WASHINGTON – Today, leading House Democrats unveiled an updated version of the CLEAN Future Act, a climate bill that backers have touted as an alternative to a bold Green New Deal.
While this year’s version of the bill moves the timeline for 100 percent clean electricity to 2035 — the same timeline that was embraced by the Biden campaign — the legislation has larger problems.
In response, Food & Water Watch Policy Director Mitch Jones release the following statement:
“Democrats should be making a big, bold push on climate — and the CLEAN Future Act is simply not strong enough. While the faster transition to a 100 percent clean energy is welcome, setting a goal of 2035 would have been bold five years ago, when groups like Food & Water Watch first made that call.
“The larger problem is that the bill’s clean energy standard includes provisions that essentially greenwash dirty energy sources — including rebranding fracked gas as ‘clean’ by pairing it with unproven, non-existent carbon capture methods. It also relies on a dubious emissions trading scheme to achieve its goals, which serves fossil fuel industry interests while pretending to curb climate pollution. The bill also promotes factory farm biogas as a clean energy source.
“While this bill has been marginally improved, it fails to grasp the fundamental truth of fighting climate change: We must stop extracting and burning fossil fuels as soon as possible. We should not waste time creating credit schemes and offsets markets, or prop up fossil fuels with carbon capture fantasies.
“A bold climate plan must call for a ban on fracking and all new fossil fuel infrastructure, and a swift and just transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy across all sectors of the economy. The CLEAN Future Act may have been revised since last year, but it’s still a Green New Dud.”