America stands at a moment of crisis: of public health, of economic security, faith in institutions, and of the global climate. This is the moment for elected leaders to embrace a bold agenda that will confront these interrelated crises and build a better future. Success requires commitment to fact-based, science-driven policy, and investment in the public good.

As America grapples with the major health and economic consequences of this pandemic, federal leaders must also work with a long-range vision to rebuild the economy for future growth. Congress today and the next President in January must revitalize economic opportunity while taking action to stop the disastrous impact of impending crises.

The next President and Congress must launch a national mobilization at the scope and speed necessary to defeat the climate crisis, and create millions of good-paying union jobs building a more just, sustainable and inclusive clean energy economy. We have a short period of time to act. And whether we shrink from this challenge, or rise to it, will define America’s future. The next President and Congress must make defeating the climate crisis and building a clean energy economy a top priority. And current federal lawmakers should look for every opportunity to make a down payment in this agenda.

As we recover and rebuild from the economic collapse created by global pandemic, and our government’s failure to respond, this agenda provides enormous opportunity for economic revitalization: rebuilding infrastructure, growing manufacturing and innovation, protecting workers and front-line communities, and restoring American leadership and global standing.

This was the driving force behind Governor Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign, which put forward a comprehensive and actionable “Climate Mission” for the next President and Congress. At the end of that campaign, Gov. Inslee offered his 6-part, 218-page plan as an open-source document for any candidate or elected leader to use. Following in that spirit, this team has adapted and updated the Climate Mission Agenda into a 12-part climate action plan for federal lawmakers: The Evergreen Action Plan.

This plan is built upon 5 key principles:

➢ Powering the Economy with 100% Clean Energy: Using targeted clean energy standards and strategies for each key sector of the economy: electricity, transportation, buildings, industries, agriculture.

➢ Investing in Good Jobs, Infrastructure, Industry & Innovation: Creating millions of good-paying jobs benefiting every community through major new investments in modernized infrastructure, manufacturing industries, agriculture, conservation, and clean tech innovation, while supporting workers and guaranteeing the right to form a union.

➢ Building Greater Justice & Economic Inclusion: Confronting environmental racism and supporting the front-line, low-income, and indigenous communities and communities of color that are hit first and worst by the climate crisis, pollution, and economic disinvestment.

➢ Ending Fossil Fuel Giveaways: Ending billions in subsidies and handouts, and holding polluters accountable for their environmental harm. And intentionally transitioning off fossil fuels while protecting workers, stewarding natural resources, and diversifying the local economies that depend on them today.

➢ Mobilizing Global Action: Committing American leadership in an ambitious global effort to confront the climate challenge, using every tool in foreign policy: diplomacy, finance, trade, aid and assistance.

Our challenge is very clear: To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the global community must cut greenhouse gas pollution approximately in half by 2030, and achieve global net-zero pollution by mid-century, according to a 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Implementing this Evergreen Action Plan will help ensure that America meets these targets and leads the world in defeating the climate crisis. As the world’s largest historical emitter of climate pollution, and the global leader in technology innovation, America should be among the first to achieve that net-zero target, as fast as possible and well before mid-century.

The Evergreen Action Plan offers a comprehensive program that catalyzes trillions in investment over the next decade into clean energy technology, new infrastructure, and climate solutions. Through bold federal investments and high standards for private markets, these policies will leverage trillions more from the private sector to create millions of high-quality union jobs. The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have made it more clear than ever before that we must rebuild our economy in response to the clear demands of science. True recovery will come through intelligent, fact-based leadership focused on the future and grounded in growth, opportunity and inclusion.

This plan is built on this team’s decades of direct experience advancing ambitious climate policy, and is inspired by modern-day movements fighting for urgent climate action. It is informed by the clean energy successes of state and local governments, as well as past federal progress, and by the ambitious investment vision of a Green New Deal, the bottom-up organizing of environmental justice organizers, front-line communities, and the grassroots leaders fighting against fossil fuel corporations and their pollution. It synthesizes the original Inslee campaign Climate Mission Agenda into twelve planks.

The Evergreen Action Plan offers a roadmap for national mobilization; a governing document for our nation’s lawmakers to use in confronting our defining challenge and in seizing the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century. Let’s get to work.

Evergreen Action Plan

Table of Contents

1. Launching a National Climate Mobilization

1.1. White House Office of Climate Mobilization & Climate Council

1.2. Mobilizing Federal Clean Energy Investments

1.3. National Environmental Justice Initiative

1.4. State Climate Mobilization Councils

1.5. Tribal Sovereignty & Treaty Rights

2. Achieving 100% Clean Power

2.1. 100% Clean Electricity Standard

2.2. Clean Air Act Standards to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Pollution

2.3. Creating a Green Bank & Investing in Clean Energy Deployment

2.4. Energy Democracy & Community-Led Energy Transformation

2.5. Transmission & Smart Grid Modernization

3. Expanding Clean Transportation & Mobility

3.1. 100% Clean Cars Standard

3.2. Twenty-First Century Transportation Infrastructure

3.3. Smart Growth, Affordable Housing & Community Development

3.4. Clean & Renewable Fuel Standard

3.5. Decarbonizing Aviation & Shipping

4. Investing in Green Buildings & the Built Environment

4.1. 100% Clean Buildings & Energy Efficiency Resource Standards

4.2. ReBuild America National Building Energy Upgrade Initiative

4.3. Preservation and New Construction of Affordable Housing

4.4. Preventing Homelessness & Displacement in the Face of Gentrification

4.5. Energy Affordability with a Universal Clean Energy Service Fund

5. Promoting Clean & Competitive American Industries

5.1. Advanced Manufacturing Investments & Industrial Policy

5.2. Buy Clean Program

5.3. Cracking Down on Super Pollutants

5.4. Top-Runner Industrial Efficiency & Carbon Intensity Standards

5.5. Increasing Clean Energy Exports & Global Competitiveness

6. Growing Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Prosperity

6.1 Investing in Agricultural Innovations to Defeat Climate Change

6.2 Keeping Farmers Farming

6.3 Next-Generation Rural Electrification

6.4 Diversifying Rural Economies

6.5 Funding Economic Transition & Restoration of Impacted Communities

7. Building Greater Justice & an Inclusive Clean Energy Economy

7.1. Equity Impact Mapping & an Equity Screen to End ‘Sacrifice Zones’

7.2. Clean Water for All

7.3. Pollution-Free Communities

7.4. 40% of Investments into Disadvantaged Communities

7.5. Community Self-Determination

8. Creating High-Quality Union Jobs & a Clean Economy Workforce

8.1. A ‘G.I. Bill’ for Impacted Energy Workers & Communities

8.2. The Right to Organize & Collective Bargaining

8.3. Rebuilding Career Ladders through Apprenticeships & Training

8.4. Ensuring Family-Supporting Wages & Benefits

8.5. Creating a Climate Conservation Corps

9. Ending Fossil Fuel Giveaways

9.1. Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies

9.2. Banning New Federal Leasing & Phasing-Out Fossil Fuel Production

9.3. Holding Polluters Accountable

9.4. Rejecting New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

9.5. Ending Fossil Fuel Financing & Improving Corporate Climate Transparency

10. Leading in Clean Tech Innovation & Restoring Climate Science

10.1. Clean Energy Research & Development

10.2. ARPA-Ag & Agricultural Innovations to Tackle Climate Change

10.3. Industrial Innovation & Carbon Removal

10.4. Climate Science: Understanding Impacts & Dangers

10.5. Climate & STEM Education

11. Building Climate Resilience, Adaptation & Recovery

11.1. Climate-Resilient Infrastructure

11.2. Prioritizing Front-line Communities in Disaster Preparedness, Response & Recovery

11.3. Managing Water Resources in a Changing Climate

11.4. Harnessing our Oceans with a Blue New Deal

11.5. Improving Forest Health & Protecting Public Lands

12. Asserting U.S. Leadership in the Global Effort to Defeat Climate Change

12.1. Rejoining the Paris Agreement & Global Climate Action

12.2. Welcoming Refugees & Promoting Stability Against Climate Disruption

12.3. Setting Strong Climate & Labor Standards in International Trade

12.4. Driving Investment in a Sustainable Global Economy

12.5. Taking on Petro-States & Creating Climate Accountability

Evergreen Action Plan

A National Mobilization to Defeat the Climate Crisis and Build a Just and Thriving Clean Energy Economy

1) Launching a National Climate Mobilization

Confronting climate change and building a just and thriving clean energy economy must be the foremost priority for the next President’s administration. To succeed, the president must launch a national climate mobilization, which puts climate policy at the center of the administration’s agenda, and uses every policy and investment instrument, and every channel of coordination. Full economic mobilization involves federal executive and legislative actions that lead the way and engage partners — enabling state, city and county governments, Tribal nations, local communities, industries, academic institutions, businesses, and civil society to take part in transforming our economy, everywhere. To undertake such broad-based transformation requires strong public institutions, public trust, and structural reform to once again do big things, now in the face of a changing global climate.

