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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Elliott Negin
Media Director
202-331-5439
enegin@ucsusa.org

Congress Commits to Biggest Climate Action in US History

Following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act by the U.S. House of Representaive today, Johanna Chao Kreilick, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, released the following statement:

"This bill is a game changer and reason for hope. We finally have a Congress that's heeding the science on the severity of human-caused climate change and incentivizing the clean energy solutions that are supported by the vast majority of people in the United States.

WASHINGTON

Following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act by the U.S. House of Representaive today, Johanna Chao Kreilick, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, released the following statement:

"This bill is a game changer and reason for hope. We finally have a Congress that's heeding the science on the severity of human-caused climate change and incentivizing the clean energy solutions that are supported by the vast majority of people in the United States.

"It's extremely disappointing and alarming that despite the urgency to act, Republican lawmakers have largely refused to support critical climate policy.

"Combined with strong administrative and state actions, the bill helps position the U.S. to achieve its climate goal of reducing heat-trapping emissions 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The U.S. emission reductions, along with other global action that this legislation should help spur, may give us a fighting chance of avoiding devastating levels of warming.

"The bill is not perfect. It contains some troubling provisions, including some that risk expanding fossil fuel extraction and use; and it doesn't go far enough to remedy the myriad ways in which oil and gas companies are polluting low-income communities and communities of color. The critical foundation the bill provides must be built upon to ameliorate those impacts, deepen U.S. emission reductions and help communities become more resilient to climate change."

The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.