As Hurricane Ida makes a devastating landfall in coastal Louisiana and California continues to face unprecedented fire conditions, our national focus is again set on the damaging effects of climate change. Now is the time to think deeper about what an equitable response should look like and how to make sure our nation’s leaders address and reduce the impact of environmental strains on vulnerable communities.
Shareable’s commitment to environmental justice stretches far back into our history. And it’s this commitment that led us to partner with The Rural Power Coalition (RPC), a group of place-based organizations representing rural electric cooperative member-owners from the five dirtiest electric cooperatives in the United States.
RPC’s mission is simple: To transform the lives of the often disenfranchised communities that make up rural America, we must address the unsustainable energy infrastructure used to power these communities. To do that, we need our nation’s key decision-makers to commit to making bold investments to transition these co-ops to cleaner, more equitable energy alternatives.
Following the US House of Representatives’ approval of a 2022 budget framework, the Rural Power Coalition sent a letter to the House and Senate Agriculture Committee members, a select group of key decision-makers in Congress, and the Biden administration, calling on them to support rural communities by allocating $40 billion to jump-start the transition to clean energy.
It would mean a lot to us if our US readers would join us in amplifying this fight. Please take action right now by sharing this article, contacting your local representatives about this issue (it just takes 2 minutes), and encouraging individuals in your network to do the same.
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