The Rural Investment to Protect our Environment (RIPE) Roadmap is a federal policy framework and stakeholder engagement process that merges rural interests in economic development with urban interests in environmental policy, thereby enabling a rural-urban and bipartisan coalition that is able to advance federal policy that can withstand political transitions. Specifically, the RIPE Roadmap achieves the following goals, simultaneously:
- Fairly compensate farmers with a reliable revenue stream that communities can rely upon in an era of declining rural economies, volatile commodity prices & disrupted access to international markets. Farmers can earn in the range of $50-$230/acre for their voluntary stewardship efforts, with practices such as these potential qualifying measures. The specific payment level will be established through stakeholder conversations and scientific insights.
- Close the digital divide in rural America. Provide modern internet access to rural communities within 1-4 years.
- Invest in economic development programs for urban and rural communities. The RIPE Roadmap can invest tens of millions annually in urban, rural, and environmental justice communities.
- Invest in voluntary sustainable agriculture to improve drinking water quality, water conservation, & sustainable agriculture. All residents will benefit from cleaner and more abundant water.
- Comprehensively address climate change by making polluters pay while protecting households from potential energy costs. The polluting energy companies will pay for their share of pollution, thereby enabling clean energy to fairly compete in the market. This will reduce air pollution to the level that scientists say is needed to stabilize the climate, which will benefit all citizens. Roughly half of the revenue will be allocated to household rebates in order to protect consumers from energy cost increases that polluting energy firms may try to shift onto consumers.