Today, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced his plan to address the nation’s debt limit. His plan would repeal many of the landmark climate investments of the Inflation Reduction Act while also including provisions of Republican’s H.R. 1 to rapidly expand dirty fossil fuel production and silence communities in the process. After the announcement, Earthjustice Vice President of Policy and Legislation Raúl García issued the following statement:

“With this ridiculous proposal, Speaker McCarthy and his posse of extremist Republicans are showing their complete inability to tackle the most pressing problems facing our country. They are willing to rain economic chaos down on every American to achieve their deeply unpopular agenda. Instead of making the easy choice for our country to pay its bills, they’re holding our government hostage to further a polluter agenda at the expense of many of the communities they represent. They’re willing to cut popular investments in clean energy, jobs, and environmental justice to placate the most radical members of the Republican caucus and sacrifice all of us to their corporate benefactors.

“Now is not the time to double down on our fossil fuel addiction. At a time when we’re seeing the real impacts of climate change and environmental injustices, we should be building on the successes of the Inflation Reduction Act and ensuring its implementation directs resources to those communities that need it the most. We urge Democrats and President Biden to throw this deal right in the trash where it belongs and safeguard our communities and planet.”