Prioritization and personnel are policy. A true national mobilization will require the full commitment of the next President, to inform every aspect of decision-making and public action with the commitment to drive change in climate policy. From day one, the President must make key bureaucratic reforms to allow this mobilization to succeed. This begins with personnel, including the choice of the White House chief of staff, and each individual Cabinet secretary, all of whom will have a critical role to play in this mission. It also includes the entities created and the personnel chosen to lead the President’s climate mobilization agenda. This prioritization should inform the administration’s crafting of the federal budget; its legislative strategy in Congress; day-to-day programmatic and operational decision-making in all agencies; and engagement with state and local governments, tribal nations, communities, and businesses.

No administration in American history has yet made confronting the climate crisis the utmost priority, but that is what is now required. The ambition of this policy agenda depends on the leadership vision and priority established by the chief executive, and the President’s insistence on driving this vision throughout the federal bureaucracy.

➢ 1.1 — White House Office of Climate Mobilization & Climate Council

To help forcefully drive this agenda throughout the federal government and the national economy starting on day one, the next President should establish by executive order a new White House office and council within the Executive Office of the President (EOP) charged with leading a national mobilization. These should be led by a director, with the title Assistant to the President for Climate Mobilization, and backed by staff acting with the full power and authority of the presidency. The office and council should work across the President’s Cabinet agencies to convene, coordinate, drive, and ultimately hold accountable every federal department to this national mission. And this council should have formalized engagement with states and local governments — such as with the U.S. Climate Alliance of 24 states and two territories that are together committed to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement.

This new office could be modeled on similar entities throughout history. The Office of War Mobilization was created by FDR during World War II, under the Office of Emergency Management he established immediately prior to the U.S. entry into the war — using an executive order that has never been formally terminated or abolished. The creation of a National Climate Council draws on examples such as the National Security Council (NSC) and the National Economic Council (NEC), two White House entities that today hold great power over the direction of federal policy and coordination of federal agencies around the President’s agenda. This office and council must wield considerable influence in decision-making, sit close to the seat of power, possess authority that touches every agency, and actively drive both budget-setting and program implementation.

Other existing White House offices must also play a major role in this national mobilization, especially the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), as well as the NSC and the NEC. The real and potential power of the modern OMB is tremendous, overseeing drafting and implementation of the $3 trillion-plus annual federal budget, controlling personnel appointments and procurement policy, and holding the final word on regulations for nearly all agencies. The CEQ’s staff and its reach can be scaled at the President’s discretion, so it can house major new capacity for the executive branch. The CEQ is charged with ensuring that all federal agencies adhere to environmental protection, and it has substantial authority to ensure that every federal agency is committed to reducing greenhouse gas pollution and addressing the climate crisis.

White House offices must also provide important leadership on climate security, as well. The next President should task the NSC to conduct a thorough assessment of U.S. assets for prediction of climate stressors. The President should also create a new Deputy National Security Advisor charged with overseeing coordination and building capacity across agencies and departments that will enable rapid response to climate-related security risks and events and develop and implement Climate Security Roadmaps. Climate and security planning must be incorporated at the J-5 Joint Chiefs of Staff planning level, and in humanitarian assistance, recovery planning, and operations.

➢ 1.2 — Mobilizing Federal Clean Energy Investments

The next President will have readily available tools to mobilize massive investments into clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, innovative technologies, and modernizing the built environment. The Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee and Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Programs, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Service, together have well over $50 billion in lending authority that can be swiftly deployed as low-cost capital to drive the energy transition. In addition, in March 2020 Congress provided $500 billion in funding for Federal Reserve programs aimed at urgent economic stabilization, and growth, and it will need to invest much more to provide for economic stability and recovery. The next administration should take swift action to unlock this capital and deploy major clean energy investments that are so promising for economic growth.

Significant opportunity also lies in the federal government’s procurement powers, to deploy clean technologies and to support domestic manufacturing. The next President should require that 100% of federal government vehicle purchases are zero-emission vehicles by the end of their first term, while directing the USDA, Department of Defense, and other federal agencies to procure greater levels of advanced low-carbon renewable fuels for heavy-duty transportation. Procurement of 100% renewable energy and energy storage, as well as energy conservation, should also be undertaken at federal agencies’ domestic facilities. The Department of Interior (DOI) and USDA should prioritize permitting low-impact renewable energy and transmission development on public lands and offshore waters. Regional authorities like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the four Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) can also be tremendously impactful in shifting to 100% clean power, through planning and creative engagement with their customers, utilization of their borrowing authority, and 3rd-party partnerships in transmission and generation deployment.

The next administration should implement a ‘Buy Clean’ initiative to ensure lifecycle greenhouse gas pollution is considered in federal procurement contracts. And the next President should use the Defense Production Act to increase domestic production and protect critical infrastructure required to confront the climate crisis. These efforts are just the start of the investments that will be realized in a true national climate mobilization. And each of them should come with a commitment to high labor standards and ‘Buy American’ provisions, to support union jobs and domestic industries. And ultimately, partnership with Congress will be required to unlock the massive investments that will be needed for full economic mobilization.

➢ 1.3 — National Environmental Justice Initiative

In order to avoid the injustices of past nationwide economic mobilizations, and confront the environmental harms and disparities across communities today, the next President must put environmental, economic and racial justice at the heart of this agenda. Doing so includes involving front-line communities directly in the formulation of federal policy.

On day 1 of their administration, the next President should issue an executive order launching a government-wide environmental justice initiative, which should implement Equity Impact Mapping of American communities, and an Equity Screen on major federal policies and investments, as well as many of the other policies discussed in Section 7 (Building Greater Justice & an Inclusive Clean Energy Economy) of this plan. And as part of this agenda, the President should empanel a Presidential Environmental Justice Advisory Council, composed predominantly of representatives from front-line communities or community groups, and also from labor unions, states and local governments or their associations, Tribal nations, academic leaders, environmental organizations, and businesses.

The next President can transform the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) into a new Council on Environmental Justice (CEJ) that would for the first time ever center federal environmental policy around equity, justice and inclusion. The CEQ was created under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), 50 years ago, and was expanded by executive order to assume responsibility for coordinating federal programs, issue regulations to agencies, and make recommendations to the president for controlling pollution and protecting the environment. This new council should maintain CEQ’s critical historic functions, under the landmark NEPA law, but also provide it with a new, revitalized mission that will drive justice into all climate, energy, and environmental policy and program decision-making across government agencies. This includes responsibility for driving a new and concerted focus into Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights. And this includes broad influence upon federal investments, in partnership with the OMB, and economic policy, alongside the NEC.

These justice-centered reforms in government structures should also include a new Office of Environmental Justice within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), to hold polluters fully accountable under maximum application of federal law. The next administration should use this DOJ-EJ office to pursue maximum civil and criminal penalties — in particular against repeat offenders. The next White House should also be committed to working with Congress to ensure full funding and staffing for the EPA Office of Enforcement, which together with DOE-EJ would help protect all communities from pollution — especially those most-vulnerable and worst-impacted.

➢ 1.4 — State Climate Mobilization Councils

Truly effective federal climate leadership requires partnership with state and local governments, and Tribal nations, in driving the transition to a clean energy future. This agenda must mobilize federal agency offices within each state to align strategies and strive toward goals for sustainable economic development, greenhouse gas pollution reduction, and climate resilience, and to achieve a just transition. Furthermore, for the past two decades, states and cities have provided critical leadership on clean energy policies that now provide a foundation for national action. Too often, federal programs and investments have been discordant with solutions pursued by states, cities, and the demands of local communities. Instead, these partners should be seen as the front line of implementation.

The next administration can ensure alignment between a national mobilization and each state’s march toward decarbonization and a just, green economy by establishing federal interagency Climate Mobilization Councils in every state and territory that include all relevant federal agencies operating in that jurisdiction. These councils should be supported by detailed staff from White House offices, such as the CEQ (or CEJ), just as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s National Emergency Council placed field directors in each state to coordinate New Deal economic relief. They should coordinate across federal programs in service to state and community-led efforts building a clean energy economy — from the rural conservation investments made by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, to enforcement of pollution standards by EPA regional offices, to urban development and sustainability capacity-building undertaken by regional Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) offices.

This new vision for federal-state partnership should involve significantly expanded investments in successful clean energy programs, like the State Energy Program (SEP), Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and Energy Efficiency & Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program, as well as federal support for state and local Green Banks, Clean Energy Funds, and infrastructure finance and economic development authorities. Through these programs states, cities and Tribal nations can quickly deploy investments into local solutions and catalyze job creation in the clean energy sectors that are among their fastest-growing industries. And regional economic development can be further supercharged through entities like the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The next administration must undertake a coordinated, progressive-federalist engagement with all states and local communities, which prioritizes place-based strategies to build America’s clean energy future as a matter of economic development.

