MEMO: Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous Available to Speak on State of the Union

In advance of the State of the Union address on Tuesday, the Sierra Club celebrates the many historic legislative victories achieved in 2022 and urges President Biden to lay out his administration’s clear plans for 2023 to continue combating the climate crisis, protecting our lands and waters, and ensuring justice and equity for all. The Sierra Club’s new executive director, Ben Jealous, is available for interviews regarding 2022’s victories and the importance of Biden keeping his commitments on climate and equity.

Last year President Biden, supported by a diverse and powerful movement, helped win the largest ever investment in climate action with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). We will continue to work to ensure equitable implementation of both the IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), including strong standards to curtail racial, economic, and environmental injustice. Congress also passed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act, which will accelerate clean energy innovation. We earned key wins for clean transportation and building electrification and made crucial advancements in safeguarding more lands, preserving our waters, and protecting wildlife. We blocked the proposed permitting bill that would weaken critical environmental protections and rubber-stamp the Mountain Valley Pipeline and dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure. Biden signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, protecting same-sex and interracial unions, and major gun safety legislation.

But our work is far from over, and even with a divided Congress, there is much that can be accomplished this year to slash pollution, drive climate action, boost community resilience, advance racial equity, support family-sustaining jobs, and bolster economic security. 

THE SIERRA CLUB'S TOP PRIORITIES FOR 2023 INCLUDE:

Moving Off Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy 

• EPA must establish stringent new greenhouse gas limits on new and existing gas and coal plants to reduce climate pollution. 
• EPA must finalize methane standards for new and existing oil and gas operations. 
• CEQ must build on the proposed climate guidance and Phase 1 rulemaking by strengthening NEPA regulations and finalizing Phase 2 rulemaking.
• DOE should update its public interest determination for gas exports to meaningfully take into account climate and environmental justice impacts and open a public comment period to inform that guidance. 
• FERC should take into account climate and environmental justice — including cumulative impacts — when permitting gas export facilities and finalize its Certificate Policy Statement for interstate gas pipelines and GHG Guidance.

Protecting Lands and Wildlife 

• Pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) and the Outdoors for All Act.
• Safeguard more landscapes, waters, forests, and species through executive authority to achieve the administration’s stated goal of “conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.”
• Ensuring the administration honors existing commitments to designate new national monuments and pursues new cultural national monument designations. 

Safeguarding Democracy

• Support the Freedom to Vote Act, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the DISCLOSE Act, and DC statehood.
• Urge the administration to fully implement Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting and take every action possible to safeguard our democracy. 
• Swiftly act to nominate and confirm all judicial vacancies.

Advancing Clean Transportation

• Urge the EPA to issue strong clean air safeguards that would limit tailpipe emissions from trucks and buses.
• Support bipartisan legislation on electric vehicle battery recycling.
• Increase transportation access and mobility to public lands for critically underserved communities by advancing the Transit to Trails Act.

Securing Equitable IRA Implementation 

• Direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to properly implement oversight of IRA investments.
• Ensure that implementation of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and Climate Pollution Reduction grants maximizes the benefits for frontline communities.
• Guide DOE to spend the $5.8 billion in the Advanced Industrial Facilities Deployment Program in a way that safeguards working families across the country.  

Ensuring Environmental Justice

• Develop effective tools to implement the Justice40 Initiative, working with recommendations from environmental justice leaders.
• Provide effective remedies for systemic environmental violations and contaminations in frontline communities that have been historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution.

Protecting Clean Air and Clean Water 

• Secure a strong soot standard, update the outdated standard for ozone, and strengthen Mercury and Air Toxics Standards.
• Protect our drinking water and waterways from coal ash runoff and industrial discharge of toxic pollutants.
• Strengthen water protections by expanding the scope of regulations under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.

Building Clean Electricity

• Deploy cheaper energy faster to save people and businesses money on their energy bills through newly extended and expanded clean energy tax policies for renewable energy sources like solar, onshore and offshore wind, and other clean technologies.
• Stand up the USDA's new program for rural electric cooperatives to purchase and deploy clean energy.
• Build equitably planned electric transmission projects to connect more abundant and affordable renewable energy and make the electric grid more resilient.

Advancing Building Electrification

• Set zero-emission performance standards for fossil fuel-fired heating appliances.
• Finalize new building energy performance standards and weatherize and electrify housing.

Catalyzing Industrial Transformation

• Expand Buy Clean actions to lower industrial carbon emissions and pollution.
• Secure clean manufacturing investments to help clean up existing and build new heavy industry facilities, including steel and aluminum.

Establishing Climate-Friendly Trade Policies

• Advance Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) legislation to reduce a large, unaddressed source of climate pollution, support U.S. clean manufacturing growth, and stem the outsourcing of jobs and pollution under unfair trade deals. 

Passing Sustainable Farm Bill Policies and Programs

• Mitigate the impact of climate change and pollution on frontline communities, protect mature forests and old-growth trees, expand the Civilian Conservation Corps, and increase overall funding for conservation of our National Forests.
• Improve and increase funding for conservation programs, promote regenerative organic agriculture, and reduce water pollution