Evergreen Action Plan

by Sam Ricketts, Bracken Hendricks and Maggie Thomas (Medium) A National Mobilization to Defeat the Climate Crisis and Build a Just and Thriving Clean Energy Economy -- ... As we recover and rebuild from the economic collapse created by global pandemic, and our government’s failure to respond, this agenda provides enormous opportunity for economic revitalization: rebuilding infrastructure, growing manufacturing and innovation, protecting workers and front-line communities, and restoring American leadership and global standing.

This was the driving force behind Governor Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign, which put forward a comprehensive and actionable “Climate Mission” for the next President and Congress. At the end of that campaign, Gov. Inslee offered his 6-part, 218-page plan as an open-source document for any candidate or elected leader to use. Following in that spirit, this team has adapted and updated the Climate Mission Agenda into a 12-part climate action plan for federal lawmakers: The Evergreen Action Plan.

➢ Powering the Economy with 100% Clean Energy: Using targeted clean energy standards and strategies for each key sector of the economy: electricity, transportation, buildings, industries, agriculture.

➢ Investing in Good Jobs, Infrastructure, Industry & Innovation: Creating millions of good-paying jobs benefiting every community through major new investments in modernized infrastructure, manufacturing industries, agriculture, conservation, and clean tech innovation, while supporting workers and guaranteeing the right to form a union.

➢ Building Greater Justice & Economic Inclusion: Confronting environmental racism and supporting the front-line, low-income, and indigenous communities and communities of color that are hit first and worst by the climate crisis, pollution, and economic disinvestment.

➢ Ending Fossil Fuel Giveaways: Ending billions in subsidies and handouts, and holding polluters accountable for their environmental harm. And intentionally transitioning off fossil fuels while protecting workers, stewarding natural resources, and diversifying the local economies that depend on them today.

➢ Mobilizing Global Action: Committing American leadership in an ambitious global effort to confront the climate challenge, using every tool in foreign policy: diplomacy, finance, trade, aid and assistance.

Our challenge is very clear: To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the global community must cut greenhouse gas pollution approximately in half by 2030, and achieve global net-zero pollution by mid-century, according to a 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Implementing this Evergreen Action Plan will help ensure that America meets these targets and leads the world in defeating the climate crisis. As the world’s largest historical emitter of climate pollution, and the global leader in technology innovation, America should be among the first to achieve that net-zero target, as fast as possible and well before mid-century.

The Evergreen Action Plan offers a comprehensive program that catalyzes trillions in investment over the next decade into clean energy technology, new infrastructure, and climate solutions. Through bold federal investments and high standards for private markets, these policies will leverage trillions more from the private sector to create millions of high-quality union jobs. The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it more clear than ever before that we must rebuild our economy in response to the clear demands of science. True recovery will come through intelligent, fact-based leadership focused on the future and grounded in growth, opportunity and inclusion.

This plan is built on this team’s decades of direct experience advancing ambitious climate policy, and is inspired by modern-day movements fighting for urgent climate action. It is informed by the clean energy successes of state and local governments, as well as past federal progress, and by the ambitious investment vision of a Green New Deal, the bottom-up organizing of environmental justice organizers, front-line communities, and the grassroots leaders fighting against fossil fuel corporations and their pollution. It synthesizes the original Inslee campaign Climate Mission Agenda into twelve planks.

The Evergreen Action Plan offers a roadmap for national mobilization; a governing document for our nation’s lawmakers to use in confronting our defining challenge and in seizing the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century. Let’s get to work. READ MORE

3. Expanding Clean Transportation & Mobility
3.1. 100% Clean Cars Standard
3.2. Twenty-First Century Transportation Infrastructure
3.3. Smart Growth, Affordable Housing & Community Development
3.4. Clean & Renewable Fuel Standard
3.5. Decarbonizing Aviation & Shipping

9. Ending Fossil Fuel Giveaways
9.1. Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies
9.2. Banning New Federal Leasing & Phasing-Out Fossil Fuel Production
9.3. Holding Polluters Accountable
9.4. Rejecting New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure
9.5. Ending Fossil Fuel Financing & Improving Corporate Climate Transparency