July, 13 2022, 10:46am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Gaby Sarri-Tobar, Center for Biological Diversity, (202) 594-7271, gsarritobar@biologicaldiversity.org
Brittany Miller, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0746, bmiller@foe.org
Cassidy DiPaola, Fossil Free Media, (401) 441-7196, cassidy@fossilfree.media
Congress Urged to Boost Appropriations for Biden's Clean Energy Orders
Rising Energy Prices, Climate-Fueled Disasters Require Urgent Renewable Energy Investment
WASHINGTON
Dozens of environmental and labor groups urged House and Senate leaders to increase funding for President Biden's historic executive orders to spur domestic renewable energy production under the Defense Production Act.
The call comes as the country struggles to make progress on climate action. The Supreme Court's recent decision in West Virginia v EPA weakened the EPA's ability to regulate power plants under the Clean Air Act. A slimmed down version of the Build Back Better Act, Biden's landmark climate legislation, is stalled in Congress.
In June Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to manufacture solar panels, insulation and heat pumps. Biden's plan encourages high labor standards tied to increased manufacturing. It also calls for boosting community-based clean energy and distributed generation.
A House Appropriations subcommittee recently appropriated $100 million toward Biden's clean energy orders. While this is a positive first step, estimates show more than $100 billion is needed to meet the administration's climate and clean electricity goals. That funding can catalyze the country's manufacturing base and transform our energy system into one that is renewable and just.
More than 1,000 organizations support the DPA orders, including the People vs. Fossil Fuels Coalition. Earlier this year U.S. Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jason Crow (D.-Colo.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the Energy Security and Independence Act to direct $100 billion toward domestic renewable energy production, prioritizing investment in environmental justice and worker communities. The bill has more than 50 cosponsors and support from more than 80 organizations.
"We're at a crisis point for our climate and our energy future, and we need action now," said Gaby Sarri-Tobar, a campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity's energy justice program. "Biden's clean energy directives add urgency to the climate fight, but Congress must fully fund this to spur the just, renewable future we need. There's no way to ramp up renewable energy production without the money to make it happen."
"President Biden's recent deployment of DPA to create secure, clean energy resources for all communities is sorely needed and we applaud him for these efforts," said Art Terrazas, government affairs advocate for the League of Conservation Voters. "Now it is time for Congress to do its part to meet the moment on climate and provide the funding necessary for clean energy, justice, and jobs through a reconciliation package and strong FY23 appropriations so that we can grow the renewable energy manufacturing industry, deploy these needed resources across the country, and ensure that all communities benefit from lower energy costs today."
"Working in solar in the St. Louis area, we're seeing prices for panels go up every day or suppliers simply out of stock. We need help from Washington to move projects forward right away. There's no time to waste. We need the funding to carry out President Biden's Defense Production Act order to spur renewable energy production," said Brian Tresenriter of SoulShyne Solar, who is a Green Workers Alliance member.
"We are in a climate emergency -- an emergency we can only confront when our government steps up and launches a WWII scale mobilization to justly transition to renewable energy," said Varshini Prakash, executive director of Sunrise Movement. "As climate disasters worsen, oil companies continue to price-gouge consumers, and real investments in renewable energy have stalled, Congress must urgently and robustly fund President Biden's DPA executive order. In a moment when young people are questioning the legitimacy of our institutions, our politicians must act to save our generation and show us what our government can do for us."
"Biden's executive orders on climate can only be meaningful if Congress dedicates the funding to get the job done," said Food & Water Watch Policy Director Jim Walsh. "Using the Defense Production Act to supercharge America's clean energy production is a critical step towards treating the climate crisis like a true emergency."
"Congress must appropriate funds that match the needs laid out in President Biden's forward-looking executive order," said Karen Orenstein, director of the climate and energy justice program at Friends of the Earth U.S. "The cost of inaction is far more expensive and will be measured in lost lives and livelihoods, in the U.S. and worldwide."
"The dual crises of rising energy prices, along with a cascade of climate impacts, demand immediate action for the health and wellbeing of every American. EOPA is inspired by President Biden's leadership in invoking the DPA, however more investment than $100 million is needed in order to set the United States on a path to a 50-52% reduction in carbon pollution by 2030 -- the goal scientists say is necessary to prevent the worst impacts of climate change," said Dominic Frongillo, executive director and cofounder of Elected Officials to Protect America. "President Biden can leverage DPA funds and the federal procurement budget of $650 billion per year to scale up clean energy technologies deployment. We are in a climate emergency, which is a national security risk. At least $100 billion should and could be allocated by the end of this fiscal year to help ensure the security of our nation and the world through building a clean energy economy."
"The DPA is meant for unusual, even extreme, circumstances like war, pandemics and national emergencies. We have never seen a greater threat to our country, indeed to the world, than the one posed by potentially catastrophic climate change," said Todd Paglia, executive director of Stand.earth. "We need to invest as much as we can, as rapidly as we can, into renewable energy if we want to ensure the safety and security of our country and our planet."
