Ecosocialist Green New Deal Letter

To: President Joe Biden

Cc: Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Dear President Biden:

We urge you and Congress to immediately fund an ecosocialist Green New Deal with an annual $4.1 trillion investment for ten years to help prevent climate collapse while helping our country recover from COVID-19.

We call for a presidential declaration of a climate emergency with various executive orders to implement it. We must – as a coalition of hundreds of groups representing millions of people across the country fighting for climate, racial and economic justice have called for –  Build Back Fossil Free.

We are facing a climate emergency that threatens the future of humanity. The recently leaked study by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that we must immediately take radical, comprehensive action to avoid catastrophic global warming. The situation is much worse than the IPCC stated two years ago when it called for urgent action. The study warns of a series of thresholds, such as at the melting of polar ice sheets and the loss of the Amazon rainforest, beyond which recovery from climate breakdown may become impossible: “Life on Earth can recover from a drastic climate shift by evolving into new species and creating new ecosystems … humans cannot.”

The acceleration of extreme weather throughout the planet – wildfires on the West Coast and Australia, unprecedented heat waves worldwide, flooding, droughts – shows that we have already squandered far too much time .

We support an annual $2.7-trillion investment in climate action, including the rapid expansion of clean, renewable energy such as solar, wind (offshore as well as land-based), geothermal, and battery storage, as well as conservation. This expansion needs to be accomplished by targeting the funds to municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives, and community and worker-owned companies. We support a sustainable, regenerative agriculture system and other natural processes to capture carbon. We must avoid the mistake of funding false climate solutions such as carbon capture technology, “renewable” gas, biomass and nuclear.

An additional $1.4 trillion annually should be invested in an Economic Bill of Rights, helping America recover from the COVID crisis. This includes finally making health care a universal right through an improved and expanded Medicare for All program. We should guarantee everyone a living wage job and a minimum income. We also need to make access to college education and quality, energy efficient housing a human right.

The green infrastructure proposal should focus on public ownership and democratic control — rather than private profit — since the capitalist system and reliance on market forces created the climate crisis.

The federal government should plan and manage the construction of publicly owned energy systems and manufacturing, coordinating the transformation of our manufacturing, agricultural, and transportation systems for environmental sustainability. Such efforts have been used in prior national emergencies such as after Pearl Harbor to ensure that all of our nation’s resources are marshaled to solve the crisis. The public enterprises created in this new program must remain under social ownership as public utilities and community worker cooperatives, unlike after World War II when they were turned over to the wealthy and their giant corporations,

Public ownership would help ensure community residents get to determine the siting for such large-scale renewable energy projects, speeding up the construction process.

The green stimulus program should have a goal of slashing greenhouse emissions as rapidly as possible (e.g., zero by 2030). Not only must we immediately halt any expansion of, or development of new fossil, fuel infrastructure, including fracking and oil and gas pipelines, but we must also rapidly phase out existing uses altogether. This includes funding a transition from heating and cooling by gas to clean renewable energy such as geothermal and heat pumps. We must invest in energy efficiency, including a massive investment to retrofit existing homes and buildings while requiring new buildings to be zero emission structures.

The climate action program needs to be based on the concept of a Just Transition. We need to guarantee wages, benefits and jobs for up to five years for workers and communities presently dependent on fossil fuels, ensuring all Americans prosper from the green transformation. At least 40% of the funds must go to the communities most harmed by pollution and climate change.

We should pay for the stimulus through higher taxes on the wealthy (and cracking down on their tax evasion), at least a 50% cut in the Pentagon budget, a robust carbon tax based on the principle of polluters pay and borrowing. Over time, the program will cover its costs, including borrowed funds, out of revenues from public enterprises, including public power fees, public transit fares, and public housing rents.

We oppose the proposal to fund the bipartisan infrastructure deal by privatizing infrastructure that should be public assets. For example, the deal would facilitate a Wall Street takeover of public services like water, which we absolutely oppose.

This is America’s last opportunity to avoid climate chaos. President Biden, we need bold leadership from you and Congress that puts the needs of the many ahead of the wealth of the few. A Green New Deal is the path to jobs, peace and a livable future.

