The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to curb the Environmental Protection Agency’s power over carbon pollution in West Virginia v. EPA jeopardizes a clean and livable planet at the worst possible moment. Along with its recent decisions on abortion and guns, it seems that the court’s conservative majority has no qualms about suppressing the future of all life on this planet.
After this onslaught of rights-eviscerating rulings, it’s easy to feel stunned, hopeless and inert. Instead, we should realize that the people of the United States have power.
We are a group of climate-engaged stewards from across the nation, including a classical musician, a doctor, a student, a climate labor researcher, a documentary filmmaker, a youth climate activist and a lawyer-turned-journalist — a group as diverse as the progressive movement as a whole.
One thing is clear: The clean energy transition can’t be stopped. It’s happening at all levels of public life; it’s happening in public schools, in hospitals, in municipal utilities, in churches and in our own homes.
That’s because the majority of Americans want a livable future. According to research from Yale University and George Mason University, 70% of the U.S. population is worried about climate change, and most American voters — even Republicans — support climate-friendly energy policies. The Supreme Court decisions won’t erase this popular mandate.
This month, a coalition of labor and environmental groups helped make Rhode Island the first state to commit to 100% renewables by 2033. Last year’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act committed Illinois to have a carbon-free power sector by 2045 and to 100% clean and affordable renewable energy by 2050. Both are the most pro-worker climate bills to date, requiring labor standards on utility-scale renewables and creating thousands of union careers for frontline communities.
Hawaii has become the first state to declare a climate emergency, New York state is building nine gigawatts of offshore wind power projects and California is transitioning to an all-electric bus fleet. Collective efforts of environmental advocates, community organizers and labor unions made these ambitions a reality.
On a local level, school districts across the nation are installing renewable energy sources like wind and solar modules, and committing to net-zero emissions targets. Union and state jobs coalitions are pushing campaigns for carbon-free and healthy schools.
Municipal utilities — nonprofit, community-owned power companies that provide 10% of the electricity in the United States — are installing renewables in response to customer demand. And there is activist momentum to transition investor-owned utilities to municipal ones — campaigns that will expand if utilities don’t listen to the 85% of Americans who want more renewable energy.
Federal funds will be transformative. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is providing a massive influx of $1.2 trillion that will create millions of jobs and support our transition to a more renewable, resilient energy economy.
This is not to say we are close to where we need to be. Emissions increased 6.2% last year compared to 2020, largely due to more coal use. One in 10 homes was impacted in 2021 by natural disasters exacerbated by the climate emergency.
Nationwide, more than 17 million people live within one mile of an active oil or gas well and contend with elevated air pollution and disease, a tragic reality that’s earned one region in Louisiana the name “cancer alley.” Too many Americans still must fight the placement of coal-fired power plants in their communities. The ruling in West Virginia v. EPA hits them hardest.
Some might fear this moment as a disheartening step backward; we frame it as an invitation to join an existing network ready to spring forward and fill the gap.
The last several decades show a history of local actions that have achieved durable and transformative change. It is a collective, organic movement — one that has pushed and thrived and survived independent of EPA or other federal recognition.
We may be licking our collective wounds today, but we know that the moment is too urgent to stay defeated. Together with Americans of all ages, races and creeds, we will persevere.
We’ll do it because we care about our children, our communities and our planet. And because the cost of inaction has never been higher.
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ABOUT THE WRITERS
Tiffany Duong, Beth Gibbons, Tonyisha Harris, Christine James, Tanya Kalmanovitch, Melanie La Rosa, Sage Lenier, Cameron Oglesby, Anita Raman and Laalitha Surapaneni coauthored this piece. They are all 2022 Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis, a partnership of The OpEd Project and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. This column was produced by Progressive Perspectives, which is run by The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.