"Inflated energy prices coupled with an over-dependence on Russian fossil fuels threaten to derail global efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. Nations around the globe need to implement bold solutions to accelerate the climate crisis for the security of the world and their own energy independence. We can show the way with a significant investment of at least $100 billion for the DPA," said Alex Cornell du Houx, former Maine state representative, Marine combat veteran, president and cofounder of the Elected Officials to Protect America. "Ukraine underscores how dependency on fossil fuels fills the coffers of tyrants and dictators like Putin, and that a rapid transition to clean and renewable energy is not just necessary for our environment, but critical to our economic, national security and true energy independence."
"Deploying DPA is a crucial tool in this crisis moment, as families struggle due to inflation and skyrocketing utility costs that have saddled them with debt. We urge Congress to fully fund DPA," said Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, sustainable communities program director at GreenLatinos. "Latino/x households spend disproportionate amounts of their income on energy and are unrepresented in green jobs; along with other marginalized communities, we stand to benefit greatly from this investment in our shared energy future."
"It's great to see President Biden stepping up to the challenge of climate change by using his powers to advance renewable energy, create good jobs, and center environmental justice. However, the Defense Production Act is only effective if it is funded," said Joe Uehlein, president of the Labor Network for Sustainability. "Congress must meet this moment and give these presidential orders the funding required to deploy this clean energy technology across the country."
"By invoking the Defense Production Act to support domestic clean energy manufacturing, President Biden demonstrated that we must use every tool at our disposal to address the climate emergency and support job growth," said Odette Mucha, federal liaison at Vote Solar. "Congress must now allocate the funding needed to bring clean energy manufacturing back to America."
"Executive powers like the DPA can be incredibly useful, but only when supported with ample appropriations," said Dorothy Slater, senior researcher with the Revolving Door Project. "We're thankful to President Biden for unlocking this no-brainer tool and we urge Congress to provide the sufficient funding that is so desperately needed to speed the necessary transition to clean, renewable energy. We also emphasize the need for strong, long-term oversight of the use of these funds for environmentally just projects."
"President Biden's DPA clean energy orders have been a cause for celebration for our generation. We're elated to see this administration take a critical step toward a more secure and sustainable future for young people. But now, we need Congress to do its part," said Lisa Giordano, executive director of the Association of Young Americans. "Our elected officials must support this historic effort to actively combat the climate crisis by boldly investing in the DPA in the FY2023 appropriations package."
"Clean energy is national security and I'm heartened to see President Biden use the Defense Production Act in this way to make America less dependent on petro-dictators," said RL Miller, political director of Climate Hawks Vote.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Sanders Gets GOP Leader to Agree to Work On Medicare Covering Dental, Hearing, and Vision
The exchange on the Senate floor came after the Finance Committee chair blocked passage of the Vermont Independent's bill.
Mar 11, 2025
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo on Tuesday blocked passage of Sen. Bernie Sanders' legislation to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision care for tens of millions of American seniors, but the bill's sponsor got the panel leader to publicly agree to further discuss the issue.
Sanders (I-Vt.) took to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon to ask for unanimous consent to pass the Medicare Dental, Hearing, and Vision Expansion Act, which is spearheaded in the House of Representatives by Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas).
"In the richest country in the history of the world, it is unacceptable that millions of seniors are unable to read because they can't afford eyeglasses, can't have conversations with their grandchildren because they can't afford hearing aids, and have trouble eating because they can't afford dentures," Sanders said in a statement.
"That should not be happening in the United States of America in the year 2025," he continued. "The time is long overdue for Congress to expand Medicare to include comprehensive coverage for the dental, vision, and hearing care that our seniors desperately need."
After Crapo (R-Idaho) rose to stop the bill from advancing, he and Sanders had a brief exchange in which the Republican agreed to working on achieving the "outcome" of the federal healthcare program covering dental, vision, and hearing.
In Sanders' remarks on the Senate floor about his bill, he sounded the alarm about efforts by President Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk, and congressional Republicans to cut government healthcare programs and Social Security.
"Yeah, we have more nuclear weapons than any other country, we have more billionaires than any other country, but we also have one of the highest rates of senior poverty of any country on Earth. We might want to get our priorities right," said Sanders, who has long fought for achieving universal healthcare in the United States via his Medicare for All legislation.
"While my Republican colleagues would like to make massive cuts to Medicaid in order to provide more tax breaks to billionaires, some of us have a better idea," he said. "We think that it makes more sense to substantially improve the lives of our nation's seniors by expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing benefits."
To pay for his expansion plan, Sanders calls for ensuring that Medicare pays no more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans Affairs and addressing the tens of billions of dollars that privately administered Medicare Advantage plans overcharge the federal government annually.
In a statement about the bill, Doggett highlighted that "this expanded care could help prevent cognitive impairment and dementia, worsened chronic disease, and imbalance leading to falls with deadly consequences. This is an essential step to fulfilling the original promise of Medicare—to assure dignity and health for all."
Welcoming their renewed push for Medicare expansion, Public Citizen healthcare advocate Eagan Kemp declared that "at the same time Trump and his cronies in Congress try to rip healthcare away from millions and push for further privatization of Medicare, Sen. Sanders and Rep. Doggett are showing what one of our top priorities in healthcare should be—improving traditional Medicare."