➢ 1.5 — Tribal Sovereignty & Treaty Rights

America’s Tribal communities have endured centuries of unjust and discriminatory treatment from the U.S. government and economic systems. Currently, in addition to exclusion and disinvestment, this is also manifested in the form of fossil fuel corporations abusing Tribal lands, waters and communities. The next President must take office armed with a firm appreciation of these current and historical injustices, and a determination to confront them.

The next administration must be committed to respecting Tribal nations’ rights in the decisions that concern their governments, people and historical lands, and should take action to recognize the sovereignty of Indigenous nations. This includes directing federal agencies to engage with Tribal nations in thorough, inclusive, transparent and meaningful consultation. This agenda should further include the establishment of a federal commission to study and make recommendations on policies and government structures to fulfill the U.S. Government’s treaty obligations to Tribal nations.

The next President should re-establish the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference first convened under President Barack Obama, and commit federal agencies to prioritize the expansion of Tribal sovereignty, and investment into Tribal communities, including ensuring parity in access to federal resources. This federal agenda should fully empower Tribal nations, through free, prior and informed consent, to reject fossil fuel infrastructure proposals and to engage with them in joint control and protection of their lands, waters, territories and resources. And, wherever possible, it should return treaty and former reservation lands to tribal trust status, and empower Tribes to take a leading role in environmental stewardship and co-management of public lands and waters.

2) Achieving 100% Clean Power

Despite federal inaction, states and cities have aggressively adopted strong clean energy policy over the past several years. Today, more than 100 million Americans live in a state or city with a 100% clean energy standard. But it’s time for the federal government to take a leadership role in national clean energy policy. Federal lawmakers must put the U.S. swiftly on course to achieve 100% clean, renewable and zero-emission energy in electricity generation, using the strength of federal policy and investment to accelerate the transition that is under way thanks to state and local leadership, and technological innovation. Clean electricity will be the backbone of the American economy, powering our homes, vehicles, and industry.

This plan sets ambitious, yet technologically achievable goals that respond to the reality of climate science, while unlocking a massive new wave of productive and job-creating investments — a more than $500 billion investment opportunity over the next decade. These investments will target projects developing new carbon-free power generation and greater energy efficiency, transmission, smart grid and distribution networks — all critical to a clean power ecosystem and job growth. Additionally, to build a truly just and inclusive clean energy economy, the next administration must create opportunities for Americans to build their own local solutions, own their own assets, and retain the financial benefit derived from the clean energy transition in their communities.

➢ 2.1–100% Clean Electricity Standard

There is growing momentum across the country to achieve 100% clean electricity. As of March 2020, 100% clean electricity laws have been adopted in 8 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and 100% clean energy targets have been embraced by a number of other states plus more than 160 American cities and counties.

The next President and Congress should enact a bold national 100% Clean Electricity Standard (or “Clean Energy Standard”) requiring utilities to achieve 100% carbon-neutral electricity by 2030, and all-clean, renewable and zero-emission energy in power generation by 2035. This two-step policy construct is modeled largely on Washington state’s 100% clean electricity standard law, which Gov. Jay Inslee signed in Spring 2019. Notably, this federal plan calls for a more accelerated timeline for a carbon-free power sector than is enshrined in any state’s 100% clean energy laws. But the ambitious timeline can be — and can only be — unlocked if it is pursued alongside transformative federal investments and complementary policies. While it is imperative that the power sector must decarbonize on an extremely accelerated time frame, precise deadlines can be flexible within a narrow window to ensure a cross-sector 100% clean energy economy well before mid-century.

This 100% clean energy agenda should include retiring the entirety of the U.S. coal fleet by 2030, to eliminate dangerous pollution that is poisoning our communities and planet. Here too states and local communities are leading the way, with Washington state closing its last coal plant and banning imported coal power by 2025, and due in large part to local organizing in opposition, over the past two decades energy companies have shut down 551 coal generators at 227 plants throughout the U.S.

Furthermore, similar to policy enacted in Washington state, this 100% clean electricity standard policy should ensure dedicated support for low-income communities, so that all communities benefit in the transition to a carbon-free power future. And it should be accompanied by policies that promote family-wage union jobs, and inclusive clean energy development, by supporting projects with businesses owned by women and people of color; apprenticeship utilization; prevailing wages determined through collective bargaining; and community workforce and project-labor agreements. And it should be constructed to accelerate the evolution toward performance-based regulation that rewards utilities for delivering affordable, reliable, and zero-emission electricity.

➢ 2.2 — Clean Air Act Standards to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Pollution

The urgency of the climate crisis, and the importance of decarbonizing the electricity sector are so great that the next President cannot wait for Congress to take action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution from power plants. Fortunately, the next President will have powerful existing authorities to pursue an agenda to move rapidly towards 100% clean power, using the federal Clean Air Act. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this law has been used successfully to reduce major air pollutants throughout the U.S. by 73% between 1970–2016, even as U.S. population and GDP grew by 58% and 253%, respectively. And, notwithstanding the legal fate of the Obama administration’s specific Clean Power Plan policy, the EPA retains unequivocal authority to regulate greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act, in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA decision, and the EPA’s scientific “endangerment finding” that such pollution clearly endangers public health and welfare.

Therefore, on day 1 of the next administration, the next President should task their EPA Administrator to immediately develop Clean Air Act rules to crack down on greenhouse gas pollution from new and existing power plants. These should come in the form of immediate New Source Performance Standards that prohibit the construction of new polluting power plants. It should also include an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that posits a diverse suite of approaches to regulating greenhouse gas pollution from existing stationary sources, including: using Section 111 to set sector-based standards; setting National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to require each state to reduce its greenhouse gas pollution in a manner similar to other air pollutants considered harmful to public health and the environment; and Section 115 of the Act, which concerns U.S. responsibility to reduce harmful air pollution affecting the international community. This action should occur simultaneously to further executive and legislative strategies to decarbonize the power sector.

➢ 2.3 — Creating a Green Bank & Investing in Clean Energy Deployment

The federal government can catalyze enormous investment in clean energy construction projects through direct spending, financing programs, and through the tax code. And these investments will expand employment opportunities in renewable energy, energy efficiency, battery storage, smart grids, and utility transmission and distribution projects — accelerating job creation in some of the clean energy industries that altogether already employ more than 3.2 million Americans, today.

The next President should move swiftly to deploy capital from existing federal energy financing programs, like the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program, and Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utility Service, to unlock new investments that speed the clean energy transition. And the President should work with Congress to create a new Clean Energy Deployment Administration or Green Infrastructure Bank, modeled on legislation introduced by former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee in 2009, and capitalized at $90 billion, to further accelerate deployment of clean energy and assist in the retirement of fossil fuel assets. This entity should also work directly with state and local green banks, clean energy funds, and infrastructure finance authorities, to leverage aggressive state climate leadership for accelerated clean energy deployment.

The next President and Congress should also work to enact new and extend existing federal clean energy tax incentives, and establish a program of payments-in-lieu of tax credits, similar to the 1603 Treasury grant program in the 2009 Recovery Act that deployed over $26 billion federal investment to support nearly 110,000 clean energy projects throughout the country, between 2009–11. This larger decade-long program of incentive payments should support renewable technologies like wind, solar and geothermal, as well as energy storage and efficiency, and other clean technology deployment. These incentives should be expanded for less-mature domestic industries like offshore wind power, and also for projects that meet certain labor standards— similar to policy enacted by Gov. Inslee in Washington state. This agenda should also extend direct grants for clean energy projects developed by non-profit organizations, community groups, academic institutions, and others without federal tax liability.

Federal lawmakers can also accelerate the transition to a 100% clean electricity system through major investments in energy efficiency (explored in detail in Section 4, ‘Investing in Green Buildings & the Built Environment’). And they can help ensure that the benefits in building a clean energy economy enjoy broad and equitable participation, through federal support for increases in on-bill investments in energy efficiency and distributed energy solutions. Greater federal investment should be made available to front-line and low-income communities — with priority placed upon comprehensive community-developed projects with multiple benefits.

➢ 2.4 — Energy Democracy & Community-Led Energy Transformation

Federal lawmakers should prioritize bottom-up, community-driven economic development strategies that give individuals and communities the opportunity to fully own and control their clean energy assets as part of the path to 100% clean energy. This is an agenda for shifting away from corporate, centralized power in a fossil fuel economy to more distributed ownership and power in the clean energy economy. Rather than sending their hard-earned wages to far-off utility and oil corporations, more Americans should have the opportunity to build and own homegrown clean energy solutions.

This includes the creation of a new Clean Community Energy Grant Program to offer direct grants for clean energy projects developed by community-based non-profit organizations, which lack tax liability and therefore often lack access to tax financing for their renewable energy and efficiency projects. This agenda should also include the creation of a new DOE Solar Communities Initiative that sets by 2040 a national goal to meet 10% of total electricity demand through distributed solar energy generation. This program would drive approximately $150 billion in additional investment over the next ten years and it would help achieve 100% clean power with more local, distributed and resilient energy.

