House Republicans Vote to Give Corporate Polluters Handouts While Making Americans Sicker, Poorer, and Less Safe

SACRAMENTO, CA — Today, California Environmental Voters (EnviroVoters) released the following statement in response to a stunning display of misplaced priorities from House Republicans after rushing and, at 6:54 a.m. EST/3:54 a.m. PST, passing a budget reconciliation bill that showers billionaires and corporations with handouts 

Statement from Melissa Romero, Policy Advocacy Director, California Environmental Voters:

“Trump has made it clear his priority is to obstruct California’s climate leadership, and it’s deeply disturbing to see California Republicans aiding and abetting his agenda to prioritize corporate polluters and billionaires. By voting to gut clean energy, health care, and environmental protections, they’ve abandoned their constituents’ health, safety, and economic security.

Representatives Ken Calvert, Kevin Kiley, Young Kim, Jay Obernolte, and David Valadeo should be ashamed for selling out their constituents. Last night’s reconciliation bill guts our clean energy programs, repeals cost-saving efficiency standards, and creates pay-to-play loopholes for massive polluting projects.

With Californians facing the tragic impacts of an accelerating climate crisis in real time — from worsening extreme wildfires to surging energy costs — the very least our leaders can do is protect the progress we’ve made. Instead they’re choosing fossil fuel profits over clean air for our children, and billionaire tax breaks over FEMA disaster funding for California Wildfire survivors. When this bill comes back to the House, Californians should loudly demand their congressional representatives show political courage and vote no on this attack on California’s values.”

The extreme budget cuts include:

– Increasing families’ energy costs by ending clean energy programs, rebates and incentives, and repealing vehicle efficiency standards.

– Putting polluting billionaires above the law by creating sweetheart deals for oil and gas executives to jam through massive polluting infrastructure projects while sidestepping review, community input, and judicial scrutiny for drilling, pipelines, and methane gas exports.

– Threatening our health and increasing families’ medical costs by eliminating pollution reduction programs that clean up our schools, dirty diesel trucks and buses, and ports all while cutting funding for communities to be able to track harmful air pollution.

– Gutting widely supported clean energy tax credit investments, which means higher electricity costs for struggling families and businesses, tanking the U.S. manufacturing resurgence, and ceding leadership to China.  

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