"The introduction of this legislation is an important step to ensure Medicare enrollees can access the care they need, and we hope that Congress will act quickly to pass these commonsense reforms," Kemp added. "Healthcare is a human right."
Earlier Tuesday, in anticipation of Crapo's committee holding a confirmation hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former television host Trump has nominated to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Public Citizen released a research brief about the hundreds of millions of dollars Medicare Advantage companies have spent on lobbying.
"If Oz is confirmed as the CMS administrator," Kemp warned, "attacks on traditional Medicare are likely to move into overdrive."
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Trump Lifts Ukraine Aid Pause After Kyiv Agrees to Cease-Fire Proposal
Ukraine's foreign minister called the endorsement a "step that proves Ukraine is ready to move forward on the path to a just end to the war."
Mar 11, 2025
The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would resume military aid to and intelligence-sharing with Ukraine after that country's leadership endorsed a U.S. proposal for a 30-day cease-fire in the war defending against Russia's three-year invasion and occupation.
The Washington Postreports that U.S., Ukrainian, and Saudi officials met for eight hours on Tuesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. No Russian officials were present at the negotiations.
"We're going to tell them this is what's on the table. Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the meeting. "And now it'll be up to them to say yes or no. If they say no, then we'll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here."
Ukraine has agreed to a 30 day ceasefire. Incredible work by Trump team. Now if Russia agrees, Trump may have gotten cease fires in the Middle East and Europe in his first 60 days. Nobel Peace Prize worthy: pic.twitter.com/lYogXVP8wj
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 11, 2025
White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz said following the talks that "the Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear, that they share President [Donald] Trump's vision for peace, they share his determination to end the fighting, to end the killing, to end the tragic meat grinder of people."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called his country's endorsement of the cease-fire proposal a "step that proves Ukraine is ready to move forward on the path to a just end to the war."
"Ukraine is not an obstacle to peace; it is a partner in its restoration," Sybiha added.
U.S. officials said the cease-fire proposal will now be sent to Russia for approval. It is unclear whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will accept the offer.
"The ball is now in their court," Rubio said of the Russians.
Buoyed by Western support but stretched thin and vastly outmanned and outgunned, Ukrainian forces have been struggling to repel Russia's invasion and hold Russian territory they seized in the Kursk region, with an eye toward potential future territorial exchanges.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces launched a massive drone attack on Moscow. Three people were reportedly killed and six others were injured when debris struck a meat processing facility.
Tuesday's development marked a dramatic turnaround from just two weeks ago, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a highly contentious White House meeting that was followed by a suspension of all U.S. military assistance and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv.
The U.S. has "provided $66.5 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately $69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014," according to a State Department fact sheet dated March 4.
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Watchdog Exposes Millions in Medicare Advantage Lobbying Ahead of Dr. Oz Hearing
"If Oz is confirmed as the CMS administrator, attacks on traditional Medicare are likely to move into overdrive," said one advocate, calling to strengthen the program, "not weaken it through further privatization."
Mar 11, 2025
The watchdog group Public Citizen on Tuesday released a research brief about the hundreds of millions of dollars Medicare Advantage companies have spent on lobbying ahead of a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Oz, a heart surgeon and former television host, is President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS)—an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Health experts and others have sounded the alarm about Oz since Trump announceded his nomination in November, with many opponents highlighting the doctor's investments in companies with direct CMS interests and his push to expand Medicare Advantage when he unsuccessfully ran as a Republican to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate in 2022.
Medicare Advantage is a type of CMS-approved health insurance plan from a private company that seniors can choose for medical coverage instead of government-administered Medicare. Critics often call it a "profit-seeking healthcare scam."
Public Citizen's brief points out that last year, "more than half of all seniors eligible for Medicare were enrolled" in these private plans that "cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars and deliver inferior care compared to traditional Medicare."
"Since their inception in 2003, Medicare Advantage plans are estimated to have cost taxpayers more than $600 billion in overpayments," the document notes. "These overpayments are expected to grow to $1 trillion over the next decade."
"Just seven companies account for 84% of all Medicare Advantage enrollment," the brief continues. "While lobbying disclosures do not reveal how much is spent on a single issue, disclosures reveal that these seven companies spent more than $330 million combined lobbying on all issues over the last five years, according to data from OpenSecrets."
Those companies are UnitedHealthcare, Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield, CVS Health, Kaiser, Centene, and Cigna.
Public Citizen found that in 2024, they collectively had 328 lobbyists targeting the federal government, with nearly 70% of them specifically working on Medicare Advantage. Blue Cross had the most lobbyists focused on such plans (99), followed by Humana (33) and UnitedHealth Group (27).
"If Oz is confirmed as the CMS administrator, attacks on traditional Medicare are likely to move into overdrive," Eagan Kemp, a healthcare policy advocate at Public Citizen, warned in a Tuesday statement. "We should strengthen Medicare by improving it and expanding access to it, not weaken it through further privatization."
The Senate Committee on Finance is set to consider Oz on Friday morning. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, the GOP-controlled chamber hasn't blocked any of his nominees.
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