The U.S. government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis is moving fast. Right now, the Senate is working on a trillion dollar relief package. Greenpeace reports they reviewed what they know about it this morning. It contains a lot of necessary aid… but it also contains a bailout loophole for oil, gas, and coal polluters who are lining up and lobbying hard for our money to keep poisoning the planet and Indigenous lands for their own profit.
All available relief funds should work to save lives, help everyone pay their bills, center the often underpaid workers who keep this country functioning and profitable, and transform our economy for the people with a Green New Deal!
Earlier this week, GP asked people to write to Mitch McConnell and your Senator to shape this same legislation. Now, before it gets passed, it needs to go through both the full Senate and the House. It’s important that any blank checks for polluters be stripped from the bill. Your Member of Congress and Senators can help, but the collective megaphone needs to be real loud.
This bill is being rushed through Congress, so we need to act. Choices made now will shape lives for years, if not decades.
During times of national emergency like this, it’s easy to see the cracks in our current system. Over and over, corporate lobbyists use times of chaos and uncertainty to quickly mobilize to take advantage of the outpouring of government funded relief, while wealth inequality and our inadequate health care system play out in real time.
This current package of relief contains a $150 billion dollar bailout loophole that the oil industry and a few others have their sights set on. And coal, an already dying industry, is now lobbying to use this bailout as a lifeline to finance its continued devastation of the air and climate for decades to come. Tell your representative to cancel any bailout money for oil, gas, or coal.
Now’s the time to send a clear message to Congress — we’re watching, you cannot allow a corporate and fossil fuel bailout under the cover of a national emergency, and we will hold you accountable for your votes. It’s time to take unprecedented action to shape and change our world for the better now and in the coming years.
Greenpeace never takes a dime from corporations or governments. Everything we do is thanks to the generous support of people like you!
via greenpeace.org