The White House has recognized our country faces a climate crisis and that time is running out to act. Its Build Back Better Act (BBBA) was passed by the U.S. House and is now in the Senate, where it faces a difficult road to passage. With a proposed $550 billion in total climate action investments, it will be the most significant effort to combat climate change in American history.
BBBA is needed to protect U.S. citizens from climate change and improve our economy. The BBBA framework will set the U.S. on course to meet its climate target, a 52% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, addressing the root cause of climate change and establishing the U.S. as an international leader.
We need the Build Back Better Act agenda to address our degraded air quality, increased damage from flooding, increased heat and respiratory deaths, and increased disease and pests in our communities. In clean energy and in other sectors, the BBBA framework will strengthen domestic manufacturing and supply chains for critical goods, benefiting American businesses, workers, consumers and communities. In the process, BBBA will create good-paying union jobs, enlist a diverse generation of workers to conserve our public lands and advance environmental justice for long overlooked Black, brown and limited-income Americans.
The time to act is now. The next weeks offer the best chance to pass this transformative agenda. Please contact your senators, Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, and urge them to support the Build Back Better Act.
Cheryl Rampelt
Sewickley