Organizational Endorsers

Ecoaction Committee of the Green Party of the United States NY
350 Butte County CA
350 CT CT
350 Eugene Oregon
350 West Sound Climate Action Washington
350Brooklyn New York
350NYC NY
Affordable Beauty New York
Athens County’s Future Action Network (ACFAN.org) Ohio
Aytzim: Ecological Judaism NY and national
Azul California
Berkeley Fellowship of UU’s Social Justice Committee CA
Bronx Climate Justice North NY
Bronx Green Party New York
Broome Tioga Green Party NY
Campaign for Renewable Energy NY
Capital District Socialist Party Nee York
Church Women United in New York State NY
Climate Reality Project New York
Coalition for Outreach, Policy, & Education New York
Coalition to Protect New York New York
Corvallis Interfaith Climate Justice Committee Oregon
Council on Intelligent Energy & Conservation Policy (CIECP) New York
Courage California CA
DC Metro Science for the People DC
DC Statehood Green Party DC
Dominican Sisters of Sparkill New York
Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition NY
Earth Action, Inc. Florida
Environmental Justice Taskforce of the WNY Peace Center New York
Environmentalists Against War California
Erie County Green Party NY
Foodscraps360 NY
FrackBustersNY NY
Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement New York
Granny Peace Brigade, NYC NY
Green Education and Legal Fund New York
Green Party of Alameda County CA
Green Party of Bay County Florida
Green Party of Butte County, CA CA
Green Party of California CA
Green Party of Duval County FL
Green Party of Nassau County NY
Green Party of New York New York
Green Party of Santa Clara County, CA California
Green Party of Texas Texas
Green Party of Texas Texas
Hampton Roads Green Party Virginia
Harford County Climate Action Maryland
Health Care A Right PA
Illinois Green Party IL
Integrated Environmental Data, LLC New York
International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute CA
Iowa Green Party Iowa
IPSEC NY
Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution USA
Love Plant Nourish by Ike & Eli’s Organic Farm, LLC TX
Manhattan Local of the NY Green Party New York
Metro N.Y. Catholic Climate Movement NY
Morningside Gardens Green Committee for Environmental Sustainability New York
Mothers Out Front-Tompkins New York
MUSE USA NY
NC Climate Justice Collective North Carolina
Nevada Green Party Nevada
New York University – Tisch School of the Arts NY
Nicaragua Center for Community Action CA
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE) New York
North Bronx Racial Justice NY
North Carolina Green Party North Carolina
North Country Earth Action NY
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation New York
occupyradio.net N.Y.
Ocean State Green Party RI
Pacific Green Party, Linn-Benton (OR) Chapter Oregon
PAUSE, People of Albany United for Safe Energy NY
Peacemakers of Schoharie County New York
People’s Climate Movement-Capital Region New York
Pioneer Valley Local – Green-Rainbow Party of MA. MA
Pollution free society TN
Puget Sound Socialist Party Washington
Putnam Progressves NY.
Resist Spectra NY
Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center Colorado
Save the Pine Bush New York
Schenectady Neighbors For Peace New York
Seeds for the Sol Oregon
Sisters of Charity Federation NY
Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt, New York NY
Snake River Alliance ID
Social Eco Education (SEE-LA) CA
Solidarity Committee–Capital District NY
Spring Hill United Church of Christ Florida
Stephanie Low Artists Inc. New York
Stop the Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE) NY
Stop SPOT and Texas Gulflink saveourgulfcoast Tx
Sustainable Tompkins New York
System Change Not Climate Change North America
The Borneo Project CA
The Committee to Elect Joe Manchik for Congress Ohio
The hEarth, Inc., Buddhist Action Coalition, CRICCC NY
Treaty Alignment Campaign Massachusetts
Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany NY
Upstate NY IWW New York
Veterans For Peace Linus Pauling Chapter 132 OR
Volusia Climate Action Florida
WASHTENAW350 Michigan
Weather Medic Inc New York
WESPAC Foundation, Inc. NY
WILPF Calif
WILPF St Louis Missouri