remarks below.

“Good morning everyone. I’m Lori Lodes, the executive director of Climate Power.

“This election season was truly unlike any we have seen before—for a lot of reasons. But I don’t want to spend time on the results; instead, I want to talk about what’s next and what’s at stake for the American people. 

“Manufacturing is back in the United States. More than 330,000 new jobs are being created in communities all across the country. Cleaner energy options are becoming cheaper by the day and at a speed that no one thought possible. People are already saving on their energy costs. 

“All of that is because the clean energy plan was passed into law in 2022. The reality is that the clean energy boom is just getting started and I am confident that it is here to stay. 

“You all know me as the Executive Director of Climate Power, but before I joined the climate movement, I led the fight to save the Affordable Care Act. When Trump was elected as president in 2016, it was conventional wisdom that the Affordable Care Act would be repealed. He came in and tried to take it all away and it was the lowest point of his administration. Never was he as unpopular as he was then.

“What was abstract became real. When it became clear what would be taken away, it all collapsed. It was no longer ‘Obamacare’ or ‘the ACA,’ it was specific protections that affected people’s lives, like on pre-existing conditions or Medicaid expansion.

“And just like the Affordable Care Act, when…if….Republicans come after the Inflation Reduction Act, it’s not going to be about some abstract law or acronym, it’s going to be about whether they are going to destroy thousands upon thousands of jobs in their own states and districts, and whether they are going to raise taxes on families trying to lower their utility bills by eliminating tax credits. It will be about whether they’ll gut local economies that have manufacturing back for the first time in a generation. 

“Already, Speaker Johnson has pledged to gut the clean energy plan, but you’ve even seen him squirm about using a ‘scalpel.’ And of course what about those members of his caucus who know firsthand what these investments mean for their districts? Already, 18 Republicans wrote to him demanding to keep the clean energy tax credits that are helping to create good-paying jobs in their districts. We saw Vance and Mike Rogers squirm when it came to eliminating a $500 million grant for an auto plant in Lansing.

“And just like with the ACA, you’re going to see those affected the most step forward and make the stakes clear to the American people about what is going to be taken away. That will mean clean energy business leaders, labor unions, mayors and governors, and communities that are finally seeing some environmental justice after decades of being ignored. And if Trump tries to destroy those jobs and raise taxes on families already struggling with costs, it will be a disaster just like it was with repealing the ACA.

“We will have so much more to say in the coming days and weeks, but I want to be clear, Climate Power and our allies here and across the country will do everything we can to make it impossible for Republicans to take away people’s jobs and livelihoods, just as they failed to take away people’s health care.”