It’s Up To Us – Consumers, The Business Community – And The Media

Maybe those of us who care about an equitable, peaceful, climate-resilient and clean energy economy had gotten complacent. Maybe we thought everyone was seeing the progress we’ve seen. Maybe we didn’t hear how many of our fellow Americans have been suffering badly and feeling unheard – and how they are not finding out about the opportunities and the progress reports their own communities. Maybe the lawmakers leading and seeing this progress in their own districts, states and counties didn’t talk about it enough or the “right” way to reach their people.

Maybe we had become so reliant on the Biden-Harris Administration doing all this great work to help the planet and the economy that we got kind of lazy. Maybe we thought everybody knew what we knew.

Maybe the administration’s work providing over $695 billion in funding for 74,000+ projects across all 50 states and territories, repairing over 196,000 miles of roads and over 11,400 bridge projects, replacing over 367,000 lead pipes, and more – from the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Act and CHIPS & Science Act – wasn’t felt more broadly across America. Maybe they didn’t know that manufacturing jobs are soaring or how to access those new jobs. Even the price of eggs and gas are down from their post-covid highs!

Maybe people did not know about or know how to secure some of the hundreds of thousands of new well-paying jobs – or even how to train for them.

We may never know why so many people voted to overturn a now-thriving economy that is innovating at a record pace creating whole new industries and career paths, including for people without a college degree. We may never really know why they voted for a man they would never allow to babysit their kids or hire for their company based on his sexual assault record, temperament and felony convictions alone. We may never know why so many people voted against their self-interests, including women, or did not vote at all. But they did.

The 2024 U.S. election was a big wake up call. Now, it’s up to us.

The results of this election are confusing and disheartening to those of us who believe in climate change and doing something about it to save our lives and livelihoods, while taking care to retrain people for new jobs in this new economy and keeping communities safe from the ravages of climate change and other threats.

Now, it’s up to the business community to practice and defend good governance and protect the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Act and CHIPs & Science Act funding and incentives because they help the economy and create well-paying jobs. Regardless of what the incoming Trump administration does.

It’s up to members of the business community (all party affiliations) who believe in climate change and want to growing their communities, seizing the opportunities in this clean energy-climate-resilience economy to push back against their Senators & Members of Congress who seek to dismantle it.

Good governance, leaders’ fiduciary responsibility

Good governance, your fiduciary responsibility demands it. Use the power and influence you have any way you can, including in the media.

The voices and influence of the business community are very powerful. Boards should understand that power and use it to help protect their businesses and stakeholders.

Business leaders and board directors also are wise to remember that, regardless of what happens at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, their businesses have to comply with state and international regulations. California’s SB 261 and SB 253, for example, apply to any business doing business in the state – which is thousands.

They also have to comply with the EU’s CSRD – Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – if they do any business in any European country. Global accounting and management consulting firm PwC estimates that 50,000 businesses will need to comply with these rules.

These bills and reporting requirements will ensure accountability and disclosure – and help communities and the economy stay at least somewhat on track towards a clean energy economy, even if the Trump Administration takes a bulldozer to the federal government, as they boasted.

Then there’s the SEC’s climate risk disclosure rules that investors have been demanding for years. We’ll see how much investors continue those demands when the Trump administration likely seeks to put the kibosh on them. Investors require consistent, comparable, reliable data and any reporting currently on the financial risk of climate change – in the trillions of dollars, according to NOAA – is only voluntary and insufficient.

The Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment Act and CHIPS Acts are working – and have significant Republicans support

The Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS & Science Act laid the foundation for the thriving climate-resilient, clean energy economy that’s transforming communities and growing local economies across the U.S. Most of it will stay in place because it’s already allocated and because even Republican lawmakers who voted against it are advocating for it.

In fact, 18 Republican lawmakers wrote a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson asking him not to overturn the Inflation Reduction Act, because it’s benefiting their districts. Several clean energy investments have been championed by the incoming Senate Majority Leader, Senator John Thune (R-SD) too.

Representative Nancy Mace (R-FL) has taken credit for funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in her district – a bill she opposed, calling it a “socialist wish list” and a “fiasco” at the time. Even GOP firebrands Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) support it; Biggs bragged about the “fantastic news” of a new battery plant in Arizona funded in part by the Inflation Reduction Act “expects to employ thousands of people and will help us unleash American energy.”

Their defense? As Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) told Politico, “Just because you vote against a bill doesn’t mean the entire bill is a bad bill,” adding, “I go out there and advocate for our district to try and get transportation funds, to try and get energy funds. That’s my job. I am not embarrassed about it. I don’t think it’s inconsistent with my vote.” Graves was the ranking member on the House Select Climate Crisis Committee in the last (117^th) Congress.

Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) talked about the “hypocrisy” of Senate Republicans “who fought tooth and nail against the bill, those very incentives that are now creating opportunities in their [Republican] districts they are now leading” to Politico.

Now, it’s up to the business community and consumers to keep the protections in place and expanding. Our lives and livelihoods depend upon it.