Hi,Today marks the one year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history. I said it last year and I’ll say it again: without the movement for the Green New Deal, there would be no IRA.

In 2017 when our movement launched, climate was a bottom tier issue, politically toxic and ignored by the establishment. So, we sat in Speaker Pelosi’s office with AOC in 2018 to make climate a political priority. We pushed until 23 out of 25 Democratic presidential candidates endorsed the Green New Deal in 2020. We helped inspire record youth turnout after helping Biden write the most ambitious climate plan any presidential nominee has ever run on. And in 2021, we never let lawmakers forget they had an obligation to deliver climate legislation.

Then in 2022, Congress delivered a climate and jobs plan that:

Dramatically reduces emissions: The bill puts the U.S. on a pathway towards up to 40% emissions reduction by 2030 and 50% by 2035.
Creates investments that will shift demand towards renewable energy and decrease reliance on fossil fuels.
Allocates money that goes towards rebates, tax credits, investments, etc. that make it easier for city and state governments to set & execute more ambitious climate plans.
Sends $60 billion dollars to environmental justice, specifically communities that are low income, disadvantaged, or otherwise disproportionately impacted.
And, opens up a new era for the climate movement - new things to win, new money to spend, new bad things to fight against.


That’s the power of movements.And yet, today must also serve as a reminder that we still have so much work to do to stop the climate crisis, win a Green New Deal and end the era of fossil fuels. The IRA legislation has the fossil fuel industry and the private sector written all over it.

The worst of the bill is its mandate that in order to issue any new leases of public land for wind and solar energy, the government must have issued a lease for oil and gas within the past year. Plus, instead of investing in a robust public sector and low carbon jobs, the IRA invests in things like huge tax credits given to electric car manufacturing companies like Tesla.

An IRA that still gives handouts to the fossil fuel industry and invests in private corporations' ability to deal with the climate crisis alone will not achieve the vision the Green New Deal demands. That’s why we’re building power across the country to organize the people and political power we need to win the world we deserve.

Our local Green New Deal campaigns have already begun launching across the country and made some huge waves this year. If you’d like to show your support to our GND for Communities and GND for Schools campaigns, please consider making a donation to fuel our organizing work. [[link removed]]

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It’s as clear to me as ever that the only way we will win a Green New Deal is by building an unstoppable movement in every corner of this country. Only movements have the power to change what is politically possible. Only movements can take the wheel of history and turn it. Movements got us this far, and one day, movements will make the Green New Deal a reality.

Onwards,
Varshini

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