The next administration should also relaunch the DOE’s Better Communities Alliance, to promote packaged clean energy solutions while also giving local governments better access to DOE funding and support. And this Energy Democracy agenda should further include investing in staff capacity at key federal agencies that interact and operate within local communities in every state — such as the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in rural communities, the Small Business Administration (SBA), DOE Weatherization Assistance Program, and the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) in urban areas. The next President should give these agencies explicit charge to partner with community leaders, tribal governments, non-profit organizations, and local and state government officials, to support locally-driven strategies that build an inclusive clean energy economy.

➢ 2.5 — Transmission & Smart Grid Modernization

A plan to achieve 100% clean electricity must include a focus on regional electricity transmission and local distribution grid networks, which can also open up new economic development opportunities and improve grid reliability and resilience, through new investments and improved planning, siting and permitting processes.

Federal lawmakers should establish a new Transmission Investment Tax Credit, and provide low-cost financing through new and existing federal financing programs, to leverage public and private capital to meet an approximate $15 billion annual transmission infrastructure investment need between 2020–2030.

The next President must also appoint a Secretary of Energy and a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman who will pursue national transmission development of clean energy resources that enhance utilization of existing transmission and distribution assets, improve and expedite inter-regional transmission planning and development, and promote new sensors and controls and non-wires alternatives to boost electricity delivery capacity. This work should include expedited planning, broad cost allocation, and negotiated siting with state authorities and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), as well as the provision of federal financing for anticipatory construction of transmission capacity to areas with significant queues of clean-energy generation capacity.

This federal initiative should also focus on enhancing utilization of existing assets through Dynamic Line Ratings, demand-response, new sensors and controls, battery storage, and distributed generation resources. And federal lawmakers should build partnerships with states, utilities and local communities, by providing federal matching dollars for smart grid local power distribution networks, including demand-response, storage, micro-grids, and tools to improve cyber-security.

3) Expanding Clean Transportation & Mobility

In 2016, the transportation sector became the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States. Vehicles are also a leading contributor to poor air quality that damages public health, particularly in front-line communities near highways, ports and other transportation hubs. Federal lawmakers must slash pollution from this sector by driving adoption and manufacturing of electric and super-fuel efficient vehicles, requiring increased use of clean fuels and electric transportation, and by expanding clean and affordable mobility options through investments in public transit, rail, transit-oriented development, affordable housing and community smart growth.

These strategies also contain enormous opportunities for the creation of good-paying jobs — especially in the construction of sustainable transportation infrastructure and in maintaining America’s global leadership in automotive manufacturing. According to the American Public Transit Association (APTA), the necessary public investments in transit systems could support millions of construction and operations jobs and catalyze nearly $1 trillion in economic activity during the next 20 years. And according to a report from the United Auto Workers (UAW), “the shift to EVs represents a significant economic opportunity to reinvest in the U.S. manufacturing sector and create new advanced manufacturing jobs.” But a failure of policy leadership could force American workers to miss this opportunity. As the UAW report notes, “if the production of these components is primarily abroad,a significant shift of the automotive value chain outside the U.S. and a decline in job quality in the automotive industry.” This is the moment to seize these 21st century economic opportunities.

➢ 3.1–100% Clean Cars Standard

The next President should use executive authority to put the United States on a path to achieving 100% zero emissions in all new light-duty passenger vehicles, medium-duty trucks, and buses, by 2030. New, more aggressive federal clean car standards are a crucial strategy for decarbonizing the transportation sector, as light-duty vehicles alone account for approximately 60% of transportation-sector carbon pollution. Furthermore, this transition will eliminate other tailpipe pollution that contaminates the air — especially in front-line and low-income communities. It is also essential for ensuring that U.S. industries stay at the leading edge of global automotive manufacturing, as economic competitors like China, India and Europe are setting clear targets to move to 100% electric and zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). This plan can ensure that ZEVs are made in the United States, by union workers, and that they are affordable for working families.

The importance of a swift transition to 100% clean new vehicles is critical to achieving decarbonization goals, as it takes approximately 15 years to “turn over” the U.S. vehicle fleet, and Americans have been holding on to their older vehicles for longer. To reach 100% zero-emission new vehicles on this ambitious timeline, the next administration should use well-established existing authorities to implement a new standard for clean cars requiring robust annual improvements in vehicle emissions, and reaching 100% ZEVs in light- and medium-duty new vehicle sales by 2030, as well as continued improvements in heavy-duty vehicles. Working with Congress, this agenda should also involve dedicating significant new federal investments to support a diverse and robust American ZEV manufacturing base, including critical materials and advanced batteries recycling strategies.

Federal lawmakers should establish a new Clean Cars for Clunkers program, similar to the Cash for Clunkers program that grew out of legislation first proposed by U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee and Steve Israel in 2009, to offer trade-in rebates for consumers to exchange their fuel-inefficient cars or trucks for new ZEVs, and also for vouchers to cover the cost of transit. The next President and Congress should also expand business and consumer tax credits to ensure ZEV availability and affordability — including a more accessible Electric Vehicle Tax Credit, as a point-of-sale rebate. And the President should use procurement power to drive a rapid electrification of the federal government vehicle fleet to ZEVs, working through the General Services Administration (GSA) Vehicle Purchasing and Vehicle Leasing programs. And federal lawmakers should create partnerships with states, Tribal nations, local governments and utilities to deploy massive investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and in financing the transition to zero-emission fleets for transit and school buses.

➢ 3.2 — Twenty-First Century Transportation Infrastructure

Federal lawmakers must reform how the federal government builds transportation infrastructure by significantly increasing federal investments in clean, sustainable and climate-smart transportation infrastructure, and providing local, state and tribal governments with much-needed resources to invest in expanding public transit and connecting people in communities through safe, multi-modal transportation options. The last major federal transportation legislation authorized an average $45 billion annual federal expenditure on highways, but provided only $12.2 billion in average annual transit investments. Furthermore, federal funding will cover 80% of the cost of a highway project, but only 50% of a transit project.

The next President and Congress should work together to provide a massive increase in annual federal investment in public transit systems. This investment should include new funding and also come with a rebalancing between federal highways and transit spending. It should meet and exceed the funding need identified by the APTA, and incentivize expansion of transit networks throughout America to give Americans more and cleaner transportation choices, and reduce vehicle miles traveled. According to APTA, these investments themselves could support millions of construction and operations jobs.

The next Transportation Secretary should also implement USDOT performance management rules that require the local deployment of federal transportation investments to be accompanied by life-cycle analyses and reduction strategies for climate and co-pollutants. Through these analyses the federal government can provide major investments into sustainable infrastructure and create millions of jobs, while ensuring against building infrastructure that locks communities into fossil fuel dependent transportation systems. Comprehensive, strategic and climate-smart local planning, encouraged via federal leadership, can help achieve a more sustainable balance between highways and transit investments.

And it is crucial that the next President and Congress work together to build an integrated American rail system, much like developed nations in Europe and Asia. This would entail major new federal investments in electrifying passenger and rail throughout the country, expanding existing rail lines, and offering federal investments to states and regional partnerships to further develop ultra-high-speed rail. This will create jobs, save time and money for working families, and connect disparate rural and urban population centers with more convenient, carbon-free inter-regional transportation.

➢ 3.3 — Smart Growth, Affordable Housing & Community Development

How far Americans commute from home to work and the way they travel has a tremendous impact on the climate, local air quality, and public health, not to mention economic cost and quality of life. Adding the cost of transportation to mortgage payments or rent costs and utility payments means that energy costs too often can make home ownership or quality rental housing inaccessible for many of America’s working families.

Proximity of home to work and local services, increased transit options, and greater walkability all make for less energy-intensive, as well as healthier and more livable communities.

Federal lawmakers should pursue an agenda that pairs clean and efficient transportation infrastructure with policies that promote vibrant communities, more healthy and walkable neighborhoods, and both the preservation of existing affordable housing and construction of new affordable units. The next administration should work with Congress to provide local, state and tribal governments with increased resources for transit-oriented development, smart growth land use planning, intermodal transportation, commute trip reduction programs, and pedestrian-friendly public spaces. Localities should consider transportation plans that promote biking, walking and shared micro-mobility options such as electric scooters and e-bikes.

The next administration should establish financial incentives for marrying local zoning rules with inclusionary zoning practices, climate resilience objectives, transit-oriented development, mixed use zoning, workforce housing preservation, and enhanced asset mapping and infrastructure planning to promote urban density. Additionally, the next administration should establish new requirements and provide bonus funding allocations for communities implementing best practices in inclusionary zoning and connecting housing with transit service. This can be achieved through tools like new Department of Transportation (USDOT) performance rules for life-cycle climate pollution analysis in transportation, Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding allocation and prioritization, and USDA Rural Development funding.

