Around the world, across the country, and right here in Illinois, we’re already experiencing the catastrophic effects of climate change. Deadly heat waves, flooded neighborhoods, poor air quality, and rising energy costs are now the norm. Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of greenhouse gas emissions. The big oil companies have known about the risks their products pose – and misled the public about those risks – for decades. But, while working families, small businesses, and local governments are left to pick up the pieces, the corporations responsible for the crisis continue to profit without consequence. In Evanston, I led the charge to pass some of the boldest climate legislation in the country, moving to fully decarbonize large buildings by 2050 and reduce reliance on fossil fuels inside our homes. But far more action is needed.

Climate change isn’t only an environmental issue, it’s an economic issue, and it’s a moral issue. Working-class communities and communities of color are often the most harmed by corporate polluters — and often have the fewest resources to rebuild from and prepare for disasters. 

We need to pass a Green New Deal to slash greenhouse gas emissions, create good union jobs, finish the transition to renewable energy, and build infrastructure that can withstand the climate crisis. And we need to make the polluters who caused this mess pay to clean it up.

I’ll support legislation that ensures corporate polluters — not vulnerable communities and taxpayers — bear the cost of the crisis they created. That means:

• Enacting a Polluter Pays Climate Superfund: The largest corporate carbon emitters should contribute to a national fund to finance disaster recovery, climate adaptation, and renewable energy.

• Repealing Fossil Fuel Subsidies: Each year, fossil fuel already gets hundreds of millions in federal subsidies. Trump’s new budget makes the problem even worse, providing tens of millions in new subsidies for coal, oil, and gas. We need to level the playing field for renewable energy and end these subsidies. 

• Holding Polluters Legally Accountable: We need legislation to fully empower states, tribes, and local governments to sue major polluters for damages to health, land, and infrastructure. And Congress needs to get to work to reverse the cuts Trump and Elon Musk made to the EPA, and to restore the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions.

• Passing a Green New Deal and Reinstating the Climate Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act: We need a Green New Deal to rapidly transition to clean energy, invest in vulnerable communities, and create good-paying union jobs. The Inflation Reduction Act was a giant step in the right direction, and we must pass a new budget bill to reverse Trump’s cuts to wind, solar, energy efficiency, and electric vehicle infrastructure. 

• Investing in Vulnerable Communities: Any federal action on climate change must prioritize and invest in the neighborhoods and communities most affected by pollution and most at risk from climate change, especially minority and low-income communities.

• Fighting for our Future, not for Oil Companies’ Profits: We need to invest in our future, not outdated technologies and fossil fuel executives’ bottom lines. I’ll fight against federal authorization of new fossil fuel infrastructure and support regulatory changes that make it easier to build new renewable energy capacity. 
  

The climate crisis is already here, and we can’t keep letting the worst offenders off the hook. I've taken the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge because I’ll stand up to Big Oil, fight for clean air and water, and make sure the path to a green future is paid for by those who’ve profited from the status quo for too long.