Group endeavors hopes to help planet and people

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Green for All and the Service Employees International Union converged in Washington, D.C. today, recommending to lawmakers how they should act following draft legislation recently put forward by Senate Democrats to introduce the Climate Equity Alliance, which is an alliance pushing for strong climate legislation that protects and provides opportunity for low- and moderate-income communities.

Jason Walsh, National Policy Director at Green for All said that, based on shared values, more than two dozen organizations from the research, advocacy, faith-based, labor and civil rights communities have formed this alliance.

“The urgent need of transition to a clean energy economy presents us with some critical choices…. We should therefore approach climate policy not only as environmental policy, though it is certainly that, but also as economic policy and as civil-rights policy that can advance principles of fairness and opportunity and equal access,” said Walsh.

The alliance believes that the best way to advance those principles “is to ensure that the strong policies needed to reduce green house gas emissions, also protect low and moderate income households and expand economic opportunity,” Walsh said.

U.S. climate policy needs to include effective mechanisms that reach all low-income households and effectively offset cost increases and to ensure that quality of life for those families is maintained, said Robert Greenstein, Executive Director at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“This is definitely doable as part of climate legislation,” Greenstein said. “One certainly doesn’t want climate policy to have the unintended side effect of increasing poverty and hardship... Well-designed climate policy can assure that there aren’t such adverse effects by auctioning emissions allowances and devoting an appropriate portion of the proceeds to effectively deliver consumer relief for low and moderate income households”.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green for All, said “We believe that if climate policy can fight pollution, it can also alleviate poverty at the same time,” adding that she wants to make ensure that the alliance is equitable and takes in account low and moderate-income communities.

“We want to ensure that climate policies provide equal protection and also equal opportunity for all communities,” she said. “Our hope is that working together, if we do this right, we’ll really be able to make sure that both our planet and the people that inhabit it are not really just surviving but in fact thriving in a clean energy economy.”