The next President should also relaunch and expand the HUD-EPA-USDOT Sustainable Communities Initiative, with a focus on locally driven bottom-up community development plans that promote climate pollution reductions, smart transportation, affordable and accessible housing, and job creation. Finally, successful federal smart growth agenda must also involve increasing financial incentives for private investment in publicly beneficial green affordable housing and transit-oriented development projects (discussed at greater length in Section 4.3), such as by increasing per-capita allocations for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), and expanding state and local tax exempt Private Activity Bond (PAB) capacity.

➢ 3.4 — Clean & Renewable Fuel Standard

Each mode and fuel used in transport should be scrutinized for its contribution to the climate crisis. The next administration should use its existing authorities to lay out new requirements for cleaner fuels, and invest in America’s farmers to help achieve the lowest-carbon alternative liquid fuel alternatives to oil — in particular for hard-to-decarbonize modes of transport like existing vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles, and aviation. Biofuels have helped provide critical alternatives to help chart a clean energy future and break Big Oil’s stranglehold on America’s political system. But not all biofuels have provided a significant climate benefit.

The next administration, through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Office of Management & Budget (OMB), will have significant discretion over federal biofuels policy, especially as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) reaches a key deadline in 2022. And it should use that authority to transform the post-2022 RFS into a Clean & Renewable Fuel Standard (CRFS) that promotes low-carbon biofuels and more low- and zero-carbon alternative fuels, including electricity. This standard should achieve aggressive, continuous improvement in carbon performance of covered fuels. The next administration should also immediately reverse course on the EPA’s current practice of granting unwarranted RFS waivers to oil refineries and undermining American farmers and home-grown fuels in favor of Big Oil’s profits. And it should invest in research, development, demonstration, and deployment of advanced, low-carbon renewable fuels, via the USDA and the Department of Defense (DOD) Defense Production Act.

➢ 3.5 — Decarbonizing Aviation & Shipping

Aviation is one of the fastest-growing sources of per capita greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world. The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) was established in 2016 to reduce climate pollution in international civil aviation, and adopted under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). CORSIA aims to hold climate pollution from international civil aviation at 2020 levels, which could prevent up to 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions — 10 times what U.S. households emit each year. Meanwhile, greenhouse gas pollution from international shipping accounted for just 2.2% of global emissions, in 2012, but is estimated to grow between 50% and 250% by 2050, if left unchecked. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), an agency of the United Nations (U.N.), has been steadily putting forward its own plans. In April 2018, the IMO released a vision and strategy plan to reduce carbon intensity in shipping by at least 40% by 2030, and 70% by 2050.

But both of these ICAO and IMO initiatives must be only the start to a much bolder domestic and international decarbonization agenda for these heavy-polluting transportation sectors.

The next administration should demonstrate leadership by enrolling our nation in the initial pilot and first phase of the CORSIA program, and encouraging other nations — especially India — to join in the agreement as soon as possible. In May 2019, every major American airline announced their commitment to the CORSIA agreement. The next administration should go much further by working with aviation industry leaders to launch a companion program for domestic air travel, committed to achieving more ambitious pollution reductions on international routes. Rather than freezing emissions at a set date, the administration should set out to reduce emissions in a manner consistent with medium- and long-range decarbonization goals, and include targeted policies promoting innovation and deployment of technologies, like advanced low-carbon biofuels, and zero-emission aircrafts. According to the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), energy efficiency in aviation could be improved by 35–40%, leading to significant greenhouse gas pollution reductions. The next administration should task the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the DOE to leverage advances gained with the support of the DOD to create the most advanced aircraft efficiency and alternative energy program for the airline industry in the world. Finally, the next President must work with Congress to repeal President Donald Trump’s special tax breaks for private jets — a massive, wasteful giveaway to the wealthy that incentivizes unnecessary carbon pollution in luxury travel.

Meanwhile, in shipping, the next administration should put the United States on the forefront of efforts to meet and exceed the IMO’s strategic plan. The administration should convene a public-private task force led by the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation, with participation from the DOE and State Department, to accelerate the creation of domestic regulations and legislation that can achieve and improve upon the current IMO climate goals. The President should also work to expand adoption of these same standards among G7 and G20 countries, and coordinate with other IMO parties to impose a fee on the purchase of bunker fuels by large vessels flagged from countries out of compliance with the organization’s greenhouse gas pollution-reduction targets.

Finally, by supporting climate action and air-pollution reductions at ports, such as through the World Ports Climate Action Program, the next administration can encourage emissions reductions and investments into sustainable supply chains, renewable power-to-ship solutions; accelerated development of ship electrification, and decarbonization of cargo-handling facilities in port. It is notable that many ports are located in or near urban corridors, and their pollution can be quite harmful for public health — particularly in neighboring low-income communities.

4) Investing in Green Buildings & the Built Environment

Buildings consume 40% of total U.S. energy and 70% of electricity, emitting more than one-third of America’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Combined, this end-use energy becomes the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the U.S. economy. Yet much of this energy is wasted, providing no value to building owners or residents, all while costing money, taxing energy networks and contributing to local pollution. At the same time, clean energy employs more than 3 million people in virtually every county in the United States, and two-thirds of those jobs are in construction and manufacturing. So, a commitment to retool the U.S. built environment for climate solutions offers a smart strategy for both the climate and for economic development.

Effective leadership over the next decade by federal lawmakers can drive substantial new investment into local economies and create millions more highly skilled blue-collar jobs in the clean energy economy. By investing in building energy efficiency, affordable housing, and sustainable local community infrastructure, the federal government can put people to work eliminating pollution, protecting clean water, and building healthier communities. This effort will take many forms, from driving energy efficiency and electrification into residential and commercial buildings, to financing development of affordable housing, to rebuilding America’s critical infrastructure.

➢ 4.1–100% Clean Buildings & Energy Efficiency Resource Standards

Greenhouse gas pollution from buildings increased a full 10% in the U.S. in 2018 — driven especially by heating needs in a cooler winter. And while building emissions grew just 2.2% in 2019, climate pollution continues to increase in this sector, natural gas use and water heating and cooling. The next President and Congress must reverse that trend, by increasing energy efficiency and investing in green buildings and taking advantage of renewables in building electrification. A number of key policies must be part of this effort, starting with setting strong standards and a clear goal to ensure that all new construction runs on clean energy by creating a national Zero-Carbon Building Standard by 2023 that would require all zero-carbon new buildings across the U.S. by 2030. The administration should then partner with states and cities to integrate this standard into new and stronger state and local building codes.

This strategy should include stronger federal incentives for local governments to enforce standards to adopt “stretch-codes,” and for building owners to more rapidly adopt advanced sustainability in new buildings. Here, too, states and cities are already leading the way. And, where local jurisdictions can go faster, the next administration should support the growing movement for zero-carbon buildings, including bans on new gas infrastructure in buildings that have been adopted in more than 20 cities, as of early 2020. The next administration should also accelerate implementation of the federal Fossil Fuel-Generated Energy Consumption Reduction rule, through the Department of Energy (DOE), to eliminate by 2023 fossil-fuel use — including coal, fuel oil and natural gas — in all new and renovated federal buildings. Together, these efforts will accelerate the transition to zero-carbon buildings at the scale and speed required to reach 100% of all new buildings in the coming decade.

While clean building standards will be useful for setting a better direction in new construction, the majority of energy use and carbon emissions will be driven by the existing building stock. To confront energy use in existing buildings, the DOE should immediately reinstate and accelerate proven appliance energy efficiency standards, and promote zero-emission appliances — including water heaters and dryers — that will help make American-manufactured appliances both cleaner and more competitive in global markets, all while cutting pollution and saving consumers money.

The next administration and Congress should also drive private sector investment into energy efficiency through enactment of a national Energy Efficiency Resource Standard (EERS), that requires utilities to achieve all cost-effective energy efficiency measures as part of their planning for load growth and the deployment of new capacity. Such a standard should be similar to rules set in the Washington state I-937 ballot initiative adopted by voters in 2006. Already a majority of states have EERS policies in place, and a federal EERS can strengthen utilities’ performance targets by expanding the definition of “cost-effective” energy conservation to include the costs that climate pollution imposes on society. Implementing a national EERS will ensure that management of the electricity grid takes seriously the contributions that can be made from reducing demand by cutting wasted energy in our nation’s existing building stock. This will become especially important as more communities and building owners turn away from natural gas, and petroleum-powered cars, to rely increasingly on electricity powered by renewables.

➢ 4.2 — ReBuild America: a National Building Energy Upgrade Initiative

A national mobilization to rebuild the economy for climate solutions must have at its center a strong investment in the reconstruction of the existing built environment. A federal commitment to project-scaled building retrofits will put millions of Americans to work cutting pollution and energy bills for households and businesses through energy efficiency and electrification upgrades in millions of existing residential and commercial buildings throughout the country.

