Contact: Julie Kimmel, jkimmel@momscleanairforce.org, (202) 572-3392
Washington, DC—In response to today’s Senate vote to pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Trisha Dello Iacono, National Field and Legislative Manager for Moms Clean Air Force, issued the following statement:
“Families across the country are feeling the impacts from the climate crisis now. Superstorms, extreme heat, flooding, wildfires, and more are harming communities every day. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released a report showing that we are not doing enough to cut climate pollution and we are crossing dangerous thresholds.
“The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a necessary first step to move us toward budget reconciliation in order to pass bold, ambitious, and transformative policy that will put people to work in good-paying jobs, expand clean energy, and cut carbon and methane pollution that threatens our health and economy.
“It is refreshing to see our Senators work together toward ensuring our communities are being protected from the worst harms from climate change. While we are thankful that pollution from 56,000 documented orphan oil and gas wells is being addressed, the reality is that there could be more than a million wells nationwide that still need to be plugged. In addition, the funding to transition our aging, dirty diesel school bus fleet to clean electric-powered school buses is woefully inadequate. We need to do more to protect children and environmental justice communities that are disproportionately being impacted by pollution and the climate crisis.
“Moms want a zero-pollution, clean energy future. This bill is a step in the right direction—now we need Congress to keep moving forward to ensure our families can literally breathe easier as we cut more and more carbon and methane pollution from our economy.”