Congressional Republicans just jammed through one of the most catastrophic bills in a generation

Today, Republicans in Congress passed one of the most devastating pieces of legislation in modern history, a bill that raids trillions from working-class families to hand tax cuts to oligarchs and the ultra-rich. It now heads to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

At a time when record-breaking heat and AI-driven electricity demands are pushing our power grid to its limits, Republicans voted to kill clean energy investments, delivering a major blow to the development of the cheapest and fastest-to-build electricity sources and putting critical science-based climate targets out of reach. This bill will cut grid capacity in half, threatening rolling blackouts, spiking household energy bills by $110 next year and up to $400 annually within a decade, and killing almost one million jobs. 

Trump’s wildly unpopular bill also slashes food assistance and strips health care from 17 million people, destabilizing the entire health care system. And it’s working-class Americans, especially in rural communities and who overwhelmingly backed Trump, who will be hit the hardest.

In response, Evergreen Action Executive Director Lena Moffitt released the following statement:

“Let’s not mince words: Republicans just jammed through one of the most catastrophic bills in a generation. After an election where cost-of-living was the driving issue that pushed millions of working-class Americans to check the box for Donald Trump, it’s mind-boggling that Republicans just passed a bill that will raise costs across the board. 

“Electricity bills will soar. Prices at the pump will climb. Planned clean energy projects will collapse, taking hundreds of thousands of jobs with them. And as record heat and power-hungry AI strain the grid, Republicans are cutting new capacity in half, risking widespread blackouts. Meanwhile, pollution will rise, making the air we breathe more toxic and accelerating the climate crisis that already threatens our way of life. This bill will result in hundreds of premature deaths and higher rates of asthma and cancer, especially in children and seniors.  

“Big Oil Executives and Coal Barons saw that cheaper, faster-to-build clean energy threatened their bottom lines, so they spent billions to buy a seat at the table to kill its growth. That investment just paid off. Working-class Americans don’t have lobbyists to fight for their interests—they have elected representatives. But those representatives just sold them out so that a few hundred oligarchs and ultra-wealthy Americans could hoard even more wealth.

“Never forget who’s responsible for this betrayal. Working-class Americans may not have had a seat at the table, but they’ll remember who slammed the door in their faces.”

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