Sierra Club Drops Congress Playbook: Make Polluters Pay, Cut Energy Bills

The Sierra Club has a to-do list ready for the new Congress — and it's not shy about the price tag. With Democrats back in control of the US House and US Senate, the environmental group rolled out a legislative policy blueprint aimed at easing the affordability crunch, making polluters foot the bill, guarding public lands, and protecting public health and safety.

Top of the wish list: a 'make polluters pay' package, the Energy Bills Relief Act, and a windfall profits tax. Sierra Club Legislative Director Melinda Pierce said voters rejected what she called Trump's war on clean energy, and that lawmakers should move fast to undo the damage of the past two years. She argued the blueprint charts a path to lower costs, sturdier infrastructure, and healthier communities — goals she described as wildly popular.

The group is pointing at the money trail to make its case. While families stretch paychecks, Trump and his family, the oil and gas industry, and big utilities have posted record profits in recent months, according to the Sierra Club. That contrast is the backbone of the affordability pitch the group wants the new majority to run with.

Sierra Club lawyers spent Trump's first two years in office filing Freedom of Information Act requests to pry open the links between the fossil fuel industry and the policies coming out of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Energy. The group says it plans to build on that paper trail, working with the Democratic majority to push affordable clean energy, shield special places, and keep both the administration and the industry accountable.

The blueprint itself is a memo, and the Sierra Club says policy experts are available to walk reporters and lawmakers through it. Whether Congress picks up the playbook is now the open question — but the group is clearly betting the new majority is listening.