Clean Water Action: Climate Change is Water Change
CLEAN Future Act is a Bold Plan to Address the Climate Crisis and Protect Water & Health
Long Branch, NJ--Clean Water Action joined Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. at a press event at Monmouth University today to support the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act - a bold new climate plan to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050.
As extreme weather is devastating communities across the U.S. and the world, the American people continue to demand bold climate solutions, and support for climate action is growing across all age groups, all religions, and all political persuasions. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, avoiding the most catastrophic outcomes of climate change requires cutting carbon pollution to net-zero by 2050.
"Protecting our water means doing everything we can to address climate change,” said Amy Goldsmith, State Director of Clean Water Action. “We need to move to a 100% clean economy as fast as possible. We thank Congressman Pallone and the committee for their leadership and commitment to this goal.”
The CLEAN Future Act is a comprehensive proposal of sector-specific and economy-wide solutions to address the climate crisis. The draft bill incorporates both proven and novel concepts, presenting a set of policy proposals that will put the U.S. on the path to a clean, green and prosperous economy.
“Climate change is water change,” said Goldsmith. “The carbon intensive way we live in the U.S. significantly contributes to the climate crisis and pollutes our water, air and communities. It also disproportionately harms low-income communities and communities of color. The CLEAN Future Act provides the solutions we need to make a clean and healthy future available to all.”
Clean Water Action fully supports the framework of the CLEAN Future Act that requires that states’ individual climate plans and state implementation plans for other hazardous air pollutants proactively consider the needs of frontline and environmental justice communities. It includes grant programs to allow impacted communities to participate in the permitting and regulation of petrochemical facilities in their neighborhoods.
"As a mom from Newark with three asthmatic children, I applaud Congressman Pallone for The Clean Future Act,” stated Kim Gaddy, Environmental Justice Organizer, Clean Water Action. “My city is ground zero for environmental injustice and the climate crisis. We suffer from the disproportionate share of major polluters - airport, idling trucks and buses, garbage incinerators, gas and sewage plants. We would greatly benefit from green and healthy economy. We need change now!”
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Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table. We will protect clean water in the face of attacks from a polluter friendly Administration and Congress. Clean Water Action has nearly 1 million members nationwide. www.cleanwater.org/nj