Sierra Club Statement as Congress Prepares to Pass Trump Plan to Raise Electricity Costs, Endanger Health, and Kill Jobs

This morning, despite widespread public opposition to the many clear dangers of the bill, House Republicans are expected to cast the final vote to pass Donald Trump’s reckless budget reconciliation package that will endanger public health, kill clean energy jobs and their economic benefits, and raise costs for working families and small businesses—all to hand big tax breaks to billionaires and corporate polluters.

The final text—the product of a legislative process coordinated by Republicans that seemed designed to do the most harm possible to working families—would expand on- and off-shore drilling, end nearly all clean energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, gut fuel efficiency standards for cars, stifle industrial innovation, and give massive handouts to fossil fuel companies and polluters.

Several studies of the legislation found that termination of the clean energy tax credits repealed in this bill could raise the average American family’s energy bills by as much as $400 per year by 2035. Additional analyses released earlier this week by the non-partisan CBO estimates that the bill will add $3.4 trillion in debt and result in more than 12 million Americans losing their health care coverage.

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous released the following statement:

“This is a sad and scary day for all who work to build up our communities, care for our friends and neighbors, and wish to leave this planet in a better place for future generations. Instead of working to make life better for American families and communities, what Donald Trump and his loyalists in Congress have delivered today will mean higher energy costs for working families and small businesses, the end of life-saving health care that millions rely on, and ceding the race to build the clean energy economy of tomorrow to China. Trump and Congressional Republicans have advanced the most anti-environment, anti-job, and anti-American bill in history. The Sierra Club will not forget it. America will not forget it.”