Team,
In places prone to hurricanes and wildfires, insurers are grappling with massive risk as the climate crisis makes extreme weather events much more common and much more severe. Scientists are now calling for a new category of hurricane — Category 6. A major insurance collapse would trigger huge consequences for the stability of the entire economy, especially for middle-class families trying to insure their biggest investment — their homes.
I’ve been raising this alarm for years, warning of the economic risks caused by the environmental effects of climate change. As Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, I’ve led a series of hearings on this topic and we’re not nearly done.
I’m using every tool available to me to fight the climate crisis and the greedy fossil fuel industry, which is making money hand over fist at the expense of our planet.
So I’m asking: Can you donate $5 to send me back to the Senate so Democrats can hold on to our majority and I can continue to lead the charge to prevent environmental and economic disaster?
I pressed hard on the Biden administration to adopt a serious governmentwide “social cost of carbon” — an economic term for factoring the actual harms and costs of fossil fuels into all kinds of decisions. The Biden administration listened and they’re doing it. It doesn’t make a lot of headlines, but it’s a very big deal.
My methane fee, which cracks down on the wasteful methane leaks from the fossil fuel industry that are responsible for an outsized amount of climate change, became law in the Inflation Reduction Act. Now we need the Biden administration to set up a methane enforcement task force to unlock the full force of that law. Working with them on that.
The brightest spot on the horizon for reducing emissions is the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, also known as a CBAM. The CBAM charges a tariff on goods made with high levels of pollution, sending an important global price signal to China and other countries that pollute freely. I’m working to get the U.S. in on the action and we’ve got some bipartisan momentum to get it done. If we do it right, it’ll give American manufacturers a leg up in the global economy and lower emissions around the world.
We know pretty well how to solve climate change. But because of the fossil fuel industry and its dark-money machine, we haven’t been able to lead the planet and our economy to the safe zone yet.
Inaction is the most expensive route we can take.
So please, if you can, pitch in today to support my re-election campaign so I can keep taking on the fossil fuel industry and its dark money apparatus to head off climate disaster and economic meltdown.
Thank you,
Sheldon Whitehouse
