The coronavirus pandemic has caused an unprecedented economic crisis in the United States and around the world. Leaders at all levels of government must start planning to rebuild from this pandemic with solutions scaled to the scope of the challenge and the foresight to rebuild a modern, just and resilient economy ready to take on the multifaceted challenges of the 21st Century.
America’s economic and political climate reflect the deepest depths of unemployment and inequality since the Great Depression, when the nation found its path to recovery through the New Deal and a national industrial mobilization to defeat the rise of global fascism. And now, again, our cities, states, and nation need an economic recovery plan that starts with short-term stimulus that extends beyond the small-minded fixes that dominate the beltway and reorients the United States to a future-focused and sustained investment strategy for long-term recovery and prosperity.
Earlier this May, House Democrats put forward their plan for “phase 4” of Coronavirus relief – a $3 trillion package with a heavy focus on aid to states, local governments and tribes that are on the front lines of the fight to suppress the pandemic, and whose budgets have been bludgeoned by a spike in coronavirus-fueled expenses paired with a simultaneous drop in tax revenues as economic activity has dragged to a near halt.
While aid to state, local and tribal governments is much-needed, this package, and the ones that came before it, is yet another missed opportunity to invest in growing the clean energy economy. Such investments are critical to capturing the United States’ best economic opportunity for growth and confront the climate crisis that portends growing harm to the health of American communities.
The Clean Jumpstart includes a concrete and detailed plan for:
Eleven policies generating $320 billion of direct investment in state-run relief programs, giving states and cities greater access to federal financing, and investing in proven state-federal partnership programs for clean energy development and infrastructure.
Twenty-one areas for further federal investment totalling over $1.2 trillion in immedia
