House Dems demand swift climate action
WASHINGTON — With Joe Biden in the White House and a Democratic majority in the Senate, House Democrats say they are moving ahead on climate legislation to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
In a Tuesday hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Chairman Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said that Biden’s executive orders to rejoin the Paris agreement and halt federal oil and gas leasing only solved part of the problem. Congress must act swiftly to get the United States to net-zero emissions by mid-century to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, he said.
“We must take decisive action this decade to ensure we’re on a path to reaching that target,” Pallone said. “The administration has many tools at its disposal, but the fact is without additional legislative action,
we can’t fully address the scale, scope and urgency of the climate crisis.”
Last year, House Democrats introduced the Clean Future Act, which would have forced power companies and utilities to generate increasing amounts of “clean electricity” and ordered the EPA to steadily tighten greenhouse gas restrictions for new cars and trucks, with penalties for companies that did not comply.
With Republicans controlling the Senate, the legislation never got a vote. But with Democrats now in control, that legislation could see new life.
Republicans came out against the bill Tuesday, warning that it would raise energy costs and put many energy workers on unemployment lines as oil, natural gas and coal consumption declined.
“For too long, the discussions about climate has been dominated by the view there is only one way, the relentless government knows all approach,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. “That’s not going to serve our families or businesses.”
The issue of what happens to the fossil fuel workers displaced by the energy transition has gained attention in Washington, with the Biden administration promising they would find new jobs in the clean energy sector.
Pallone echoed that commitment Tuesday, saying Democrats “understand we can’t leave anybody behind.” But they have struggled to convince Republicans they can make it work.
Rep. David McKinley, R-W.V., ranking member on the House Energy Committee, questioned the likelihood of the Democrats’ plan to shift the U.S. energy sector into renewables, arguing that coal towns in his and other states have struggled for years despite assurances of new factories for solar panels and wind turbines.
“These are communities based on fossil fuels,” he said. “They’re small towns. They don’t have choices.”