Energy and Environment

Domestic Climate

It’s time to build a 100 percent clean future, deliver on environmental justice, and empower workers to compete in the global clean energy economy.

Girls playing with kites in a wheat field with wind turbines in the background. (Getty/Tetra Images/Erik Isakson/Brand X Pictures)

What We're Doing

Building a 100 percent clean future

Stabilizing global warming starts with cutting carbon pollution in the United States to half of peak levels by 2030, leading global net greenhouse gas emissions to reach zero by midcentury, and sustaining net-negative emissions thereafter.

Creating good jobs in the United States

Building a 100 percent clean future will create millions of new jobs, and policy must ensure that these jobs are located here in the United States and provide workers fair wages, good benefits, and full collective bargaining rights.

Fighting for environmental justice

Partnering with environmental justice advocates to turn the tide against environmental injustice, economic inequality, and climate change will ensure everyone can realize their fundamental right to clean air, clean water, and healthy, thriving communities. 

 

Learning from leadership in the states

Creating a road map for federal action will lift up lessons learned from the states, local governments, and tribal nations that have made important strides for climate, justice, and jobs.

It's time to build a 100 percent clean future, deliver on environmental justice, and empower workers to compete in the global clean energy economy.

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Featured Work

Latest

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Securing Environmental Justice for All Report
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House before signing an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice.

Securing Environmental Justice for All

The Biden administration has launched the most ambitious climate and environmental justice agenda in history to ensure that every community has clean air and water, can access living-wage jobs and affordable clean energy, and is protected from climate change threats.

4 Things To Know About the EPA’s Upcoming Car Emissions Standards Article
Photo shows a black plaque with gold lettering reading

4 Things To Know About the EPA’s Upcoming Car Emissions Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency’s finalized emissions standards for cars and light trucks in model years 2027 through 2032 will drive billions of dollars in public health, climate, and economic benefits.

Leo Banks

‘Clean Up To Green Up’: Building a Clean Energy Workforce and a Brighter Future in Detroit Video

‘Clean Up To Green Up’: Building a Clean Energy Workforce and a Brighter Future in Detroit

The Green Door Initiative is using federal investments from President Joe Biden's Justice40 Initiative and the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure that all people—regardless of race, income, or ZIP code—have access to good jobs and live in safe and healthy communities.

We Need Smart Policy for Automakers to Profit on EVs In the News

We Need Smart Policy for Automakers to Profit on EVs

Former Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) asserts the need for the United States to implement a charging infrastructure that can meet consumers’ needs in an op-ed published in WardsAuto.

WardsAuto

Rep. Andy Levin

Securing Clean Air, Clean Water, and a Healthy Environment for All Video

Securing Clean Air, Clean Water, and a Healthy Environment for All

Industrial facilities are most often located in or near Black, brown, and low-income communities who face the brunt of harmful industrial pollution, climate change impacts, and other environmental and public health hazards—something Harold Mitchell experienced firsthand in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Fortunately, the Biden administration’s long-overdue environmental justice investments can ensure that all people—regardless of race, income, or ZIP code—have clean air and clean water and live in safe and healthy communities.

CAP Leads Letter to Administration Urging Clean Energy Incentive Eligibility for U.S. Territories Sign-On Letter

CAP Leads Letter to Administration Urging Clean Energy Incentive Eligibility for U.S. Territories

The Center for American Progress coordinated a letter from civil society organizations to the administration, urging the Treasury Department to allow territories to fully access direct pay and transferability for clean energy tax credits.

Facing the Fire: Phoenix Airport Workers Demand Protections Against Extreme Heat Video

Facing the Fire: Phoenix Airport Workers Demand Protections Against Extreme Heat

Amid record-breaking temperatures, Phoenix airport service workers filed an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) complaint against their employer and are demanding action to improve job conditions and safety measures.

These Fossil Fuel Industry Tactics Are Fueling Democratic Backsliding Article
The COP28 logo is seen in Dubai.

These Fossil Fuel Industry Tactics Are Fueling Democratic Backsliding

As citizens around the world increasingly favor serious policy action to fight climate change, the fossil fuel industry is undermining democratic principles to stem the tide of climate action—spreading misinformation and obstructing elected governments’ climate efforts, promoting anti-democratic movements and candidates, and even undermining democratic rights.

How Inflation Reduction Act Electric Vehicle Incentives Are Driving a U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance Report
Photo shows several cars lined up on both sides of a divider with EV chargers that display orange signs reading

How Inflation Reduction Act Electric Vehicle Incentives Are Driving a U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance

More than a dozen new incentives enacted through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act have sent investments in EV manufacturing skyrocketing, resulting in more than 84,000 announced jobs in just the first year of implementation.

Leo Banks

LNG Exports Raise Natural Gas Prices for Americans Article
Construction cranes stand silhouetted by the sunset at the Golden Pass LNG terminal.

LNG Exports Raise Natural Gas Prices for Americans

U.S. export terminals for liquified natural gas (LNG) are turning what was once a domestic energy source into an internationally traded commodity, exposing American households and businesses to higher natural gas prices set on a volatile global market.

Chris Martinez

How States Can Equitably Deliver Home Electrification Rebates Report
Photo shows workers on a roof of a light grey hours against a cloudy sky

How States Can Equitably Deliver Home Electrification Rebates

State and Tribal authorities must prioritize exhausting and distributing more than $4.5 billion through the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate program directly to low- and moderate-income households in order to decarbonize the nation’s most climate-vulnerable, energy-burdened homes.

Jasia Smith

2023 CAP IDEAS Conference Past Event
CAP IDEAS Conference logo

2023 CAP IDEAS Conference

Join the Center for American Progress as we celebrate 20 years of innovative policy solutions and look boldly forward to a progressive future.

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Interactive: Mapping access to abortion by congressional district

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