Senator Marco Rubio,
For years, the people of Florida have asked our leaders to make serious investments to mitigate ongoing harm to our environment and local communities. The time to address our climate and environmental injustice is now. Through the Build Back Better Act, the most significant effort to combat climate change in American history, Florida residents will soon have cleaner air, safer drinking water, and more just and equitable environmental policy. The BBBA advances environmental justice through a new Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator that will invest in projects around the country. Notably, it will deliver more than 40% of investment benefits to disadvantaged communities as part of the President’s Justice40 initiative. Your support of the BBBA will be a clear indication to Floridians that you care about our state’s environment, our people, and our economy.
The BBBA also funds port electrification, facilitates the deployment of cleaner transit, school buses, and supports critical community capacity building, including grants to environmental justice communities. Additionally, the legislation will create a new Civilian Climate Corps – with over 300,000 members that look like America. This diverse new workforce will conserve our public lands, bolster community resilience, and address the changing climate, all while putting good-paying union jobs within reach for more Floridians.
The Latino community of central Florida is poised to gain some of the greatest impacts to the BBBA through innovations like the Civilian Climate Corps and investments in clean electric school buses. Many of these resilient and vibrant communities are climate migrants–people disproportionately impacted by environmental injustice looking to make sustainable careers. Our Chipsa Florida teams have been doing outreach with these communities and are reforming how Latino and BIPOC communities engage and communicate on clean energy and their environment. We are calling on you to do right by the communities you represent by voting yes on the BBBA.
Similarly, the environmental concerns and struggles of BIPOC communities of Miami, Greater Tampa Bay, and around the state have gone ignored by state and federal leaders. That’s why we’re working with communities through FCV’s Democracy for All program to connect young people to the civic engagement process through cohorts and workshops that teach them how to organize and stay informed about the potential environmental impacts of their elected leaders. The BBBA not only seeks to remedy environmental impacts but is also the largest bill ever written to address injustices faced by the people who have borne the largest brunt of our changing climate. Your chance to engage these communities and put all Floridians on the path to safer, cleaner, and more accessible environments with your support of the BBBA.
Looking forward, we are eager to work with local and state elected leaders to implement the opportunities of the Build Back Better Act in a meaningful way. Floridians are some of the most resilient people in our nation. They are climate migrants. They are to folks who continue to weather the impacts of our increasingly disastrous weather events. They need your support. We hope you will show that by voting yes on the Build Back Better Act.