Real Climate Action on the Horizon through Reconciliation
Moab, Utah. Photo credit: Strauss Western. Ute land.
People who love the outdoors are firsthand witnesses to the effects of climate change. From wildfires closing our favorite trails and parks, filling the air with smoke, and leaving post-fire landscapes susceptible to floods and landslides to rivers running dry, diseased trees and plants, and heat waves, we are all experiencing the effects of a changing climate. While climate change can feel like an overwhelming problem, there is a huge role for the outdoor community and an opportunity to help pass a big legislative package of climate action before mid-Summer.
Climate change is a threat to our communities and health, as well as the outdoors, and it’s costing the U.S. billions. The stars are aligning for Congress to pass a package of clean-energy and public lands investments this spring, which would make significant progress in the fight against climate change and have many benefits for people who love the outdoors. This $555 billion in climate investments would be passed through something called reconciliation, a one-time opportunity for the Senate to pass a bill with just 50 votes.
Congress and the Biden administration are working to negotiate the provisions in this reconciliation package, many of which are likely to include provisions that were previously in the Build Back Better Act. While the larger Build Back Better package fell apart at the end of last year, leadership (including Senator Manchin, the key swing vote in the Senate) has agreed that they want to pass climate legislation and invest in renewable energy. The package could include investments in the Forest Service that would enable better fire mitigation, forest restoration, and conservation; a Civilian Climate Corps; investments in renewable energy; and a recalibration of the role of development on public lands and waters.
We’ve come too far to let this opportunity slip. Serious efforts to address climate can’t wait, and a reconciliation package can and should include investments in public lands and waters that will help manage a changing climate and improve the experience of everyone who gets outdoors. That means that everybody, across the political spectrum, needs to feel a fire lit under them to pass climate investments. It has to happen, and nobody else can deliver that message except constituents.
Our policy team is meeting with members of Congress over the coming weeks, and we need your help. Please take two minutes to send a message to your lawmakers today, sending home the message that climate action is crucial and has your support. The one-two punch of messages from constituents and more in-the-weeds meetings can really work well, so please know that it helps! The last time we had an opportunity to pass major climate legislation was ten years ago, and we can’t afford to wait another ten years.