A day after Senate Republicans shunned the controversial Green New Deal, House Democrats unveiled legislation to cut carbon emissions and address climate change by binding the United States to the Paris climate accord.
President Donald Trump has said the Paris accord threatens the economic prosperity of U.S. industries, and that he intends to withdraw from the agreement in November 2020.
“The American people know that the … crisis is an existential threat of our generation, of our time, a crisis manifested in natural disasters of epic proportions,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, The Hill reported.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., — a champion of the GND — wasn’t at the rollout. And according to The Hill, Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t made calls for her resolution to be marked up or brought to the floor. Instead her office is working on new piece-meal bills to address specific policies laid out in the broader plan. Those bills aren’t expected until early next year, her staff told The Hill.
A number of young freshman lawmakers who argued the importance of preserving the environment for future generations were at Wednesday's unveiling.
"From Normandy to the Cold War, American leadership has been about identifying long-term existential threats to the entire population, and then leading the rest of the world to mobilize around a shared set of goals and values," said Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., a 47-year old former clean energy executive, The Hill reported.
"That's what we need."