WASHINGTON, DC - Today, as the leaders of more than 190 nations met in Paris for an historic summit to address the urgent and existential threat of climate change, House Republicans continued their partisan efforts to undermine efforts by the United States to lead the international community by example and reduce its carbon emissions.
House Republicans have once again voted to undermine the critical public health protections in the Clean Air Act and attack the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) serious efforts to cut carbon pollution and address global climate change. S.J. Res. 23 and S.J. Res. 24 gut EPA’s Clean Power Plan and carbon pollution standards for new and modified power plants.
By voting in favor of these partisan resolutions, House Republicans are effectively letting the nation’s biggest polluters continue to emit massive amounts of carbon pollution with impunity, jeopardizing the future of our children and grandchildren. These resolutions amount to nothing more than Republicans’ latest attempt to “just say no" to climate action, while they continue to ignore the growing threat that climate change poses to the international community, especially the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Today, Democrats stood united with the majority of Americans and leaders from around the globe as they highlighted the devastating effects that these resolutions would have on our country’s progress to combat damaging pollution and catastrophic climate change.
Here’s what else Energy and Commerce Democrats had to say:
“Every significant effort to improve air quality through Clean Air Act regulations has met the same tired, old arguments from the GOP - it will cost too much, it will jeopardize the reliability of our electric system, and we don’t have the technology to meet new standards. And, every time these dire predictions put forward by my Republican colleagues have failed to materialize."
-Full Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)
“U.S. action alone won’t stop catastrophic climate change, but action by the rest of the world without U.S. action also will not succeed. Other countries will have an excuse to delay action as long as the U.S. does as well."
-Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Ranking Member Paul Tonko (D-NY)
“Climate change is threatening public health, people’s livelihoods, and the very environment that we live in. And while we should be determining a course forward to protect our constituents and safeguard our planet for generations to come, we are instead sending a signal to the rest of the world of willful negligence and disregard."
-Representative Lois Capps (D-CA)
“America’s willingness to tackle the economic and environmental impacts of climate change is a reflection of our values. We do not cower in the face of difficult circumstances - that is the essence of the United States of America. Yet, that is what this Republican majority in the Congress would have us do: ignore the problem. Pretend it doesn’t exist. Hope it goes away. Well, we cannot do that."
-Representative Kathy Castor (D-FL)
“This vote will again show that most or all House Republicans deny the obvious, that climate change is taking place as a result of human activity."
-Representative Jerry McNerney (D-CA)
