I am writing to ask you to support the collective bargaining demands of EPA employees and to adopt working conditions that protect the technical experts we have and attract the environmental leaders of tomorrow.

Last month, President Biden used the Defense Production Act to spur domestic clean energy manufacturing. The President pledged to take further executive action to tackle the climate crisis.

We thank President Biden for his tireless efforts to secure a climate deal with meaningful renewable energy investments. At the same time, we respectfully urge you, as EPA Administrator, to use the EPA’s full executive authority to take on the climate emergency.

With its anti-climate science ruling in West Virginia v. EPA this June, the Supreme Court tied the hands of EPA scientists and engineers, halting action by EPA to reduce greenhouse gasses from the most destructive unchecked source – existing power plants. We are already seeing the devastating impacts of the climate crisis around the globe and here at home: droughts and heat waves, severe flooding, the displacement of communities on coastlines and islands, and more frequent extreme natural disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes. The latest report from the UN’s scientific body found that action must be taken this year to prevent even more extreme impacts of a rapidly warming planet.

As an EPA worker, I am acutely aware of what is at stake if we lose the climate battle– the communities we protect, especially Indigenous, Black, Latinx, AAPI and communities of low-wealth, will be permanently altered or lost to the cascading consequences of the climate crisis. Investing in EPA researchers, scientists and engineers who have provided the world with the means to scale down CO2 emissions and maintain a livable planet is a cost-effective GHG reduction policy. As climate experts schooled in EPA authority, EPA workers are in the best position to advise the country about alternative options to control GHG emissions following the West Virginia ruling.

My AFGE union is bargaining a contract for EPA workers that could change the future of the EPA and our planet. Investing and supporting the EPA workforce will pay huge future dividends. The cost of investment, in the form of restoring career ladders, sound science and increased diversity, is minimal. The dividends of these climate investments are paid out in attracting the best and the brightest while at the same time retaining EPA’s highly educated, highly trained workers. When the future of our planet and our people are at stake, these benefits far outweigh the costs.

Before the end of the President’s current term, the EPA must sign a strong and equitable contract with EPA workers to defend decades of research and science, and provide EPA with the resources to hire and retain the best staff possible. This includes better pay, increased diversity, and a guarantee that our work will be grounded in sound science.

The contract we are bargaining now will serve to protect EPA workers after President Biden leaves office. It must prevent any subsequent administrations from stripping us of the power to protect the nation.

Providing livable working conditions is not the end of our work together for a more sustainable planet and environmental justice; it’s just the beginning. Our work will be passed down to generations of public servants to come. We need your support to implement a strong contract to protect EPA workers and the forward-looking policies of the Biden Administration.