The next President and Congress should use strong consumer incentives, utility requirements, and direct public investments in an ambitious Rebuild America energy retrofit program. Such a program will result in tremendous economic development, while achieving long-term cost savings for American homeowners, renters and business owners through reduced energy bills, and putting millions of construction workers, electricians and mechanical contractors to work. It should include establishing targeted, refundable tax credits for energy upgrades and installing HVAC systems, water heaters (including solar water heaters), envelope improvements, and systems solutions like energy storage and district energy systems, as well as transitioning off of heating oil. These incentives should extend to commercial equipment, as well, including advanced boilers and chiller replacements. And also establishing a reserve fund for inclusive financing, through utility on-bill investments in cost-effective energy efficiency upgrades, which can also help reach all customers, regardless of income, credit score, or renter status.

Furthermore, in the next administration the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should establish clear policy guidance on the use of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) for portfolio-scale green building retrofits and distributed energy assets, and the DOE’s Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) should expand use of Energy Saving Performance Contracts (ESPCs) in public and institutional buildings. And it should task federal agencies to prioritize green and clean energy assets in Housing & Urban Development (HUD) investments, and to set Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) incentives for banks that will further engage private capital markets in decarbonization.

In addition, federal lawmakers should partner with labor unions, building owners and managers, and the U.S. Green Building Council, to create a national training program for building operations and maintenance staff to reduce energy use. Federal funding can train builders, inspectors, energy managers, equipment technicians, and janitors in proven strategies that cut down on wasted energy in buildings. This program should be modeled after the successful “Green Supers” training programs that have helped lower climate emissions in major metropolitan areas across the country.

Finally, direct federal investment should support retrofitting and upgrading schools and public building stock for federal, state, local and tribal governments — putting Americans to work making schools cleaner and healthier, and cutting taxpayer energy costs and pollution in public buildings.

➢ 4.3 — Preservation and New Construction of Affordable Housing

In early 2020 there is an absolute shortfall of 7 million affordable homes in the U.S. market, with only 4 homes available for every 10 families in need of safe and affordable housing. Market forces alone will never provide enough inventory to meet this need, especially at prices that are affordable to individuals with very low income; government policy and direct public investment are therefore required. Unfortunately, total federal spending on new construction and maintenance for public housing has plummeted dramatically over the past two decades. A bold effort to reinvest in the fabric of communities for sustainability, upgrading and constructing new green and high-performance homes and rental housing, and substantial new investments in climate resilience within the built environment, are urgently needed.

The next administration and Congress should work together to increase investments for the National Housing Trust Fund (HTF) and the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, to at least $42 billion annually, to support construction, preservation, and rehabilitation of affordable housing through grants to states and community based organizations. And $5 billion of these HTF funds should be specifically dedicated to upgrades and improvements to local public housing. Utilization of these funds should be tied to meeting the highest standards of energy efficiency and climate resilience.

Federal lawmakers should also enhance existing incentives for privately constructed affordable housing: expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program by at least $5 billion per year, and increasing per-capita allocations and establishing new bonus incentives for affordability commitments that extend beyond the required 15-year LIHTC compliance period, as well as for projects near employment and transit centers, and projects that adopt aggressive green building, zero-carbon, and climate resilience goals as part of new construction or rehabilitation. Bonus incentives should be established tied to communities of need identified through Equity Impact Mapping (see Section 7.1). Likewise, allocations of state and local tax exempt Private Activity Bonds (PAB), and rehabilitation of existing building stock by expanding the use of Medicaid to share costs of supportive housing services for qualifying families, can both create new streams of capital investment in green and affordable housing.

The next administration should work through HUD and with Congress to undertake further improvements to the existing network of policies supporting public, non-profit and privately built affordable housing, including fully funding Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers to support all renters making below 50% of average median income. Currently fewer than 25% of eligible renters get the vouchers they are entitled to receive. Increasing funding for housing affordability on Tribal lands is also essential, through the Indian Housing Block Grant, Indian Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), and other programs that fund facilities and affordable housing.

HUD should also be directed to develop utility reimbursement incentives and rental assistance funding that provide the strongest possible incentives for affordable housing developers and Public Housing Authorities to pursue strong energy efficiency and clean energy measures, while overcoming split incentives from the federal recapture of locally achieved energy savings at the property level. This will rationalize incentives for building owners and property managers to invest in cost-saving building retrofits that improve living conditions, green energy use, the environmental impact of buildings, and it will permanently lower bills for tenants and homeowners.

Finally, by establishing a Refundable Tax Credit for rent-burdened families, the next administration and Congress can reimburse the portion of rent payments that exceed 30% of household income for families making less than the average median income. These funds should further be used for down-payments to promote home ownership.

➢ 4.4 — Preventing Homelessness & Displacement in the Face of Gentrification

The growing crisis of housing affordability, coupled with renewed investment in dense urban environments and economic growth, mean that it is increasingly urgent to build stronger protections against rising housing costs and displacement, even as we rebuild and restore affected communities. Climate gentrification can be seen in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, for example, where a low-income community rich in cultural heritage and home to many Haitian immigrants is increasingly pressed by local developers aggressively attempting to buy up land on higher ground, as sea level rise threatens Miami’s historically highest value property: the beach. To protect low-income people from eviction and homelessness, federal lawmakers must pursue a range of measures to increase access to capital and provide a stronger framework of rights in order to prevent displacement of communities. All of these measures can further be linked to Equity Impact Mapping (see Section 7.1) as a tool for climate justice in the federal policy implementation, to ensure that communities of high poverty and at-risk of gentrification receive additional targeted incentives for rental assistance and affordable housing stabilization.

The next President and Congress should champion the creation of a National Housing Stabilization Fund that can offer temporary rental support and financial assistance to families facing economic dislocation or short-term financial challenges due to lost wages, bills for medical care, transportation, and child care. This fund should provide a range of supportive services that help stabilize vulnerable working families during challenging financial times. Reassessing Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) guidelines can also help anticipate and avoid displacement in gentrifying areas, particularly examining the role of non-bank lenders, which do not fall under CRA jurisdiction but make up more than half of all home loans in some communities.

Federal lawmakers should also improve enforcement of existing fair housing laws, and put in place new stronger protections for tenants, including from housing discrimination based on income source (to protect recipients of Section 8 Vouchers), housing status (to provide legal support for the homeless), and gender identity and sexual orientation (to expand protection against discrimination and exclusion). These protections can help remove causes of homelessness. Guaranteeing a tenant’s rights to legal counsel when facing eviction, working through HUD, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and in collaboration with states and cities, and ensuring effective legal representation, can also go a long way toward reducing economic dislocation in the face of new climate motivated community investment. Improving use of rent stabilization, and requiring demonstration of just cause in the event of eviction can further minimize displacement for low income renters.

Finally, federal lawmakers should direct federal support directly to the community level, and such aid to cities and states should be pursued for expansion in the context of climate-driven reinvestment in the built environment. For example, renewing federal funding for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program will be particularly helpful in expanding local investment in zero-carbon construction projects.

➢ 4.5 — Energy Affordability through a Universal Clean Energy Service Fund

To ensure that Americans of all income levels enjoy the full benefits of clean and reliable power as the U.S. shifts to 100% clean electricity, the next President and Congress should establish a new Universal Clean Energy Service Fund (UCESF), overseen by DOE, to reduce energy bills for working families. Modeled on the Universal Service Fund that promotes universal access to telecommunications services, this new program will be integral to improving protection of ratepayers and restructuring how energy is used at the community level. Today the “energy burden” for American families — the percent of household income spent on energy bills — is more than three times larger for low-income families than for middle- and high-income households. One in five Americans have had to reduce or forego food, medicine and other necessities to pay an energy bill. As the United States launches a massive investment in rebuilding our energy networks, the UCESF program can ensure access and connectivity to this new infrastructure for working families in a way that creates economic savings and empowers them to spend more of family budgets on other needs.

Today, many states have similar public benefits funds to prevent utility shut-offs and hardship for low-income, elderly or other vulnerable groups, including small businesses. The UCESF can enhance and buttress these existing programs, providing opportunities to integrate with other energy assistance that can drive new capital into healthier and more affordable housing.

The UCESF would reduce monthly electricity costs for qualifying families and ensure that every American has access to affordable and pollution-free electricity. Further it can be integrated with the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) overseen by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the current primary federal vehicle for helping low-income families pay their energy bills for home heating in order to provide a seamless one-stop access to support for low-income families. LIHEAP funding has been severely reduced and is only currently sufficient to fund one out of five eligible households. In fact, many of the goals of a UCESF could also be achieved through a major reinvestment in and reforms to reinvision LIHEAP.

