Noah Rott, Deputy Press Secretary, Sierra Club
Denver, CO – Early this morning, Colorado Rep. Gabe Evans cast a deciding vote to advance Donald Trump’s massive budget reconciliation package that would endanger Colorado's clean air and water, fast-track reckless oil and gas leasing and development, and raise costs on working families—all to give more tax cuts and handouts to billionaires and corporate polluters. With Rep. Evans' vote, the bill passed 215-214 and now heads to the United States Senate.
As currently written, the bill would repeal most Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) clean energy tax credits and investments, expand and expedite approvals for on-and off-shore oil and gas drilling, kneecap important environmental protections and public health safeguards by killing pollution standards for cars and trucks and methane pollution. Final House language also includes “pay to pollute” provisions that would allow corporate polluters to pay a fee to skirt long-standing environmental laws and review processes, and have those permits automatically approved.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an analysis just this week confirming that the bill would also end lifesaving health care coverage for more than 13 million Americans on Medicaid, raise the deficit by $2.3 trillion over a decade, and automatically trigger more than $500 billion in cuts to the Medicare program that senior citizens rely on.
Since its passage, the IRA sparked $559,700,000 of investment throughout Colorado across seven projects, creating 3,738 jobs. This budget still contains language to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of critical National Park Service staff funding made available by IRA money.
Environmental advocates did celebrate the removal of public land sale mandates in the bill.
In response, Sierra Club Colorado Chapter Margaret Kran-Annexstein released the following statement:
“Rep. Evans had an opportunity to step up against Trump's vile attacks on working class families and support his constituents. Unfortunately, by supporting cuts to key life-saving programs like Medicare, which is critical for serving rural Coloradans, and programs to support the transition to clean, affordable energy, he's siding with the ultra-rich and billion-dollar oil and gas corporations who want to rake in more profits and get a pass to pollute. Fossil fuel companies are wreaking havoc on our air quality, particularly in Evans’s district, which includes one of the most polluted zip codes in the country. This bill will not lower prices for working families and businesses, who need actual solutions to our affordability crisis. We need to see more bravery at the local, state and national level to protect our environment and future generations."
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.