Message of the Week: April 1, 2019

This week Congressional Democrats are taking decisive action to address the threat climate change poses to our heath and economy. They’re conducting hearings and introducing legislation to demonstrate how climate change jeopardizes our national security, how President Trump’s dirty budget that guts EPA’s funding by nearly a third will make communities less safe, and how state and local leaders are stepping up to tackle the global crisis created by climate change. They’re also showing that Congressional Republicans don’t have a plan to address climate change and that they’re instead backing the toxic agenda of an ex-coal lobbyist, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

From drought and extreme heat to flooding, hurricanes, and sea level rise, communities across America are feeling the impacts of climate change as a result of increased pollution.
Climate change is having a tangible impact on America’s national security and military readiness as well.

More than two-thirds of U.S. military installations analyzed by the Pentagon are currently at risk of flooding, drought, or wildfires linked directly to climate change, according to a 2019 report by the Defense Department.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson recently stated that nearly $5 billion in disaster relief would be needed over the next two years to reconstruct Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida and Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base, which houses the U.S. military’s Strategic Command, foreshadowing what’s to come if we do not urgently act on climate.

The majority of Americans – including nearly two-thirds of Republicans – know that climate change is happening now, and they want bold policy prescriptions to limit the most catastrophic impacts of climate change and transition us to a clean energy economy.
Congressional Democrats are taking decisive climate action. House leaders have introduced H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act, to hold the U.S. and the Trump administration to our global commitments under the Paris Agreement and recommit us to needed carbon pollution reductions called for under the compact.
Also this week, the House Energy and Commerce Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee will hold a hearing on how state and local leaders – from Utah to South Carolina to Pennsylvania – are stepping up to meet America’s Pledge to act on climate. Regardless of inaction on the federal level, these efforts are moving forward and have already unleashed local, state, and business climate change policies accelerating and incentivizing the transition to clean, secure, and carbon-free energy.
Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans don’t have a plan to address climate change. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to allow votes on any legislation that would actually move us toward clean energy or make the big polluters curb their carbon pollution. That’s why Senate Democrats have created their own Special Committee on the Climate Crisis to bring to light how climate change is impacting the health and economy of communities across the country and to find bold solutions to the climate crisis.
Instead, Congressional Republicans are supporting Trump’s dirty budget that would slash EPA’s funding by 31% – by far the most among any federal agency – and hamstring states’ clean water programs.
Mitch McConnell and Congressional Republicans are clearly acting at the behest of their corporate polluter allies. They are unforgivably out of touch with what the American people overwhelmingly support: action on climate change.

William Mesinger

Manager

will@blueenginemedia.com

(o) 202-827-9644

@wmesinger

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