Federal Advocacy

Make a Difference on a National Level

Two people in hooded jackets picking crops in a field.

Protecting Workers from Extreme Heat!

This year in Georgia, we’ve experienced some of the hottest days on record, and 2024 is projected to be the hottest year ever according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Tens of millions of indoor and outdoor workers—disproportionately low-wage earners, people of color, and immigrants—are experiencing firsthand the devastating impacts of climate change in the form of extreme heat.

This is why we’re asking for your support of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) standard for “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings.”

Our faith prompts us to commit to honoring the dignity and sanctity of all life. This standard ensures employers establish and implement plans to address excessive heat conditions, substantially reducing heat-related injuries, illnesses, and even death. Sign the petition below to show your support for the Biden Administration’s proposed OSHA standard and help save lives!

A group of four professionally-dressed people, including Beth Remmes, GIPL Coastal Coordinator, stand with Senator Jon Ossoff, in a room with U.S. and Georgia flags. The background features the seal of the U.S. Senate on a marble wall.

Solutions For Pollution

Working in partnership with the Climate Action Network and other Environmental Justice organizations, GIPL seeks proactive “Solutions to Pollution.” The Biden Administration promised to address the climate crisis holistically by cutting climate contamination in half by 2030. We are working to ensure they live up to this promise by focusing advocacy in four main areas: energy, climate, health, and justice.

Clean energy can't wait! Solar, wind, and other home-grown renewable energy sources have the capacity to power America into the future, creating good-paying jobs and bolstering energy independence.

Our climate can't wait! From more intense and frequent hurricanes, worsening flooding, raging wildfires, and deadly droughts, communities across the country are feeling the impacts of the climate crisis now. Every second we delay action costs lives and dollars.

Our health can't wait! Cleaner air and water means healthier people who live longer. Removing environmental toxins like soot is imperative.

Environmental justice can't wait! All of this is a matter of justice, bringing results to low-income communities and communities of color that have been historically overburdened by pollution.

A group of six people, including Marqus Cole, GIPL Organizing Director, stand in front of the U.S. Capitol building on a cloudy day.

Prioritizing Justice

Upon taking office, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Section 223 of EO 14008 established the Justice40 Initiative, which directs 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments – including investments in clean energy and energy efficiency; clean transit; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and the development of clean water infrastructure—to flow to disadvantaged communities (DACs).

This directive offers meaningful organizing opportunities to address what communities of faith and historically marginalized communities have already known: the burdens of environmental injustice are disproportionately borne by communities of color and communities with high rates of poverty.

Our current federal work is targeted at protecting the air by fighting against legislative rollbacks of rules that ensure children in urban communities have a fighting chance against respiratory ailments. Our work is focused on cleaning up water polluted with coal ash or forever chemicals (PFAS), through administrative action because our  exurban and rural communities have been over represented in locations for placing heavy industry and power generation sites. Our work addresses opportunities to promote regenerative agriculture through farm bill policy and protecting the soil that growers and farmers desperately need to make ends meet and provide food security to all of us. 

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