On March 31, President Joe Biden unveiled his American Jobs Plan. The President’s plan is a major step toward addressing historic and systemic inequities in the U.S. while tackling the climate crisis and creating good-paying jobs as we recover from the Covid-19 crisis and transition to a clean energy future.

Here are just a few of the proposals in the President’s Plan we are excited about:

• Moving us toward 100 percent carbon-pollution-free power by 2035 while creating good-paying union jobs.
• Investing in communities hit the hardest by crisis due to systemic injustice, including low-income communities and communities of color, through policies like clean energy block grants to support clean energy, worker training, and environmental justice initiatives.
• Reconnecting neighborhoods cut off by historic investments like highways that displaced people of color and created pollution, and ensuring new infrastructure and transportation projects increase opportunity for jobs, advance racial equity and environmental justice, and promote affordable access.
• Investing $174 billion in electric vehicles and electric vehicle infrastructure, helping to cut pollution from the transportation sector, one of our largest sources of climate pollution.

Now, it’s time for Congress to act

Now that President Biden has laid out his vision of how to build back better with an eye toward a healthier, prosperous, and more equitable future – through the American Jobs Plan and his proposed budget – we need Congress to act. Our representatives and senators must work together with the administration to pass an infrastructure package that invests in our future, from creating good quality jobs, building a cleaner transportation system, to transitioning our economy to 100% clean energy. And most importantly, Congress and the administration must ensure that these solutions prioritize Black, Latino, and other historically marginalized communities, as well as low-income communities.

Thankfully we don’t have to start from scratch. In addition to the president’s proposals, members of Congress have already introduced bills that may end up, in one form or another, as part of the larger infrastructure package that we’d like to see pass later in the summer. For example, Rep. Yvette Clarke’s (NY-09) bill, introduced in February, would support the creation of 200,000 electric vehicle charging stations in underserved and disadvantaged communities. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), the author of a companion bill of the same nature in the Senate, also unveiled a suite of bills aimed at tackling the climate crisis and investing in clean transportation.

Even more importantly, committees with legislative jurisdiction over key priorities, like the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives and the Environmental and Public Works Committee in the Senate, have already begun crafting solutions to build back better.

Other climate champions like Representatives Raul Grijalva (AZ-3) and Rep. Donald McEachin (VA-4), who introduced the Environmental Justice For All Act, and Kathy Castor (FL-14), who chairs the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, are leaning in on solving the climate crisis, addressing systemic inequity, and fighting for environmental injustice.

But they need our help!

Raise your voice for a healthier and brighter future

We’re at a critical juncture. Before us is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help shape a major infrastructure package that tackles the climate crisis and racial inequity, creates good quality jobs, and sets us on a path towards a 100% clean energy future.

By now, you might be asking, “how can I help”?

Young people like you are witnessing the climate crisis right now, from the deep freeze in Texas, to drought in the West, to rising sea levels and stronger storms in the Southeast. Future generations will need to grapple with the increasingly dire impacts should we fail to act.

We need YOU to raise your voice to demand Congress take action.

Tell your members of Congress that you support the American Jobs Plan.

Our elected leaders in Congress need to know you support ambitious and equitable climate solutions like investing in environmental justice, clean energy, and increasing access to affordable and cleaner transportation.

So, what are you waiting for? Join us, and together, we can build a better future in which we can thrive, grow our economy, and protect future generations.