Electrification Caucus Co-Chairs Urge Climate Action, Investments In Widespread Electrification In President's 2023 Budget Proposal

WASHINGTON – Electrification Caucus Co-Chairs U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and U.S. Representatives Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) issued the following statement in advance of President Joe Biden releasing his fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget proposal:

We reiterate our strong commitment to taking bold action on climate change. As Co-Chairs of the first bicameral Congressional Electrification Caucus, we are urging President Biden to prioritize investing in widespread electrification, including making electrification for American households easy and affordable.

We appreciate President Biden’s commitment to fighting inflation and cutting energy costs for American families. Electrification for homes, commercial buildings, and vehicles has broad support and is one of the most practical actions to lower costs for American families, create jobs, improve air quality, and address the climate crisis.

We need to get to zero emissions as soon as possible, and we can do that by replacing fossil fuel-powered machines with cleaner electric substitutes. Ramping up our deployment of clean energy and our adoption of energy-efficient electric appliances is also a national security issue, and it has become a global security imperative with Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

President Biden’s leadership is critical to this effort, and we have been proud to support the climate priorities that are part of his Build Back Better agenda. That includes game changing investments in clean energy generation, transmission, and the clean electrification of our vehicles, homes, and buildings.

Together, we have accomplished a lot over the last year--but it's not enough if we are going to stave off the worst effects of climate change before it is too late. Extreme weather events, destructive floods, record-breaking heat waves, water shortages, and more extreme wildfires are already bearing down on the lands and waters that sustain our way of life. These climate impacts will only continue to worsen and be costlier unless we take significant climate action at the local, national, and global levels.

Our children's future literally depends on our acting now to confront the climate crisis by enacting policies to convert our economy from fossil fuels to clean energy. According to research from the non-profit Rewiring America, 42 percent of all of our energy-related carbon emissions come from the machines we have in our households and our cars.

Electrifying our homes, businesses, and vehicles is one of the surest actions that we can take. This is a way to use already existing, proven technologies to dramatically reduce carbon pollution, create millions of new, good-paying jobs, and secure a better, more equitable future for our communities.

We hope to see these priorities reflected in the president’s fiscal year 2023 budget request.