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President Obama’s final budget kicks butt and acts on climate. But climate deniers and defeatists in Congress don’t even want to give it a hearing. Sign here to tell Congress: Inaction is not an option - give Obama’s #ActOnClimate budget a vote!
Friend,
President Obama’s last budget, unveiled last week, is a positive, $4.1 trillion plan that actually Acts On Climate.1
Specifically Obama’s #ActOnClimate budget:
- Levies a $10/barrel tax on crude oil and invests $20 billion in alternative transportation options like high speed rail.2
- Eliminates $39 billion of special tax breaks for Big Oil companies.2
- Invests $750 million to help frontline communities around the world adapt to climate impacts.2
The bad news is that Congressional Republicans pronounced this budget “Dead on Arrival” before they’d even had a chance to read it. Speaking of the Oil Tax in particular, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said “The president will try anything he can—even stretch the limits of his power—to keep American-made energy trapped in the ground. But we won’t let that happen.”3
Actually, leaving fossil fuels in the ground and investing in clean energy instead is EXACTLY the kind of action we need right now. Sign here to tell Congress: Inaction is not an option - give Obama’s #ActOnClimate budget a vote!
I’ll be honest, getting Congressional Republicans to hold a hearing on this big, bold, climate action budget is not going to be easy. But it is possible:
Congress has to pass a budget every year, and this Congress will want to get it over and done before the Fall, when most members have to return home to campaign for re-election.4 Our best shot at a vote is during the Senate “vote-a-rama” -- an annual tradition that allows any Senator to attach lots of amendments to the budget bill and get a quick up or down vote on the idea -- no filibusters, gimmicks or dodges allowed.5
But if we want to make sure Obama’s best ideas - like a $10/barrel tax on oil, and end to fossil fuel subsidies, and a big investment in clean energy, transportation and the Green Climate Fund are included, we need to start right now. That way, when spring rolls around, we’ll have enough grassroots support to demand a hearing or a vote of these ideas. Sign here to tell Congress: Inaction is not an option - give Obama’s #ActOnClimate budget a vote!
Thanks for Putting your money where our climate action is,
Drew and the #ActOnClimate Budget crew at Environmental Action
1 - Sarah Ferris and Jordan Fabian, Obama unveils $4.1T election-year budget, The Hill, February 9, 2016
2 - Michael Grunwald, Obama to propose $10-a-barrel oil tax, Politico, February 4, 2016
3 - Ian Hanchett, GOP Rep Scalise: Obama’s Oil Tax ‘Dead on Arrival,’ He’ll Do Anything To Keep US Energy In the Ground, Breitbart news, February 13, 2016
4 - Wikipedia, United States budget process
5 - David Graham, What on Earth Is a Vote-a-Rama?, The Atlantic, March 22, 2013 |
