The Supreme Court’s 6-3 shackling of the EPA is an affront to the growing majority of Americans demanding climate action. This decision imperils livelihoods and lives and makes any claim that our highest court is “pro-life,” bogus.

However, there is a path for robust climate action. As hundreds of volunteer climate advocates learned on a recent Washington, D.C., lobbying trip, Congress has a window to pass meaningful climate legislation and it must, now. If this legislation prices fossil fuel companies’ pollution and returns that money to citizens, it would greatly benefit our economy, our people and our planet.

Prudent climate policy provides economic and national security advantages in an increasingly competitive and unstable world. America’s industry is, on average, three times more efficient than China’s, four times India’s and nearly five times Russia’s. Pricing dirtier imports for their embedded carbon pollution would invigorate U.S. industry, shorten inflation-weary supply lines, and weaken petrol-state tyrants like Putin.

But because the Constitution explicitly gives Congress the power to raise and distribute money, pricing carbon is impervious to judicial review. There is no doubt Congress can rectify our perilous climate position, but will it?

Your voice matters, especially in Maine, the only state with both senators on the Senate Climate Solutions Caucus. Contact your lawmakers today and demand climate action. Humanity can’t wait.

Peter Dugas
Portland