350 Wenatchee Climate Conversations NCW

Take action today! Send a message to your members of Congress to make sure families, communities, and the environment are put first — not corporate polluters.

First of all, we at Sierra Club send you well wishes in these trying times. We hope you are being safe, taking care of each other, and physically keeping your distance from others to help curb the spread of coronavirus.

While we continue to hunker down and cope with this new normal — our elected leaders in Congress are negotiating an economic stimulus plan to deal with the fallout of this pandemic. But it’s not going well so far.

The Senate GOP leadership and fossil fuel corporate allies are taking advantage of this moment to push their own agenda. We’ve got to put a stop to it — and we have to act fast. The Senate has released their bill over the weekend, and the House will reveal their proposal very soon.

We must raise our voices together to ensure that any stimulus package should focus on building a future that puts families first, stabilizes our climate, and ends special treatment for the fossil fuel industry.

SEND A MESSAGE: Make sure families, communities, and the environment are put first in a stimulus package — not corporate polluters.

Congress, led by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives, thankfully passed a large relief package that will provide urgently needed aid directly to workers and families nationwide — but more resources are still needed to protect public health and economic security. That’s where this economic stimulus plan comes in.

But we can’t just inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy without any guardrails. That’ll reinforce the status quo where large corporations’ profits benefit while workers struggle, and polluters continue to endanger our communities’ health and further the climate crisis.

Such a giveaway to corporate polluters was exactly the Senate GOP’s plan released over the weekend. Thankfully Democrats in the Senate stopped it from moving forward. But we must act now to ensure any negotiations on this wide-reaching stimulus plan helps create a better world for us all.

The Sierra Club and dozens of allies demand that any such stimulus package Congress puts together must do the following:

• Fully-fund our Public Health Needs – Our communities need free and accessible testing, treatment, and protective equipment; expanded hospital capacity; paid sick leave and family medical leave, and expanded Medicaid.
• Invest in Workers – If the American people are going to provide assistance to industry, then industry must put workers and their families first, not corporate executives or shareholders.
• Invest in Clean Energy, Clean Transportation, and Clean Economy Jobs – Roughly 3.3 million Americans work in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, many in small and medium-sized businesses. These jobs are the foundation of a clean energy economy for our future.
• Not Bail Out the Fossil Fuel Industry – No additional giveaways to polluters should be included in any stimulus package.
• Make a Down Payment on a Regenerative Economy – Infrastructure investments must strive toward a triple goal of creating millions of good, family-sustaining jobs, countering systemic inequities by investing in working families and communities of color, and tackling the climate crisis that is compounding threats to our economy and health.
• Protect Democracy – Congress must ensure states have adequate funding to secure access to the ballot box regardless of a voter’s ability or geography.

Let’s use this opportunity to create a healthier, stronger, and safer economy and planet — not perpetuate the status quo. Join us in demanding Congress pass a stimulus that prioritizes, workers, families, and the environment — not corporations!

Thanks for speaking up during this challenging time in order to help create a safer, healthier, cleaner, and more just nation.

Stay safe,

Maura Cowley
Resist Campaign Director
Sierra Club