CONTACT: Sarah McBride
Program Coordinator, Media and Public Engagement
smcbride@momscleanairforce.org
(774) 392-3397
WASHINGTON, DC—In response to breaking news that Congress has passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 today, sending the bill to President Biden to be signed into law, Moms Clean Air Force’s Director and Co-Founder Dominique Browning issued the following statement. This is the only press statement you will read that speaks to the power of love.
“The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is a stunning achievement. It contains a historic level of investment in cutting climate pollution. Together with the infrastructure bill that members of Moms Clean Air Force worked to pass months ago, along with other investments in clean energy innovation, the Biden Administration has committed nearly half a trillion dollars to stopping climate pollution. This is a smart and necessary investment in our future. The bill also significantly reinforces the Clean Air Act, embedding the authority to regulate climate pollution into its very fabric. We thank President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, and all the Democrats who voted for this bill.
This investment marks the beginning of a significant new chapter in our work. The beginning of building out a massive clean energy grid, with all the thorny issues of permitting and siting of industrial scale technologies. The beginning of overhauling our transportation system. The beginning of strengthening our Environmental Protection Agency in its mission to protect human health.
The beginning of making sure that the implementation of this enormous investment is equitable. That we continue to interrupt generations of environmental injustice against Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-income communities. That far more funding is devoted to people living near fossil fuel facilities; they are carrying the burden of pollution. Too many people have suffered—and fought—for too long with the government doing absolutely nothing to protect them. We must no longer accept living in a country that cordons off ‘sacrifice zones’ where people are dying so that we can turn on the lights and wrap sandwiches in plastic.
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 marks a turning point—but only if we work to make it so.
Moms Clean Air Force got into this fight more than a decade ago, joining a diverse, vibrant, and growing community. All of us remain profoundly alarmed by the disastrous impacts of global warming and air pollution we are experiencing.
Today we remind everyone: never underestimate the power of moms. Never underestimate the power of determined people fueled by the most sustainable energy of all: love.”