The UCESF should further be integrated with the DOE Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) as well as with the ReBuild America initiative. WAP supports energy-saving building retrofits for low-income renters and homeowners working through states and non-profit community service organizations, and will be a natural implementation vehicle for directing UCESF funds into smart and financially viable projects that cut utility bills. To help ensure the broadest access to energy efficiency and renewables for low income ratepayers, The UCESF should also be linked to a reserve fund for “inclusive financing” programs offered through utility on-bill financing programs to ensure that funding for direct energy payments is linked to building energy retrofits that safe money over time. Eligibility verification should be streamlined across all of these federal and state programs, to allow low-income consumers the option to pay energy bills that include efficiency, solar energy, and beneficial electrification.

5) Promoting Clean & Competitive American Industries

The International Finance Corporation estimates that there is a $23 trillion investment opportunity created by just the initial commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement of the 21 largest developing countries. This massive emerging market is an incredible opportunity for the United States to assume a leadership role in manufacturing the clean energy solutions that will power the 21st century. Jumpstarting America’s clean manufacturing industry will lead to millions of good-paying jobs.

Furthermore, the industrial sector is America’s third-largest sectoral source of greenhouse gas emissions, representing over 20% of domestic greenhouse gas pollution. And there is enormous opportunity to confront these emissions, cut waste and inefficiencies, and catalyze deployment and innovation in industrial technologies and processes that will both address climate change and also sustain globally-competitive American manufacturing industries.

To seize these opportunities, the next President must assert a bold agenda for strategic industrial policy and robust investment in American industrial capacity.

➢ 5.1 — Advanced Manufacturing Investments & Industrial Policy

To achieve a sustainable and prosperous U.S. clean energy economy and create good-paying American jobs, the next administration must commit to the necessary federal investments and industrial policies that can rapidly scale domestic manufacturing. The federal government can provide real benefits in the form of 21st century industrial policy, strategic planning, public-private partnerships, clear and stable market rules, and technical assistance using new and existing agency expertise and resources, as well as with direct investments, tax incentives, and low-cost financing.

Among these industrial investments, the next administration should work with Congress to establish a new, uncapped Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit, much like that passed in the 2009 Recovery Act, but much larger, to incentivize investment and growth in domestic manufacturing capacity for clean energy industries, such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, and advanced batteries. These credits should be conditioned upon or expanded for employers offering family supporting wages and benefits, enforced through Project Labor and Community Benefits Agreements, Prevailing Wage laws, re-established federal overtime requirements, and other strong worker protections. This agenda should also include tripling and making more accessible the financing authority in the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program.

The next administration should focus on expanding federal support for technical assistance and skills-training programs for businesses, states, and local governments, including the Department of Commerce’s Manufacturing Extension Service, and Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships, and related efforts. And it should establish a Quadrennial Industrial Review (QIR), to be conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, working with the DOE and the Department of Defense (DOD), to map strategic industries and identify sound industrial policies — including critical materials and rare-earth elements, global demands, and domestic production capacities — and support sustained American competitiveness and industrial growth that enable a livable climate.

➢ 5.2 — Buy Clean Program

The federal government is one of the nation’s largest owners of real estate and developers of land and infrastructure; that also makes it one of the largest purchasers of energy-intensive building materials, such as steel and cement. In this capacity, federal policy coordinated through the General Services Administration can make a tremendous difference in pushing materials producers to lower their carbon footprints. This can give domestic manufacturers a leg up — because they are often among the lowest-carbon producers. Currently, the United States is the largest importer of “embodied” carbon pollution — meaning the carbon pollution created in making the goods it imports is more than contained in any other nation’s imports (twice as much, in fact).

To confront this challenge and opportunity, the next President should launch a federal Buy Clean program to direct federal procurement of low-carbon materials in a manner that reduces climate pollution and closes this “carbon loophole” — making reducing climate pollution a business advantage for American manufacturing enterprises. A similar federal program will incentivize reductions in those emissions through efficiency and fuel-switching, driven through transparency and competition, for materials used in federally funded infrastructure including cement, steel, concrete, glass, iron, mineral wool, and other products. The next President should also work with states and local governments to implement similar programs. (The State of California, which spends more than $10 billion per year on infrastructure projects, was the first state to implement a Buy Clean program.) And Congress should pass additional incentives for corporate buyers to match the federal government’s Buy Clean commitment.

➢ 5.3 — Cracking Down on Super-Pollutants

Climate “super-pollutants” such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and methane have tens to thousands of times more warming impact per ton of emissions than carbon pollution, and largely stem from sources in manufacturing and agricultural industries. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has abandoned effective international collaboration to confront HFCs, by failing to support the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. In doing so it has harmed American manufacturing industries, which have supported domestic implementation. U.S. manufacturing enterprises have already invested more than $1 billion in technologies that slash HFCs. These HFCs are found in appliances such as refrigerators, heat pumps, air conditioning systems and in some aerosols, and safer alternatives are available. And safer alternatives are available. The Trump administration has also rolled back important rules protecting against methane pollution, even as scientists have come to understand atmospheric methane has been underestimated, and its growth is very likely tied to the growth in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for oil and gas.

In the face of this retrenchment by the federal government, states are acting: At least fifteen states have taken action to phase out HFCs in accordance with Kigali. The next President must follow that leadership, and pursue both executive and legislative action to put the U.S. back on course in reducing these super-pollutants and supporting clean manufacturing. This action will also give domestic manufacturers a competitive advantage — one that has been estimated to support 30,000 American jobs and increase U.S. exports by $5 billion.

The rise in global methane pollution has also been traced to the expansion of oil and gas extraction — especially through hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”). According to one estimate, U.S. oil and gas industries leak 13 million metric tons of methane pollution into the atmosphere each year — causing enormous climate damage, along with directly costing American energy consumers $2 billion annually. This unsustainable industrial activity must be confronted by federal lawmakers.

The next administration should also use executive and legislative action to confront methane pollution. This includes requiring oil and gas companies and utilities to find and stop methane leaks in pipelines delivering gas to power plants and industry, and taking action to incentivize the removal or repurposing of gas distribution pipelines to buildings. This commitment must be accompanied by a firm commitment to crack down on the fossil fuel production that drives domestic methane pollution (see Section 9.2). The next administration should also support the deployment of biogas methane capture and utilization technology in wastewater treatment, livestock operations, and landfills, which will be used in specific applications that cannot be easily or cost-effectively electrified — provide on-site power (e.g. such as through co-generation), and provide value for farmers and local governments.

➢ 5.4 — Top Runner Industrial Efficiency & Carbon Intensity Standards

The next administration has the opportunity to place U.S. industries at the forefront of emerging global clean technology innovation. American manufacturing offers tremendous capacity to benefit the climate through meeting higher standards of efficiency, pollution abatement, and fuel switching in the near term. Steadily increasing industrial standards tied to technology leadership offers greater market certainty and cost competitiveness, and a program that sets new output-based standards every few years based on top industry performers can drive a race to the top and encourage continuous improvement in America’s factories.

To capture this opportunity for global manufacturing leadership, the next administration should work to implement new standards for carbon intensity of domestic manufacturing processes and equipment that encourage the production and sale of super-efficient equipment, appliances, and electronics. DOE has identified the potential to double the business-as-usual rates of energy efficiency improvement across the cement, chemicals, iron and steel, and natural gas and petroleum industries, using current industry trends and technologies. And the potential for boiler electrification is limited but offers additional emissions reductions. This agenda should also involve working with Congress to establish tax incentives for industrial waste-heat recovery and carbon capture, to help capture a further decrease in energy demand from domestic industries, and for performance improvement and fuel-switching — all of which can help businesses meet carbon-intensity reduction targets.

➢ 5.5 — Increasing Clean Energy Exports & Global Competitiveness

American manufacturing can power the world’s transition to clean energy, and help create millions of good jobs in the U.S. The next President should take advantage of this opportunity, while simultaneously providing the global community with affordable clean energy technologies.

The next administration should focus the attention of federal international trade and finance agencies, such as the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im), the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the Foreign Agricultural Service, to accelerate American clean energy and sustainable products exports. They should also work with global development and investment institutions, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and other multilateral development banks, to develop clean energy, clean water, and sustainable infrastructure in developing nations around the world. This agenda should also include reinstituting bilateral programs for enhanced clean energy development and deployment with key strategic partners.

Additionally, federal lawmakers should work together to ensure that America’s trade policies support, and do not undermine, the global transition toward clean energy, by implementing a Climate Duty to close the carbon loophole and promote continuous climate pollution reductions across nations. Once America commits to an ambitious national climate agenda, the next administration should direct the Department of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to design and institute a Climate Duty to be assessed upon the embodied climate pollution of imports from nations not committed to implementation of strong climate pollution reduction plans under the Paris Climate Agreement. This policy should be developed working with key industries, workers, and other domestic and international stakeholders, with a particular emphasis on energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries. Such a measure will not only protect these industries, incentivize low-carbon supply chains, and provide a balance on America’s trade relationships, but it will also help to provide a supplemental enforcement provision for the Paris Agreement.

