Freedom to Live on a Healthy Planet

Care for our common home is a requirement of the Catholic faith.

Our Values

The Catholic faith calls us to care for our common home. No matter where we live or what’s in our wallets, we all want the freedom to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and live in healthy communities—for ourselves and for future generations!

THE CURRENT REALITY

As Pope Francis has warned, climate change threatens the entire world’s population. 

  • Coal, oil, and gas are by far the largest contributors to climate change. Fossil fuel executives know this, so they buy political influence and push disinformation campaigns and false or misleading climate “solutions.”
  • Some oil, gas, and utility corporations are poisoning our air, land, and water while raking in huge profits—at the expense of our planet, our health, and our children’s futures.
  • Yet, Big Oil receives billions of dollars in federal tax breaks and subsidies, slowing our ability to address the climate crisis and taking money from things like education, housing, and health care.
  • The harms of climate change and ecological degradation—like extreme heat, flooding, and bad air quality—impact all of us, especially Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities.
  • Rollbacks in federal regulations have let some industries build toxic waste sites and factories that pollute in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income neighborhoods for
    decades. This has caused harmful and even deadly health outcomes.

    • For example, Black Americans are nearly four times as likely to die from exposure to pollution than white Americans, and Black children are twice as likely to suffer from asthma as white children, due to greater exposure to poor air quality and pollutants.
    • Black and Brown children are also more likely to be exposed to lead from paint and aging, neglected water systems, as happened in Flint, Michigan.

Will you vote for candidates who…

Will address the climate crisis and invest in a rapid, just transition to renewable energy?

Goal #1: Invest in a sustainable future instead of fossil fuel corporations

WINS:

  • On President Biden’s first day in office, the U.S. rejoined the Paris Agreement, an international agreement to avert catastrophic climate change by cutting emissions.
  • The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed during the Biden administration, is the largest investment in climate solutions to date.
  • The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act make our communities and planet cleaner, safer, and more sustainable for the future, by funding renewable energy, electric cars and buses, home energy efficiency upgrades, community resilience against natural disasters, lead pipe replacement, oil well cleanup, green manufacturing, and both urban and rural environmental justice initiatives.
  • President Biden launched the American Climate Corps to train young adults for clean energy jobs.

VISION:

  • Together, we will elect leaders who care about our futures, and who will end tax subsidies to fossil fuel corporations and oil and gas leases on federal public lands.
  • We will ensure that our elected officials resist repeated threats by the GOP House majority to unravel the Biden administration’s progress in making our country more sustainable.
  • And, we will elect leaders who will strengthen renewable energy industries and jobs, so that we can become a responsible, sustainable economy that is just, honors the dignity of creation, and meets our needs—today and in the future.
Will end policies that benefit fossil fuel corporations, such as tax subsidies and approval of pipelines?

Goal #1: Invest in a sustainable future instead of fossil fuel corporations

WINS:

  • On President Biden’s first day in office, the U.S. rejoined the Paris Agreement, an international agreement to avert catastrophic climate change by cutting emissions.
  • The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed during the Biden administration, is the largest investment in climate solutions to date.
  • The Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act make our communities and planet cleaner, safer, and more sustainable for the future, by funding renewable energy, electric cars and buses, home energy efficiency upgrades, community resilience against natural disasters, lead pipe replacement, oil well cleanup, green manufacturing, and both urban and rural environmental justice initiatives.
  • President Biden launched the American Climate Corps to train young adults for clean energy jobs.

VISION:

  • Together, we will elect leaders who care about our futures, and who will end tax subsidies to fossil fuel corporations and oil and gas leases on federal public lands.
  • We will ensure that our elected officials resist repeated threats by the GOP House majority to unravel the Biden administration’s progress in making our country more sustainable.
  • And, we will elect leaders who will strengthen renewable energy industries and jobs, so that we can become a responsible, sustainable economy that is just, honors the dignity of creation, and meets our needs—today and in the future.
Will address pollution and toxic dumping that disproportionately affect Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, and ensure clean air and water for all?

Goal #2: Ensure clean air and water for everyone

WINS:

  • The Biden-Harris administration’s Environmental Protection Agency reinstated critical protections previously removed by the Trump administration. It updated national air quality standards to make our air cleaner and safer to breathe, and strengthened regulatory limits on toxins and mercury pollution, which is especially harmful to pregnant people.
  • The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided $15 billion to replace lead service lines, finally allowing children to be free of lead exposure and its catastrophic health consequences.
  • The Biden-Harris administration finalized the first-ever National Drinking Water Standard, which protects 100 million people from PFAS pollution (a group of toxic “forever chemicals”).
  • President Biden established the Justice40 Initiative, requiring that 40 percent of federal investments related to climate change go to marginalized communities.
  • President Biden also created the White House Office of Environmental Justice, aimed at protecting marginalized communities from environmental harm.

VISION:

  • Together, we will elect leaders who will invest in projects and protect regulations that give our neighborhoods clean water, air, and homes.
  • We will improve access to safe drinking water for all by ensuring that our elected officials pass the Financing Lead Out of Water (FLOW) Act.

Care for our common home is a requirement of the Catholic faith.

Equally Sacred Checklist

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