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Constitutional Statute · Climate & Environment
CS-7 · Implements Article Sixteen
Portrait source: Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Jefferson portrait (c. 1821). National Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons. Source

A Promise You Can’t Break by Changing the Subject

For forty years climate policy swung with each election, targets were announced and quietly missed, and the pollution always landed on the same neighborhoods. This statute makes it binding: an independent science board judges whether the strategy actually works, no community becomes a sacrifice zone, no new fossil infrastructure — and the workers whose jobs this ends are not abandoned.

Before

Targets announced. Targets missed. Repeat.

Climate commitments were made and unmade with each administration. Nothing bound anyone, and no independent body ever had to say whether a plan would actually work.Check it

Pollution concentrated where people had the least power to refuse it — the same neighborhoods, again and again, because that was the path of least resistance.Check it

New fossil infrastructure was approved with decades of lock-in, while the science said the opposite.Check it

And workers in coal, oil, and gas towns were told the transition was coming and left to eat the cost of it alone — which is exactly why they fought it.Check it

Now

Binding, measured, and nobody left behind

The obligation is binding, not aspirational. An independent National Climate Science Board judges the strategy against IEA/IPCC methodology — miss the trajectory by 15%, and it’s constitutionally inadequate.

Congress keeps genuine flexibility on how — cap-and-trade, emissions fees, whatever works — but not on whether.

An Environmental Burden Registry ends sacrifice zones: communities already above the 75th percentile of pollution burden cannot be given more, at any price.

No new fossil fuel infrastructure. And a permanently authorized Just Transition Fund pays the workers and communities whose livelihoods this ends — because a country that benefits from the transition owes them.

Before · Who judged the plan

The government graded its own homework, and "we have a strategy" was treated as proof the strategy would work.Check it

Now · Who judges the plan

An independent National Climate Science Board with a standing Economic Advisory Panel evaluates whether the national strategy will actually meet the obligation — and the government must take that evaluation seriously.

Before · The standard

Adequacy was a matter of political assertion — there was no number that made a plan officially insufficient.Check it

Now · The standard

A constitutional adequacy review on IEA/IPCC methodology with a defined 15% miss threshold — and a government right of rebuttal. A plan can now be declared constitutionally inadequate on evidence, not opinion.

Before · Sacrifice zones

Polluting facilities were sited where opposition was weakest, stacking burden on communities that already had the most.Check it

Now · Sacrifice zones

An Environmental Burden Registry with real thresholds: a prohibition above the 50th percentile and an absolute bar above the 75th — with a community consent and offset mechanism. Economic pressure is never a reason to poison the same people twice.

Before · Building more of it

New pipelines, terminals, and plants were approved for decades of operation, locking in emissions the science said we couldn’t afford.Check it

Now · Building more of it

No new fossil fuel infrastructure, defined by type and scale — with a clear maintenance-versus-expansion distinction, so keeping existing systems safe is allowed and expanding the problem is not.

Before · The workers

Fossil-fuel workers and towns were promised a transition and handed a pink slip — so they resisted the whole project, rationally.Check it

Now · The workers

A permanently authorized Just Transition Fund: direct worker payments and community grants. The country that benefits from the transition pays the people it costs. This is not charity — it is the debt.

Before · The government’s own footprint

Federal operations and contractors emitted freely while the government asked everyone else to change.Check it

Now · The government’s own footprint

Net-zero federal operations on a defined timeline, with a military interim target and contractor scope. The government goes first.

Before · Polluting and walking away

Companies contaminated land and water, then dissolved or declared bankruptcy, leaving the public to pay for cleanup.Check it

Now · Polluting and walking away

Polluter pays: contamination liability and remediation obligations — plus biodiversity and species protection, and environmental impact review before major federal action.

Before · The people who come after

Future generations had no standing and no voice in decisions that would define the world they inherit.Check it

Now · The people who come after

Rights of future generations and intergenerational equity are written into the operative law — alongside energy tax neutrality with judicial review, so the tax code can’t quietly tilt the field.

This is the plain-language version. The binding text is CS-7, which implements Article Sixteen of the Constitution.

Don’t just read it — take part.

This is your country’s law. Help shape the next draft of it.

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