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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Brittany Miller, bmiller@foe.org

300+ Groups Demand Clean Electricity Payment Program (Cepp) Exclude Fossil Fuels and False Solutions

WASHINGTON

Today, 300+ groups are calling on Congress to exclude fossil fuels and false solutions from the Clean Electricity Payment Program (CEPP), which is scheduled for mark-up on September 13th as a part of the current $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package.

The CEPP has been touted by Majority Leader Schumer as one of the largest individual emissions reduction programs in the infrastructure package. The potential inclusion of fossil fuels and false solutions in pending legislation poses a direct risk to the Biden administration's emissions reduction goals and commitments to environmental justice.

"We need rapid and ambitious climate policy, not another polluter subsidy," said Sarah Lutz, Climate Campaigner for Friends of the Earth. "These so-called 'technology neutral' standards are incompatible with the urgent need to transition to sustainable and renewable energy."

The CEPP is expected to be a reconcilable iteration of the recent Clean Energy Standard bills, which many environmental groups have criticized for subsidizing fossil fuels and other polluting energies that inflict disproportionate harms on BIPOC and low-income communities. Many of these technologies were highlighted in the recent White House Environmental Justice Advocacy Council recommendations as not being beneficial to communities.

"The climate emergency cannot be fooled or tricked by legislating that polluting energy sources can now qualify as clean. Likewise, greenwashing dirty energies will not change their environmental injustices," the letter reads. "Therefore, we urge you to direct incentive payments solely to proven and ecologically sound renewable technologies, such as solar, wind, and geothermal.

Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.

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