Now Is Our Moment To Build Back Better With Clean Energy Jobs

IF YOU SAY ONE THING: Right now is our moment to recover from COVID and Build Back Better. Now we must take action to get millions of people back to work in new good-paying clean energy jobs while tackling climate change. We have to meet the scale of the crises facing our country with the big investments needed to truly build back better. America can’t wait. 

Why now? Instead of just getting by, let’s get back to building. 

• With the historic passage of the American Rescue Plan, we have the resources we need to end the pandemic and for people to get the immediate help they need to get by. But just getting by is not enough. 
• Now, Congress needs to act quickly and invest in a just and equitable economic recovery at the scale our communities need and deserve. 
• We can create millions of good-paying union jobs modernizing our energy, transportation and water infrastructure to build a stronger economy and invest in people and communities too often left behind.
• Voters expect President Biden and pro-climate majorities in Congress to deliver on the issues that drove them to the polls — including good jobs, clean energy and climate change.

America can’t wait. Let’s get to work and get people back to work — with a bold plan to Build Back Better with clean energy infrastructure and millions of jobs. 

• There are 10 million fewer jobs and more than 2.5 million women and 1.8 million men have left the workforce entirely since the pandemic started. 
• President Biden’s plan to Build Back Better will create millions of new good-paying clean energy jobs in communities across the country.
• These investments will create jobs and benefit people that have too often been left behind: low-income communities, communities of color, blue-collar workers, and those in rural areas.

With the right investments in new clean energy infrastructure and rebuilding American manufacturing, we can put people to work and build big things in America again. 

• Clean energy is the fastest growing industry in America and provides a huge opportunity to build back better with high-quality, union jobs that help rebuild the middle class. 
• At the start of 2020, clean energy jobs employed nearly 3.4 million workers in the U.S., three times as many workers as employed by the fossil fuel industry. 
• Now, we have the opportunity to get America back to work: 
  • Building 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations along existing or new highways.
  • Manufacturing and installing millions of solar panels and tens of thousands of wind turbines. 
  • Upgrading 4 million buildings to be energy efficient.
  • Weatherizing 2 million homes.
  • Manufacturing 40-50 million electric vehicles in the USA by 2030.
• There is a race to determine the world’s economic leader — and China, South Korea, and European countries know clean energy is essential to success. We need to step up our investments in the U.S. so we can stay competitive, manufacture products and materials here at home, keep clean energy jobs in the U.S. and remain the world’s leading economy. 

President Biden’s plan to Build Back Better will create good-paying clean energy jobs across America — the clean energy jobs of today and the jobs for tomorrow in every community.

• Clean energy jobs aren’t dependent on where you live. New opportunities are everywhere. 
• These won’t be red state jobs or blue state jobs. They will be American jobs in big cities, small towns, and everywhere in between. 
• Investing in clean energy means all kinds of new jobs for all kinds of people, regardless of background. Building back better will create new good-paying jobs for builders, roofers, pipefitters, engineers, electricians, accountants and teachers all across America.
• President Biden is committed to making sure no communities are left behind. That means providing a just transition for communities that have been dependent on fossil fuels as well as ensuring equitable, targeted investments in communities that have borne the brunt of environmental injustice and racism for decades.

The vast majority of people — from both sides of the aisle — want bold climate action and strongly support Biden’s plan to invest in a clean energy infrastructure.

• Nearly 7 in 10 voters nationally and in battleground states believe Congress should pass Biden’s plan to Build Back Better that will create millions of new good-paying jobs, tackle the climate crisis, and build our economy back better than before.
• The vast majority of voters want the president and Congress to make climate and clean energy a top priority. 

Mayors, Governors and businesses across the country are already taking bold action to build a clean energy future and transition away from fossil fuels. 

• 13 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have all taken legislative or executive action to move toward a 100% clean energy future and more than 165 cities have committed to 100% renewable energy targets. 
• One in three people in the U.S. live in a city or state that is already committed to transitioning to 100% clean electricity.
• Business leaders also know that climate action is good for the environment and their bottom line. More than 260 corporations have committed to becoming 100% renewable. 
• Even the traditionally Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce has updated their position on climate change, endorsing “market-based solutions” to tackle the crisis.

There is an urgent need for big investments in our clean energy infrastructure to create jobs, build resilient communities ready to handle the extremes of climate change.

• The recent electricity crisis in Texas left more than 80 dead and nearly 4.5 million customers without power and millions without drinking water even after the lights came back on — a devastating example of the vulnerabilities of our aging electricity grids and failure of climate denying politicians and oil and gas CEOs to prepare for climate change.
• Every day, 50 million gallons of polluted water loaded with arsenic, lead and other toxic metals pours into our streams and rivers from abandoned mine sites in the U.S.
• Oil and gas companies have abandoned 3.2 million oil and gas wells across America that are leaking over 600 million pounds of toxic pollutants into our air and water each year — contaminating our drinking water and exacerbating climate change. 
• In the last four years, there have been 60 extreme weather or climate-related disasters that have caused more than 3,700 deaths and $500 billion in damages.