Alumni Action Alert: Keep clean energy in the Build Back Better Act!
Many alumni asked us over the years for more opportunities to get engaged in important issues. Now we send an Alumni Action Alert each month on a particular issue or campaign The Public Interest Network is working on, along with some actions that you can take to help protect the environment, public health or the public interest.
Photo credit: Trong Nguyen, Shutterstock
Quick action: Sign Environment America’s petition calling on Congress to prioritize clean energy tax credits.
Context: For decades, we have had the power to harness clean, abundant energy from the sun and the wind. In 2021, it can be done more efficiently and cheaply than ever before. Yet we’re still producing, consuming and wasting energy in ways that do lasting damage to our environment and our health — fracking for gas near schools instead of putting solar panels on their roofs; drilling for oil near beaches instead of harnessing the winds that blow offshore; and burning coal, oil and gas instead of powering our homes, cars and lives with clean, renewable energy.
We can repower America with 100% renewable energy and see the benefits of cleaner air, cleaner water and improved health. Clean energy tax incentives are one of the best tools we have to grow renewables.
Tax credits have helped lower the cost of wind and solar power over the last decade, bringing renewables in reach for more Americans and boosting the clean energy market. The Build Back Better Act is being actively negotiated in Congress right now through the budget reconciliation process, and the latest draft includes ten-year extensions of clean energy credits, which would be the biggest injection into clean energy America has ever made. If the programs currently in the Build Back Better Act become law, it would be a game changer for clean energy because they will make it easier and more affordable for states, businesses and individuals to tap into renewable energy resources and give industry the time-frame to plan their investments.
Actions:
Read and share on social media Environment America’s “Renewables on the Rise” report.
Write a letter to the editor (LTE) of your local paper. Click here to get started and find newspapers in your area. In case you need a refresher, here’s a how-to on LTE writing on page 51 of the Student PIRG’s Activist Toolkit. And if your LTE gets published, please be sure to let us know!
Sign Environment America’s petition calling on Congress to prioritize clean energy tax credits.
Call your U.S. representatives and senators and ask them to vote for clean energy credits.