6) Growing Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Prosperity

Today, America’s rural and agricultural communities face a triple threat. First, an urgent challenge of scattershot policies from an erratic Trump administration that’s harder to predict than the weather. Second, from the cumulative impact of decades of America’s failure to invest in rural infrastructure or put the needs of family farms over the profits of large corporations. And third, a mounting climate crisis causing massive and accelerating harms. Together these three challenges place an untenable burden upon our nation’s rural communities and its farmers. The next President of the United States has the opportunity to take on all three crises facing rural and agricultural communities, through urgent, long-term, and visionary reinvestment in a more resilient and prosperous future.

➢ 6.1 — Investing in Agricultural Innovations to Defeat Climate Change

America can grow climate solutions and build thriving rural and agricultural economies by ensuring farmers and ranchers benefit financially and ecologically from the positive impact their crops and farming practices provide. It’s estimated that at least 50% of the world’s soil carbon has been released as a result of land use change and monocropping, while carbon-rich soil also boosts production and yields and helps create a sponge in the soil that allows for better absorption and water retention in the face of both flooding and droughts. One recent soil health project study by the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) showed how a no-till/cover crop system could increase yields by $110 per acre.

The next federal administration should create new revenue streams that compensate producers for building ecosystem services, especially in removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soil and forests. These investments in rural communities and a healthy climate create both economic opportunity and environmental protection: crop productivity, drought and flood resilience, stormwater retention, water filtration, air quality, and preservation of pollinators and other biodiversity.

The next administration should establish performance-based payments for on-farm carbon removal, building upon the Soil Health Demonstration Projects authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill, and by determining the appropriate conservation practices and their climate benefit-value, and establishing payment systems and programs that reward producers who are storing carbon in their landscapes. This should begin by tapping into existing USDA programs like the Commodity Credit Corporation — an agency with $30 billion in borrowing authority — and those of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The next administration and Congress should also establish a permanent, sustained source of revenue for American farms.

Ensuring a climate-smart crop insurance program should also be a part of this critical agenda, as it currently backs more than 80% of all major U.S. field crops, at a price tag of $9 billion annually, but it does not account for the largest risk to America’s working lands: climate change. Key reforms are needed to protect farms, taxpayers, and the climate.

The next President should also work with Congress to provide a major increase in funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and build upon the 2018 Farm Bill which, for the first time, provided a general directive for the CSP to focus on soil health and authorized soil planning and climate mitigation as activities eligible for payments. The 2018 Farm Bill also increased incentives for crop rotation, cover cropping, and rotational grazing — all crucial strategies for soil health, carbon removal, and environmental conservation. Unfortunately, both the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills cut funding for the CSP, which must be restored and then significantly increased.

The next administration should also work with Congress to expand other successful USDA conservation programs, like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), and increasing their focus on climate-smart agricultural and land-use practices. It should extend conservation compliance measures to cover soil health improvements. Federal lawmakers should confront nitrous oxide — a greenhouse gas 250 times more potent than carbon, which accounts for more than 50% of U.S. cropland greenhouse gas emissions — with a targeted nutrient management strategy. The next administration should also launch public-private waste management partnerships for better soil, and expand the federal “sodsaver” policy to preserve grasslands nation-wide.

There is also enormous climate benefit to be achieved through on-farm and on-ranch methane capture. And the next administration should invest directly, through aforementioned federal programs, in the deployment of anaerobic digesters to capture methane from livestock operations, for use in on-site energy generation or in reuse as a biogas replacement for fracked gas, for energy and industry and in the production of co-products. It should establish payment systems through existing USDA programs to compensate farmers and ranchers for methane capture, similar to payments for soil sequestration. And it should promote multi-pronged methane abatement strategies, including rotational-grazing, conversion to dry scrape, composting digestate, innovations in animal feed, enhanced solid separation, thermochemical conversion, and more.

Finally, this carbon farming agenda should extend also to rewarding carbon removal in forests. Just as it should reward farmers for carbon removal and environmental services, the next administration should pursue and reward partners in capturing the full potential of forest expansion for deep decarbonization, estimated at 40–50 million acres over the next 20–35 years. This includes incentivizing improved forest management in private working forests, reforestation of marginal farmlands, and long-term protection through voluntary conservation easements.

➢ 6.2 — Keeping Farmers Farming

Today the combination of economic structures built to benefit large corporations, the Trump administration’s chaotic agriculture and trade policies, and increasingly costly disasters have together stacked the deck against American farmers. President Trump’s trade agenda has created costs where export sales and new market opportunities once existed. Under the Trump Administration there has also been a rise of enormous agribusinesses that have squeezed small family farms to the point of breaking. These large businesses, which have grown in size as they have merged vertically and horizontally, can now effectively set prices and control entire swaths of America’s agriculture sector. Just 5% of U.S. agricultural operations conducted 75% of sales in 2017. Meanwhile, new farmers struggle to find the capital or land to even begin, and many farmers and farm workers find themselves under attack from the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies and its racist tweets. In 2018, U.S. farm income hit a 12-year low, and in 2019 farm loan delinquencies reached the highest point since the start of the decade.

The next President must take office committed to reversing each of these troubling trends — to ending Trump’s chaos governance, to supporting farmers and farm workers, and to stopping large agribusinesses from taking advantage of America’s rural communities. They should reverse Trump’s disastrous trade policies, and confront mergers, consolidations, and abusive corporate practices that have led to agricultural monopsony, and instead pioneer an agriculture policy that supports the producers who have underpinned America’s food system and rural economies.

The next administration should rebuild stable, long-term agricultural trading partnerships, through the repeal of tariff wars and by increasing investment in the USDA Market Access Program to provide new resources to help American farmers bring their crops to market. It should protecting against agribusiness consolidation, by appointing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioners who will aggressively enforce America’s antitrust laws and use them to protect family farms against irresponsible vertical and horizontal integration in the agriculture industry, and by empowering the Department of Justice (DOJ) to better protect against anti-competitive behavior in agricultural industries.

At the same time, the federal government must do more to protect farm workers’ rights, and also ensure they are protecting from climate change. These workers, many of whom are immigrants, have no right to join a union and very few worker protections. And as temperatures around the globe rise, climate change adds new threats to the health of the farm workers who already spend long days outside in hot, humid conditions. The next President must work with Congress to pass the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, to make sure workers are trained to deal with heat exposure, have access to safe water and can take breaks to protect themselves.

The next Secretary of Agriculture must also help diverse, beginning, women and young farmers succeed, by addressing institutional discrimination within federal agricultural programs, and increasing outreach and financing programs for underserved communities. The USDA also can lead inbreaking down barriers for land access, working with Congress to expand funding for the Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program and allowing all young farmers and ranchers to be eligible for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

➢ 6.3 — Next-Generation Rural Electrification

During the New Deal, visionary policies fueled rapid expansion of rural economic development through the Rural Development Administration in USDA. These assured sustained federal financing for modern infrastructure in communities that had been passed over by private industry due to the relatively high cost of serving users in rural areas. Today many of these same programs still exist within the federal government, and America can rely on them once again to ensure that vibrant rural economies thrive in a new clean energy economy. In this way, the same tools that originally enabled electrification to span from coast to coast can once again bring modern, clean, smart and affordable energy and communications infrastructure to thriving rural communities.

The next President should work with Congress to increase the accessibility of and double funding for the USDA Rural Utility Service (RUS), and Rural Housing and Rural Business Service, to provide low-cost financing for zero-carbon generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, including distributed renewable energy and efficiency upgrades, as well as broadband infrastructure, smart grid solutions, and other technologies. This should include debt relief to allow rural electric cooperatives to write down or restructure loans for stranded coal plants and other fossil fuel assets, in order to redirect billions of dollars from cooperative members’ bills toward modern clean energy assets. The Rocky Mountain Institute recently published an analysis estimating the bargain cost of just $35-$40 billion to retire the entire fleet of domestic coal plants. Although additional investments will be necessary to support workers and communities in the economic transition.

Finally, federal lawmakers should promote new Energy Districts and rural Energy Democracy. Energy Districts, modeled on the Soil Conservation Districts established as part of the New Deal, and also on existing locally-created Energy Districts in Iowa. Today, the Winneshiek Energy District in northeastern Iowa is a collaborative community energy district that aims for 100% locally owned, efficient, renewable energy by midcentury — and serves as a model for what can be done around the country. And by massively increasing Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff throughout the country, the next administration could build many more partnerships that promote locally-driven plans in rural communities for renewable energy, smart grid, and energy efficiency projects.

➢ 6.4 — Diversifying Rural Economies

The needs of rural communities should be central to the Quadrennial Industrial Review led by the Department of Commerce, and through Equity Impact Mapping to identify differences in environmental justice and investment. Rural communities face 