We all need a Green New Deal, John.

That’s why today Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and I introduced our bill — a Green New Deal for Cities, Towns, Counties, States, Tribes, and Territories — to bring the fight against our climate crisis to the local level.

As the climate crisis escalates, communities like ours in St. Louis and Queens are suffering under environmental injustice. So many of our walls are covered in lead paint. The polluted air we breathe stings our lungs and leaves us with asthma. The temperatures in our communities are rising and we’re seeing more frequent extreme weather events along with it. Our communities, and every other community in this country, need climate action and environmental justice more urgently now than ever.

This bill would provide direct funding to local governments to respond to this crisis AND create hundreds of thousands of good-paying union jobs in the process.

If you’re with us in this fight to save our communities from a rapidly escalating climate crisis, will you add your name to support the Green New Deal for Cities bill?

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This is a crisis we’re experiencing right here, right now. Folks are already dealing with the harsh impacts of our climate crisis.

In my own home district of St. Louis, there are increasing signs of how folks, especially Black and brown people, are hurting by a lack of local funding and government support for climate action and environmental protection. Our children are increasingly making more trips to the emergency room for asthma attacks. Extreme temperatures are driving up electric bills. And if we don’t take meaningful action soon — we risk handing down an unlivable planet to the next generation.

Just as the American Rescue Plan provided much needed federal resources to local governments to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Green New Deal for Cities would provide direct funding to our communities to respond to the climate crisis. Specifically, this bill would:

• Authorize $1 trillion, with a minimum of 50% of all investments going each to frontline communities and climate mitigation
• Fund an expansive array of climate and environmental justice projects including wind power procurement, clean water infrastructure, and air quality monitoring
• Support housing stability by conditioning funding to local governments to ensure they work with tenant and community groups to prevent displacement in communities receiving investment
• Support workers by including prevailing wage requirements, equitable and local hiring provisions, apprenticeship and workforce development requirements, project labor agreements, and Buy America provisions

We can have a country where good-paying jobs are available to all, where we have clean air to breath and clean water to drink, in safe neighborhoods that have the green spaces we need. But to make it happen, we all need to join together to let Congress know that this bill is backed by the people.

It’s going to take a strong show of grassroots support to pass the Green New Deal for Cities and make sure we take our fight against the climate crisis to the next level. John, can I count on you to show your support?

Let’s do this,
Cori Bush
 

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