PROTECT HOMEOWNERS. REWARD GOOD STEWARDSHIP. MAKE POLLUTERS PAY.
Owning a home is supposed to provide security.
But across America, families are watching homeowners insurance premiums rise, deductibles climb, and coverage disappear as floods, wildfires, extreme storms, drought, and other climate disasters become more costly.
Working families did not create this crisis.
They should not be left with the entire bill.
For decades, fossil-fuel corporations made enormous profits while contributing to the pollution driving climate change. Now homeowners, farmers, and communities are being asked to pay for the consequences.
That is backwards.
Our plan will protect homeowners, strengthen communities, reward sustainable farming and land stewardship, and make major polluters help pay for the damage they helped create.
Protect Homeowners From Rising Insurance Costs
A family should not lose its home because insurance becomes unaffordable.
We will create a national Homeowner Climate Insurance Assistance Program to help families facing major premium increases or loss of coverage because of climate-related risk.
Assistance will include:
Direct help with climate-driven insurance increases
Grants and affordable financing for home resilience improvements
Support for flood mitigation, storm protection, fire-resistant construction, improved drainage, and other protective measures
Assistance for low- and middle-income homeowners facing the greatest financial pressure
A public backstop in communities where private insurers abandon homeowners altogether
The goal is simple.
Keep families insured and keep families in their homes.
Make Insurance Companies Show Their Work
Insurance companies should not be able to blame climate change for a massive rate increase without explaining how they calculated it.
We will require insurers to clearly disclose how much of a premium increase is being attributed to climate risk and give regulators stronger authority to challenge unjustified increases.
Insurance companies will also report data on premiums, claims, coverage denials, and non-renewals so regulators and the public can see where the system is failing.
If a company wants to dramatically raise your rates, it should have to prove why.
Climate change cannot become an excuse for price gouging.
Make Fossil-Fuel Companies Help Pay
The costs of climate change should not fall entirely on homeowners and taxpayers.
We will establish a Climate Resilience and Transition Fund financed through contributions from major fossil-fuel companies based on their pollution, production, and revenues.
That money will be invested directly in protecting families and communities.
Funding will support:
Homeowner insurance relief
Flood and wildfire protection
Resilient roads, bridges, drainage, and water systems
Home energy efficiency
Renewable energy
Soil and water conservation
Regenerative agriculture
Forest, wetland, and prairie restoration
Local food systems
Sustainable waste reduction and recycling
Good-paying jobs in the communities doing this work
The companies that profited from the pollution should help pay for the repair.
Pay Farmers to Protect the Land
Indiana farmers are some of our most important environmental stewards.
Instead of forcing family farms to absorb the cost of changing agricultural practices, we should reward them for rebuilding soil, conserving water, reducing erosion, improving biodiversity, and drawing carbon back into the land.
We will expand grants, tax incentives, low-interest loans, and direct payments for regenerative practices including:
Cover crops
Crop rotation
Reduced and no-till farming
Managed grazing
Composting
Agroforestry
Pollinator habitat
Prairie and wetland restoration
Improved irrigation and water conservation
Reduced dependence on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
Farmers who provide a public environmental benefit should be compensated for it.
Healthy soil is infrastructure, and the people rebuilding it deserve our support.
Help Family Farmers Make the Transition
Changing farming practices costs money.
Farmers may need new equipment, seed, fencing, technical assistance, or several seasons before they see the full financial benefit.
We will help cover those transition costs through grants, affordable financing, USDA technical assistance, conservation payments, and crop-insurance incentives.
We will prioritize family farms, beginning farmers, and communities that have historically had the least access to federal agricultural programs.
The purpose is not to punish farmers.
It is to make sustainable farming easier and more profitable.
Protect Farmland, Forests, Wetlands, and Water
Some of the best tools for protecting communities from climate change already surround us.
Healthy forests absorb water and carbon.
Wetlands reduce flooding.
Prairies protect soil.
Working farmland can store carbon and conserve water.
We will expand conservation programs that pay farmers and landowners to restore these natural systems while keeping productive farmland in agricultural use.
We will also invest in watershed protection, erosion control, floodplain restoration, tree planting, and natural infrastructure that reduces the damage from extreme weather.
Protecting the land protects the people living on it.
Build Stronger Communities Before Disaster Strikes
It is cheaper to prepare for disasters than rebuild after them.
We will invest in community resilience, including improved drainage, flood protection, wildfire prevention, stronger infrastructure, modernized building standards, and home retrofits.
Local governments should have the resources to prepare for the climate conditions they are actually facing instead of waiting for the next disaster declaration.
The original proposal already directs funding toward community-level adaptation and resilience projects such as natural infrastructure, drainage, wildfire prevention, and updated building standards.
Preparation saves homes, saves money, and saves lives.
Build Clean Energy Where It Makes Sense
We will expand solar, wind, geothermal, energy efficiency, and modern energy storage while protecting productive farmland and local communities.
Whenever possible, we will prioritize renewable development on rooftops, warehouses, parking lots, brownfields, government buildings, and already-developed land.
We will also support agrivoltaics where farmers can continue producing food while generating energy on the same land.
Clean energy should lower costs and strengthen communities.
It should not become another excuse for corporations to push farmers off their land.
Cut Waste and Build a Circular Economy
America throws away enormous amounts of material that could be reused, repaired, recycled, or composted.
Our priorities will be clear:
Reduce unnecessary waste
Reuse materials
Repair products instead of throwing them away
Expand recycling
Expand municipal and agricultural composting
Recover useful materials before disposal
Public investment should support local recycling, composting, repair, and resource-recovery businesses that create jobs while reducing landfill use.
For genuinely non-recyclable waste, communities may consider tightly regulated low-emission energy-recovery technologies where they meet strict environmental and public-health standards.
Waste policy should begin with using less and recovering more.
Create Good-Paying Jobs
Building a more resilient economy will require people to do the work.
We will invest in training and apprenticeships for careers in construction, home retrofitting, renewable energy, agriculture, conservation, water infrastructure, public transportation, waste reduction, and advanced manufacturing.
These should be good-paying jobs that can support a family.
Whenever federal dollars are involved, we will prioritize strong labor standards, local hiring, apprenticeships, and American-made materials.
The transition should create opportunity for working people, not another corporate giveaway.
Put Communities First
Climate policy should not be written for Wall Street.
It should make life better for the people actually living with the consequences.
That means helping homeowners stay insured.
Helping farmers improve their land without going broke.
Protecting drinking water.
Reducing flooding.
Lowering energy costs.
Creating good jobs.
And making the corporations that contributed most to the problem contribute to fixing it.
America does not have to choose between protecting working people and protecting the
environment.
We can protect both.
Protect homeowners.
Support family farmers.
Reward good stewardship.
Build stronger communities.
And make polluters pay.
